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    #1

    Linux Books?

    Can anyone recommend a good book for newbies to learn about Linux...more specifically Kubuntu if possible? I'm looking at "Linux for dummies" from walmart.com, says its 8 books in 1 but its from 2008...are there any good ones thats more recent?

    comming from windows from the past 15 years, i'm finding it hard to cope well in linux.
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    #2
    Re: Linux Books?

    Originally posted by f1refly
    comming from windows from the past 15 years, i'm finding it hard to cope well in linux.
    That is for some, the single biggest stumbling block preventing a switch to Linux. The holding on to their familiarity and (perceived) understanding of how Windows works and trying to apply that to Linux. That Linux, in this case, Kubuntu Linux, has an appearance that has many similarities to Windows, transitioners think (incorrectly) that the way it works should be 'not to different' from how things were done in Windows. That is only superficially true in only a few things - Title bar on windowed application for example. Some mouse usages (right/left click; drag+drop; etc). But other than surface similarities, and as I, as well as others are found of saying, "Linux is not Windows."

    There isn't a plethora of books written specifically for Kubuntu, but there are plenty on Ubuntu, which is understandable. At the core, Kubuntu is Ubuntu. What differentiates Kubuntu from Ubuntu is the DE (Desktop Environment) and the associated Libraries and programming tools used to write/maintain them. Kubuntu uses KDE as the DE, and the libraries and programming tools used are based on QT. Ubuntu uses Gnome as the DE, and the libraries and programming tools used are based on GTK.

    As a free (as in 'Free Beer') start, you can download A Complete Beginner’s Manual for Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx)

    You would be advised to also obtain a good reference on using the bash shell (bash is the Windows equivalent of the command.com/cmd.com 'DOS' window utility [simplistically put]). I have a copy of Learning the bash Shell, Third Edition - O'Reilly Media that sits next to my PC.

    You can also find many, many good on-line resources on Linux et al, as well as Kubuntu, KDE, and nearly any other issue/concern you have questions on. And of course, there is this forum, which if you stick around, and we hope you do, you will find to be a fantastic source of information, likely one of the best you'll come across on the 'Net.

    Welcome to KFN. Welcome to Linux. Welcome to Kubuntu. Your journey has just begun!
    Windows no longer obstructs my view.
    Using Kubuntu Linux since March 23, 2007.
    "It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data." - Sherlock Holmes​
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      #3
      Re: Linux Books?

      I suggest that you take look at this thread, right here!
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        #4
        Re: Linux Books?

        1) Download http://www.tuxradar.com/linuxstarterpack
        2) Look at http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu:Lucid
        3) Look at http://kubuntuguide.org/Lucid
        4) Look at http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/
        5) Download http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2010/04/u...-released.html
        "A problem well stated is a problem half solved." --Charles F. Kettering
        "Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple."--Dr. Seuss
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          #5
          Re: Linux Books?

          thanks guys, lots of good info here. I'm hard determined to learn Linux, i chose Kubuntu namely due to popularity of Ubuntu and after trying both DE's, i preferred KDE in many ways. I have a tendancy to want to learn too much, too quick and i caught myself skipping around...like trying to test the Gallium3d driver with games before i even understood how to install stuff and how to work WINE.

          I do have a tendancy to actually read a book as apposed to reading on the computer, I will check into these links but knowing me, i wont sit here and read very thoroughly like i would an actual book....so i'm still hoping to find a good paperback on the subject, so any recommends for one or i'll just go with Linux for dummies, bit old but probably still relevant.

          again, thanks for tolerating my noobism. I'll likely post another 100 stupid questions before i get anywhere.
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            #6
            Re: Linux Books?

            There is no such thing as a stupid question.

            Stupid answers, however, are quite common. I have quite a few laying around in various places. Mostly because I misread the question or my eyes flip words.
            "A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.”
            – John F. Kennedy, February 26, 1962.
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              #7
              Re: Linux Books?

              I would recommend Mark Sobell's "A Practical Guide To Ubuntu Linux." You can get the book through Amazon. That is if you're Ubuntu fan. There's another book that is famous because of easy to understand and follow.. it's "Point and Click Linux" by Robin Miller. I have heard that particular edition comes with DVD...

              Good luck!
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                #8
                Re: Linux Books?

                Originally posted by GreyGeek
                ...or my eyes flip words.
                Really?! Are they by chance, named 'Ju' and 'do'? (Hey, I said previously, that 'some' of us here have a bizare sense of humor!)
                Windows no longer obstructs my view.
                Using Kubuntu Linux since March 23, 2007.
                "It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data." - Sherlock Holmes​
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                  #9
                  Re: Linux Books?

                  Books!
                  I have about 8 or 10 linux/unix books plus about another 30 related to computers in some way.

                  "The official ubuntu book" is revised every year I think. A good place to start.

                  Of my books the most raggedy looking one (most used) is "Ubuntu Linux Toolbox" by Christopher Negus & Francois Caen. This book is kind of a quick reference for command line stuff. Also published in versions for Fedora and some other distro as I recall.

                  I just picked up a copy of "Unix and Linux System Administration Handbook". It's not raggedy enough yet to recommend. Very heavy (literally, over 1200 pages), good selling point for a Kindle. I waited for a 40% off coupon from Borders to buy this book.

                  Unfortunately no single book seems to cover all.

                  Ken. The book junkie.
                  Opinions are like rear-ends, everybody has one. Here's mine. (|)
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                    #10
                    Re: Linux Books?

                    Hi
                    I've been in Linux for a few months now and never have bought or read a Linux "book".

                    There is a guy I know, that teaches at a local college, that teaches a "Linux class" the people there use the Fedora Core 3 book, which is rather....long in the tooth, and they spend the whole semester and at the end, they still do not have an operational system and they are very carefully NOT told anything about a distro like Kubuntu.

                    Why does the college do this? They do it because they run nothing but MS and he said, at a pool party once, quite baldly, that MS gave them a "budge" on their software prices.

                    Not that I am putting down Linux books....but my boy who is a major programmer in C++ started on the Commodore 64 by typing in programs from a magazine...

                    Now, yes, he read the magazine and read the supplied C-64 book which BACK THEN... was all Commodore Basic Programming...

                    In other words he got his feet wet. This was before "computer classes" and there were NO computer "books".

                    Again, I'm not knocking books.

                    But, I wrote an article a few years ago in a Linux site in which I advocted that the quickest and easiest way to learn the basics of the Linux "file structure", which is where most people start, by using XMMS a music playing program.

                    The reason for this was very simple.

                    The "file" structure was not just "save" or "save as" or "open" in the file button.

                    You were presented IMMEDIATELY, in a box on the left side with..........the file structure....

                    you could SEE IT...in it's entirety...

                    Now the problem was that it looked a LOT like the old MS "file box". It was "grainy" in background and the text was....jaggy.... in other words it did not look...........sophisticated.

                    But, I've donated a lot of computers running a Linux and always showed the recipient the file structure through XMMS and a lot of them are still using Linux...now a lot of them went to MS but...you take what you can get!

                    So... nowadays..... XMMS is gone, although a few distros still provide it...in the Kubuntu repos you can get XMMS2 which is a "server" for music and can download various "clients" or "front end" which is what you use to "play music".

                    So...XMMS2 is now more of an example of the "different way of approaching" a thing than an example of the file system.

                    In other words, I can start music in XMMS2 and close completely off any kind of "front end" and the music still plays, and I close it with a "command line" statement.

                    This was a VERY ROUNDABOUT WAY...of getting at two things:

                    a) buy, or download, any or all of the above mentioned books. They are great and the posters gave you a very good selection, really, they did a good job.
                    b) but.... what I would do is............

                    Using Maveriky Meerkaty!!

                    FIRST....DO NOT CLICK ANYTHING ...........IN THE FILE SYSTEM...

                    You could break something, probably, possibly, but....

                    Just like with porno....if you have not clicked a porno site you probably will not get porno on your machine...

                    Do not "click anything" but...

                    Go to the little "star and folder" on the bottom left panel and click it.

                    A very pretty box will open with the normal folders in it like documents, music, etc. but at the top you should see in the little white "url" box a line that is something like:

                    /home/name of your computer.

                    To the left is a "folder" icon.

                    Click it and you will see a new file "box" open that will have the same folders.

                    HOWEVER, to the left you will see a RED FOLDER labled "Root".

                    Click it and you will see a NEW set of folders and the one on the top left should be "bin".

                    REMEMBER DO NOT CLICK ANYTHING INSIDE...but feel free to click the folder to see all the wonderful stuff contained therein....

                    Click the "details" icon at the top and you will see a vertical "list", etc. etc.

                    REMEMBER DO NOT CLICK ANYTHING INSIDE.

                    Now the "first big lesson" of "Linux".....

                    Just about everything that YOU can interact with, like a program that you download, is stored in:

                    find "usr" and click it and then find "bin"...."most" stuff goes there but not ALL, and

                    DO NOT CLICK ANYTHING IN THERE...

                    back out one level, to "usr" and go to "games".

                    If you have a new, clean, install of Kubuntu you probably will not see anything in there.

                    Now, close all that.

                    Go to the shiny blue "K" box or "start" and click it and go to "computer" ..go to "Kpackage kit" and click it, and go to "games" and download one like "SuperTuxKart". You will have to supply a password probably. When it is downloaded and installed go back through the same process to get to the usr folder then the bin folder then the games folder and you "should" see your newly installed game(not ALL games go there but almost all).

                    The "Linuxy" way of describing where you went is:

                    /Root/usr/bin/games/SuperTuxKart.

                    and there you are! your first lesson in the Linux File Structure!

                    REMEMBER DO NOT click anything inside a folder... just use this process to learn the file structure.... a basic step to learning Linux.

                    And............buy or download some of the fine, recommended, books!

                    woodsmoke









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