Linux books

[perseus]

Hey everyone.

I have had my SL6000l for a week now. And I am in love. I started using palm, then handspring, then pocket pc for business and personal management. I was about to buy the latest HP with VGA but after reading these forums, reviews, and seeing the great deal at Amazon, I changed my mind.  

These things are amazing. My Zaurus is a real portable computer, much more portable than my laptop. I have been thinking about installing linux on my laptop. After getting the zaurus I am definitely doing it.

Could some of you recommend some good books for a beginner. I downloaded Linux in a nutshell on to my zaurus. I was also looking at running linux. Also, will these books help me get the most out of my Zaurus? Is there anything specifically for the Zaurus?

Thanks for your help.

[ludovicus]

A good start is www.tldp.org. a few free books and lots of "recipes"/howtos.   There isn't anything there specifically about zaurus pda's but the many flavors of linux hold to some trueism's.  Bash (bourne again shell) command line is probably the first place to learn some basic control of your linux os.  

Linux is an evolving organism and can seem very chaotic initially so please don't be distraught by the many variants and methods of doing the same thing.  I'm no guru so i'd say check out a few LUG's-linux user groups in your area, meet your local linux pro and get some tips.  Unfortunately there aren't linux pubs or cafe's so it's a rare moment you get to spend some real face time with those super linux users.  Many times they offer books at severe discount.  Or better yet, while hanging at your local bookstore and sip some mocha, read a random book and practice with your Z.    There is no specific book that is better than others, I prefer anything O'reilly if your really interested in buying a book.

lu

[panyo]

For getting started on the Zaurus,  I found chapter 5 of this site very useful:
http://www.linux-migration.org/
For Linux in general, I use this as my main reference -it starts from the ground and goes to a level I have not really reached yet:
http://rute.2038bug.com/index.html.gz
It may be getting old, and it is RedHat oriented with some Debian, but covers the basics.

For learning about my computer and understanding Linux, I found Gentoo to be the best distribution.
The others I am familiar with are forms of RedHat, and OZ with Opie and GPE.

[doc]

Hi,

I recommend the following site to review the 100's of different flavors of Linux:
http://www.distrowatch.com/

Fedora Core 3 is coming out in a few days...
http://fedora.redhat.com/

If you want to install on a laptop, checkout this site for tips/etc...
http://www.linux-laptop.net/

Lots of info at...
http://www.linux.org/

Lots of Z, info at...
http://cmisip.home.insightbb.com/zaurus.htm

And of course there is a book you can read on-line for free, that won't help you with Linux, but will explain the mindset of FREE..."Free as in Freedom"...
http://www.oreilly.com/openbook/freedom/

[perseus]

Thanks for your wonderful feedback. I have been rather busy following those links and adding bookmarks to my zaurus. There is so much information that it almost seems overwhelming.

I know that it will take time for me to just scratch the surface of what linux can do. I am very excited and cannot wait to load it on to my notebook. However, I am being rather cautious and will probably read the entire book before I proceed with the instal.

Thanks again for being so supportive and for those awesome links!

[slapout]

You might also want to check out Knoppix or one of the other Live CD distros. These allow you to play with Linux without actually installing it. It just boots from the CD and runs Linux in memory and off the CD.

www.knoppix.com and www.knoppix.net

Oreilly also has a book on it:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/knoppixhks/index.html

[Teletubbie]

Hi,
at general, this book is for armlinux, for example how to build toolchains etc.:
http://www.aleph1.co.uk/armlinux/book/book1.html

For you desktop:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/debian/chap...book/index.html
Cheers,
Sam