Hi there folks,

I'm wanting to learn RedHat Linux and how to admin a Linux
server, although am unsure on how to actually learn.

I've searched Amazon for some books. I've so far found three
good looking books which a few people have recommended to
me. The URLs are as follows....

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0764516817/qid=1054309772/sr=2-2/ref=sr_2_3_2/026-5040919-0434057
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1576104192/qid=1054309964/sr=1-6/ref=sr_1_0_6/026-5040919-0434057
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0072131365/qid=1054311103/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_2_3/026-5040919-0434057


Those are the best three I could find on Amazon. True, I'm not
sure how I'd know the best - but they seem pretty good and I
have bought other books in those series' and liked them a lot, so
thought maybe they'd have good books on learning Linux.

Can anyone please recommend to me how I can learn Linux, and
which is the best book?

If you know of any other books, then please let me know. I'm in
the UK and would prefer to purchase books from Amazon UK but
will consider from US if it is a good book and can really help me.

Thanks all for advice.

i have the redhat 8.0 bible, cant go wrong with that :)

The book makes a handy reference while learning but the best way is to install it and start using the OS. Lost of online docs, tutorials, help etc.

I had a great book given to me years ago, and it helped me learn the basics, and more.

Look for a book called; teach yourself unix in 24 hours
by sams publishing.

It is 24 1 hour lessons.. yeah right... well, you get the point.. it goes through the basics from the bottom up, and gets you going.

Then, think about spending some big bucks,,, oh, about a grand, and go to smartcertifydirect.com and get their linux admin course. It is several book, and takes you all the way through data center networking. It is set up to teach you to pass the real certification courses if you are good at studying at home.. if not, get a collage course when time permits, for the hands on and personal instruction.

Good luck,

Tim L

If you'd like a *free* book, try this one here:
http://rute.sourceforge.net

Not a bad book, either.

-David

Hey, I'm in the same boat!

I just went to PC World and bought "Red Hat Linux 7.3 for Dummies" by Jon "maddog" Hall and Paul G. Sery. I'm expecting that to help me get around using the OS. Once I'm fine with that I'll get other books that cover server admin functions more specifically.


...

Hey, just checked the link and the book was cheaper from Amazon, even including delivery!! :( Ah, well...



Btw - if I may ask in addition, are there any specific forums for users of Redhat 7.3, especially server admins? Figure that could be a great resource to mine for info.

Try out www.safari.oreilly.com for their 30 free trial subscription period. They have a service that allows you for a small monthly fee to read any oreilly book online(and they have many good tech books, just search on "linux" for a list). You can at least check out the books and if you do not like them cancel the subsription before the 30 day trial ends. I tried it and the only reason I did not continue the subscription was, I read all the books that I wanted to read in the 30 days (6 in all) !!

Originally posted by I, Brian

Btw - if I may ask in addition, are there any specific forums for users of Redhat 7.3, especially server admins? Figure that could be a great resource to mine for info.

There are no web based forums that I know of, but I pull a lot of information about issues from newsgroups. comp.os.linux.redhat is a redhat-centric one, that has discussions on all versions, all the way back to 6..

-David

Thanks for that - I'll check it out.

I use Linux systems administration by stanfield and smith (sybex) that's the very first book i got.

also, if you can, try having 2 PCs available, one for linux and one for windows...so anytime you run into any trouble with the linux unit, you can use the windows unit to look for help in the net....either in chatrooms or forums....

that's for setting up linux and trying to connect to the net for the first time :)

try http://www.tldp.org too. I also recommend http://rute.sourceforge.net its very comprehensive

I find groups.google.com to be a great source of information when a situation arises and I need an urgent fix. It's got a wealth of information, and has many user contributed ideas. Nevertheless, you should get a book/go for a course to have a solid basic knowledge of the OS. You might also need an online linux command manual. One that i've found to be very complete and handy is http://www.oreillynet.com/linux/cmd/ (Special thanks to Coach for introducing me to it ;)).