[CLUE-Tech] Good UNIX/Linux primer?

[Nathan Hokanson]

Hi, new to the Denver area, and the list.  Thought I would give my two
cents.

I would say that the purple book is a little bit stronger than a
"primer".  While one could certainly learn from it, I think that it is
geared more toward the serious sys admin.  

O'Reilly's "Unix in a Nutshell" is good for reference (almost better
than the man pages because it gives actual examples for most commands).

The problem for someone coming from the Window's world to the Unix world
is that it is a whole different paradigm, even if you run X.  While you
don't _have_ to run the command line, it often makes tasks easier. 
Granted, if they had some experience with DOS in the past it might not
be as painful a transition.  Of course, the file system is very
different than Windows, and while I don't think it is that difficult of
a concept, it always seems to throw my friends that are Windows users
into fits.  "What do you mean, it is all one file system?  What happened
to the other disks?  Can I not use them under Unix?"

Here is a counter question:  When you say "Unix" do you mean Solaris,
UnixWare (shudder), AIX, or a generic Unix?  Could you mean a Linux/BSD
variant?  Because if you are, there are a plethora of "Learn RedHat in
24 days" type books that may suit your purpose.  Most of them are
written for newbies and less experienced types.  Those books certainly
could be the precursor to the purple book.

It is a good question, though.  I cut my teeth on Unix with a Nutshell
book, and only last year got my purple book.  I once had a professor
suggest the following:  Go to /usr/bin and do an ls.  Each day read the
man page for a different command, and in time you will be a Unix master.
You could certainly extend this to /sbin, /usr/sbin/, etc.

Nathan Hokanson

On Fri, 2002-04-05 at 16:57, Sean LeBlanc wrote:
> 
> I was asked a question that stumped me. What is a good UNIX primer? Is the
> "purple" book a good one? Thoughts? The intent for now, anyway, would be
> more to learn tasks that a user/developer would do, and some minimal admin
> tasks, as well.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Sean LeBlanc:seanleblanc at attbi.com Yahoo:seanleblancathome 
> ICQ:138565743 MSN:seanleblancathome AIM:sleblancathome 
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> which they seldom use. 
> -Kierkegaard 
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