[Gloucs] [OT] Windows XP "learners" books for long term penguinista

[Andrew Oakley]

M.Blackmore wrote:
> get up to speed somewhat on XP and its foibles.
...
> Anyone any recommendations of any books that are worth having 

[there is some on-topic discussion comparing Linux vs. Windows community support in my last paragraph!]

I'd second Keith's "Dummies" series recommendations, beware however that the full-sized Dummies books can be expensive and are generally not good value. The "Dummies Quick Reference" are pretty good, reasonably priced and best of all are ring-bound so they can be laid flat without damage.

For "getting up to speed" on pretty much anything I recommend O'Reilly's "In A Nutshell" series. They presume you already have a very good general computing knowledge and act as sheer reference. They are well indexed, thumb-tabbed, well ordered and concise, no wasted "tutorial" chapters which treat you like an newbie, just compressed comprehensive detail. Also reasonably priced at around 12-15 quid. Therefore "Windows XP In A Nutshell" ISBN 0-596-00900-3 which was revised in January 2005 to cover Service Pack 2.

http://www.oreilly.com//winxpnut2/

For tutorial stuff, I'm a huge fan of the "In Easy Steps" series. These are stupidly cheap at around 8 quid. They presume nothing and are ideal for total beginners, and have a friendly-looking colourful cover which is welcoming to newbies, and are slim volumes which, again, is welcoming to the computer-phobic. They cover all the most common tasks in a very well laid-out, highly pictorial style, without the expensive grandiose splendour and fiddly detail of the Microsoft Press books. My wife loves them.

I also find them useful for when I'm having a total memory loss moment, to revise how to do something from scratch, which is supposedly simple or commonplace, that I've forgotten simply because I haven't done for years. However you should be aware that this series will not cover serious system administration tasks in any kind of detail, or indeed at all, and you really, really don't want to turn up to a new job carrying one of these. "Windows XP In Easy Steps - SP2 Edition" ISBN 1-84078-287-0 , again revised in January 2005.

http://www.ineasysteps.com/books/details/?1840782870

For system administration tutorials you really can't beat the Microsoft Press books. They're expensive but they do have all the detail and all the tutorials. Like their mice, Microsoft do things which AREN'T software quite well. Personally for the cost I'd rather stick with a Nutshell book and figure the rest out via google.

The problem, of course, is that the support community for Microsoft is generally based around the pay model, like their software. There *are* some good free Microsoft community support websites, but they tend to be very specialised. Whereas with Linux, there is much more free community support, covering more breadth. Linux people tend to know a fair amount about everything, whereas Windows people tend to be specialists in a few specific areas and treat everything else as voodoo.

-- 
Andrew Oakley - Anti Spam Technical Architect
MessageLabs - aoakley at messagelabs.com - x7044

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