Beginner's Linux book for Windows experts?

[valnar]

I don't know why i waited so long, but I'm finally dipping my toes into Linux after procrastinating for about a decade. I'm a networking professional (CCNP / MSCE, etc.) and manage a medium sized WAN at the company I work for now. I mostly deal with Cisco routers and firewalls daily.

I need a jumpstart on my Linux learning and so far I'm... well... completely lost. I guess all the terminology and syntax of Linux/Unix commands are foreign to me, so I can't even figure out some of the simplest things, like changing the IP address of my ethernet adapter without a crutch tool within the distribution. I want to learn Linux the "real" way, so the distro doesn't matter as much. However, as a starting point, it appears ubuntu is as good a place as any, and these support forums are wonderful.

So my question: Can anyone recommend to me a book that covers the basics of Linux from the perspective of somebody who is already a Windows professional? If I can correlate a lot of my Microsoft knowledge, it may help to learn it faster.

Thanks,
Robert

[somuchfortheafter]

robert robert robert.... ehh sorry always wanted to say a name 3 times like a dissapointed mother lol.. jk... seriously you should look at getting linux power tools. I read and learned alot, sounds like the book for you, you can find it at the link below
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0782142265/104-1735346-1927168?v=glance

[valnar]

[QUOTE=somuchfortheafter]robert robert robert.... ehh sorry always wanted to say a name 3 times like a dissapointed mother lol.QUOTE]

[-X I know, I know. ;-)

Thanks for the recommendation.

Robert

[jro]

The book I have found to be best for overall learning the guts of linux has been "Linux Administration Handbook". I use it as a reference for everything I have come across.

[ssam]

o'reily books are pretty good, (and they seem to do a lot for the open source community).

i just got linux desktop hacks, by nicholas petreley and jono bacon (of lugradio and many linux magazine columns). thats quite fun, but it assumes a little bit of linux knowledge.

it depends what you want to learn. do you want to program? learn the text utils (cat,grep,sed,awk etc) they let you do lots of useful things? do you just want to make you computer a bit more fun?

learning the bash shell is quite useful. it is many times more powerful than DOS. you can do a lot with it. multitasking. piping commands together to make them do al sorts of things.

basically in a garbled sort of way i am saying, there is a lot to learn and a lot of places to learn from. if you have any ideas where you want to go then someone can help you better.

sam

[bored2k]

I don't think there would be a significant amount of difference in the linux learning curve between a windows expert and a windows regular user. I even think it's easier for a person with little Windows knowledge, because this way the person won't start "I used X application and I don't understand LInux's Y one !".

I would recommend Linux All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0764579363/104-1277578-1948769?v=glance).

[valnar]

Get around the desktop, learn bash, learn the OS, most of all like how to install and fix it, install apps, learn about dependencies, etc. No, I don't want to program, but would like to become a power user as there are a lot of useful networking-type utilities available for Linux. I know I'll have to learn a little about programming, but enough to get around Linux in general.

Robert

[bored2k]

Get around the desktop, learn bash, learn the OS, most of all like how to install and fix it, install apps, learn about dependencies, etc. No, I don't want to program, but would like to become a power user as there are a lot of useful networking-type utilities available for Linux. I know I'll have to learn a little about programming, but enough to get around Linux in general.

Robert

- Install apps. Forget about this. You're using Ubuntu. You just open SYnaptic Package Manager and select applicationX.
- Dependencies. Synaptic takes care of that.
- Fix it. Just like Windows. YOu learn by experience, not books ;) (this you learn fast in Windows lol).
- Networking. That deserves some O'Reilly books.

[jerome bettis]

i can't recommend a book, because i never needed one. if you just use it for awhile you'll learn it automatically. http://www.google.com/linux is your best friend when you can't figure something out. also the command man <command> displays the manual pages for a command. those two resources and a few months of using it are all i ever needed to learn linux.

oh yeah i forgot www.ubuntuforums.org can help you out a good bit as well :-P

[UbuWu]

To learn about the commandline: LinuxCommand.org (http://linuxcommand.org/)

[jodef]

For a wide spectrum of documentation try : Linux Documentation Project (http://www.tldp.org/). The guides are particularly good I can recommend : Linux Network Admin Guide, Linux Sys Admin Guide, Intro To Linux.

I have never read the entire thing but many also point to Rute (http://www.icon.co.za/~psheer/book/index.html.gz) as an excellent guide for those wanting to delve into linux.

Having a strong tech background helps in the sense that you might pick up stuff faster than the average user I say might, Linux and Windows are different, I started playing with Linux about a year ago (I am a windows tech person) and I still feel relatively new.

[valnar]

I think I have enough to start now. Thanks everyone!

Robert

[Shin Natsume]

im a linux newbie as well, but a book ive found useful thus far is called

"Linux System Administration Guide"

it covers everything a system administrator would need to know, it focuses mostly on the command line so its not biased to any distro, it also teaches you alot of shell scripting, which is similar to windows .bat files i guess which the both automate commands, hope this helps ;-)

ciao