Linux Books

To get started, you need books. If you are lucky, you can learn a lot from friends, and everyone can turn to the internet and newsgroups for information. Books don't necessarily have better information than you get from the Internet or from friends, but it is often presented in a more carefully thought out, and more logical, manner.

Before getting started, I should mention the Linux Journal, a fine magazine that no serious Linux user should be without. It has lots of good information, and is fun to read.

Basic Must Have Books for Getting Started

• A Practical Guide to Linux, by Mark G. Sobell, Addison Weseley Publisher. This is the one essential book that no new comer can do without.
• Running Linux, Matt Welsh, O'Reilly. This is the other "essential" book for new comers.

Digging a Little Deeper

• Using Caldera Open Linux, Allan Smart, Que Books: Though the titular purpose of the book is Caldera Linux, this huge book contains a number of very thorough introductions to important KDE and command line based Linux tools. A very useful book. Once you have absorbed A Practical Guide to Linux and/or Running Linux, this is a good next step for those who want more information.
• Linux Unleashed, Tim Parker, Sams Publishing: Similar to Using Caldera Open Linux, this book provides a good overview of the Linux, its utilities, and its administration. I found it not quite as well written or thorough as Using Caldera Linux, but still a good book.
• Linux Administration, A Beginners Guide, Steve Shah, Osborne. Info on networking utilities, etc.
• Maximum Linux Security, Anonymous, Sams. An okay overview of knotty Linux security issues. Not a great book, but it gets the job done.

Programmer's Books

• Linux Programmers Reference, Richard Peterson, Osborne. A good quick reference for programmers.
• Linux Programming Bible, John Goerzen, IDG books. A basic introduction to a suite of Linux Programming Tools
• Linux Programming Unleashed, by Kurt Wall, Sams Books. The same sort of thing as the Linux Programming Bible.
• Linux Kernel Book. I have not read much of this one, but it had a lot of detailed information about deep programming issues. A guru's book.
• GNU C++ for Linux, Tom Swan, Que Books. A port of his classic introductino to C++ books to Linux. The end of the book provides some good chapters on programming the X Window Library.

Web Sites

• www.slashdot.org
• www.linux.com
• http://freshmeat.net/
• http://sourceforge.net/
• http://www.idiom.com/free-compilers/
• http://linuxtoday.com/
• http://www.lwn.net/ (Linux Weekly News)
• http://www.themes.org/
• http://www.linuxgames.com/
• http://linuxcentral.com/ (shopping site)

Finally, not only does linux ship with the source to the OS, but the source is available on a web site. Use this site to browse the source, and find particular modules: