[Wylug-discuss] linux literature

[Dave Fisher]

On Tue, Feb 17, 2004 at 11:02:13PM +0000, kai.che at ntlworld.com wrote:
> hello all.
> i thought i would yeta again pick your vast [collectively speaking before y'all get too bigheaded] brains for the following questions about linux books.
>
> i would like recommendations for distro specific reference books that dont aim at being too beginnery even and [being poor/stingy/mean/whatver want to buy the best book that will last me] in the following please fi you guys have time or personal book experience.
>
> a definitive /servery guide for
> debian,
> slackware,
> gentoo
> openbsd
> and suse.
>
>
> any suggestions or recommendations welcome
>
> maybe we should start our own oprah style book club on this kind of thing ..
>
> cause ven though i dont really have the time i feel like i have too many dumb questions and not enough books! ; - /

If you want "want to buy the best book that will last me", I'd advise
against anything distro-specific at all.

Generic Linux/Unix principles are far less likely to change quickly than
distro-specific configs, and once you understand them properly you can
always see them at work in the distro-specific configs, i.e.  learning
the distro-specific stuff is usually unecessary and can prevent you from
learning the more important generic stuff.

By far the most comprehensive and accurate Linux reference text is:

  Linux Administration Handbook
  Eve Nemeth, Garth Snyder, Trent Hein
  Prentice Hall PTR
  ISBN: 0130084662

It also has the advantage of detailing all the major divergencies from
the general rules for the three biggest distros (Red Hat, SuSE, and
Debian).

Dave