[CLUE-Tech] Good UNIX/Linux primer?

[Sean LeBlanc]

On 04-05 15:23, Nathan Hokanson wrote:
> 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.  

Agreed. This is one of the reasons I solicited questions - that, and my
Linux books are out of date. My perspective is somewhat skewed by the fact
that I've been using one flavor of UNIX or another for about 10 years, so
I'm pretty out of touch with what would be a good primer for a newbie.
Although in the past 48 hours or so, RH 7.2 has made me feel like a newbie,
that's for sure (see my other posts). 

> 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.

I'm talking UNIX in a generic sense. I'd rather her not be tied down to the
Linuxisms, and understand UNIX at a 20,000 foot level first so that any
non-Linux system won't intimidate her...because for now, we are supposedly
tied down by our hosting service to RH. But, I'm going to confirm that soon,
and if we are able to do FreeBSD, we will probably go with that instead - so
I don't want to remain too Linux- or worse, RedHat-centric in my book
suggestions. 

I don't expect that she will be doing much in the way of admin, but it'd be
nice for her to be able to keep up and understand what is going on w/o too
much pain.  Luckily, she has had some very limited exposure in the past.

BTW, I've found some of those learn Redhat in 24 days-type books to be
deplorable in the past...maybe my experience was unique?

> 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.

Good suggestion.  I should reiterate that this book isn't going to be for
me, but I could pass that along.

> 
> 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 
A "critic" is a man who creates nothing and thereby feels qualified to judge 
the work of creative men. There is logic in this; he is unbiased -- he hates 
all creative people equally.