Probably, like everyone else, I've linked to this before. But here it is again. Neil Stephenson's (short for a book, long for the web) In the Beginning was the Command Line. It takes some time to get through, but Stephenson (Snow Crash, Diamond Age, Cryptonomicon, etc...) is a great writer, and really knows a lot about computers. This might well be the first text on the syllabus for some future college class on the Early History of Computing. So, in case you want to get a jump on the other kids, dig in now. I'll be over here on this $!@#%&' Linux box trying to get that %^&*!!@ wu-ftp to work by typing cryptic strings of characters into the command line. There's a lot to learn when you start from the beginning.
i highly recommend the book - which i have a copy of if anyone wants to borrow. he has an easy way of explaining comlicated matters.
jim - you mean you're not enjoying this project???
looks like you will be getting all my questions when i install debian on my laptop...damn discs are starting to collect dust.
No, I'm enjoying it tremendously. In the past two days I've detected a glimmer of light on the horizon. I'm still bumping into things, but some broad outlines are now visible. I can see basically how to proceed. The documentation is usually thorough, but it's never friendly. You sense great weariness at people having to answer the same questions over and over. Almost every answer supplies information on where to look to find the answer yourself, even if just the answer itself would have been quicker to communicate. I like this attitude a lot. It's a bit of a struggle at first though. Debian seems like the "cool" distribution (I mean that to sound good, not mocking.) I'm using RedHat for the server just because that seems like what most people do. If I ship it off for co-location, then I'll get a cheap used PC and put Debian on it. It's the politically correct distribution (I mean that to sound good too, although I doubt you can use that phrase to such an effect any more.) I looked through this book one day, and it looked very good. Between that, and just typing the key words of your question into google.com/linux, you'll be able to figure most everything out. Bring it over after work some night if you want to try.
The Command LIne In 2004 is an annotated version of the original with notes about what has changed in the 5 years since publication. Annotations done by Garrett Birkel with permission from Neal Stephenson.
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- jim 2-28-2001 4:28 pm
i highly recommend the book - which i have a copy of if anyone wants to borrow. he has an easy way of explaining comlicated matters.
jim - you mean you're not enjoying this project???
looks like you will be getting all my questions when i install debian on my laptop...damn discs are starting to collect dust.
- linda 3-01-2001 4:45 pm
No, I'm enjoying it tremendously. In the past two days I've detected a glimmer of light on the horizon. I'm still bumping into things, but some broad outlines are now visible. I can see basically how to proceed. The documentation is usually thorough, but it's never friendly. You sense great weariness at people having to answer the same questions over and over. Almost every answer supplies information on where to look to find the answer yourself, even if just the answer itself would have been quicker to communicate. I like this attitude a lot. It's a bit of a struggle at first though. Debian seems like the "cool" distribution (I mean that to sound good, not mocking.) I'm using RedHat for the server just because that seems like what most people do. If I ship it off for co-location, then I'll get a cheap used PC and put Debian on it. It's the politically correct distribution (I mean that to sound good too, although I doubt you can use that phrase to such an effect any more.) I looked through this book one day, and it looked very good. Between that, and just typing the key words of your question into google.com/linux, you'll be able to figure most everything out. Bring it over after work some night if you want to try.
- jim 3-03-2001 3:47 am
The Command LIne In 2004 is an annotated version of the original with notes about what has changed in the 5 years since publication. Annotations done by Garrett Birkel with permission from Neal Stephenson.
- jim 1-05-2005 10:23 pm