Linux Documentation and Tutorials

If you are starting out to learn Operating Systems, or you have heard the words open source software and want to know more about it, then read on. If you already know something about Linux then skip to the second paragraph. Well, for those of you who do not know about open source or are starting to learn about operating systems then I recommend that you start learning Linux as it is directly derived from Unix and an excellent way to learn about elegant software design, operating systems, and the open source movement in general. Why should you care about open source software? Well, simply put, it is the best way to create software and by best, I mean the most enjoyable way for developers, the best in quality (well, majority of the time) and even better it is free to use and to distribute. Linux is open source, a direct derivation of Unix in terms of functionality. Unix was the pioneer in forming and developing the concept of open source. Unix was primarily developed by Ken thompson and Brian Kerninghan of Bell labs. Here is a picture of the unix history (taken from wikipedia) , click on it to view the details. For the past two years, I have been exploring the linux system as well as searching on the net for excellent tutorials and I came across the Linux Documentation project. I am not sure how it was back then,but, right now I believe it is a one stop shop for anything linux and caters to everyone. There are documentations, tutorials, guides, FAQs and what have you? There is content for the complete novice, for the end user, for the intermediate (as of now I come under this category), and for the expert too. Please do check it out. In order to view the guides click on http://tldp.org/guides.html http://tldp.org/guides.html or click on guides on www.tldp.org. The guides available are an excellent means of getting to know your system better and maybe sometime later develop your own programs too that satisfy your needs. For anyone who wants to learn about open source without getting into the nitty gritty of the Linux system or maybe you want to have a more broader perspective of the open source world, its tools, and its methodologies then you will find eric steven raymond's "The Art of unix programming" to be an excellent resource. It is available online, here. After so much searching I find these two sites to be the best when it comes to Linux, and open source. Of course to get to know some specific open source softwares, like say X windows, you will have to go else where. To recap : 1) Primary source for Linux Documentation --- www.tldp.org , 2) Linux guides --- www.tldp.org/guides.html 3) The Art of Unix Programming ---- click here 4) Unix history --- http://www.levenez.com/unix/ That's it Folks! More interesting articles to follow ... keep following ....