Paul Kraus wrote:
> Is there any good documents, books, or pdf?s  (preferably free and
> downloadable) that will help me learn linux quickly? I don?t need all
> the unix background or this is how tho mouse works crap. I am a
> systems admin for NT and 2000 I just want to learn linux. The
> documentation that came with software is very nice but I want to print
> it and I don?t want to have to print it page by page. Thanks

Well, maybe not yet. ;-)

I am developing a website, WikiLearn, which I hope will address this
issue.  See http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Wikilearn and follow the
AboutThesePages link -- read the "Goals" and "Beginner and Reminder
Pages" sections.

You won't find much of use yet, but you're welcome to look.  Even more,
you (and everybody) are welcome to record your learning experiences
there.  I do ask that you register at
http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/TWiki/TWikiRegistration.  The registration
procedure is not onerous.  You enter your name, your email address, and
the country you're from, and pick a  password and a WikiName (username
for TWiki, in UpperCamelCase).

WikiLearn is indexed on Google, but I haven't quite pinpointed the
update cycle (it may be one to two months).  There is a search engine on
WikiLearn, but I like Google better if I think that what I'm looking for
is old enough to have been indexed by Google.  Search Google using a
query like [site:twiki.org <searchterms>].

I'd like to move WikiLearn to its own site, and I have an approved
project on SourceForge.  If anyone with Perl, web administration, HTML,
or bash scripting experience wants to help (or wants to get experience),
let me know -- I have a list of ToDos on my personal TWiki that I can
move to WikiLearn (and update).  This includes things like setting up
TWiki (I've now done it three times, but not very well on SourceForge),
writing some scripts to aid in that process (things like adding webs,
setting permissions, and local and remote using ssh and rsync), setting
up the email notification and statistics (and fixing the statistics
script), and converting the (HTML) templates that are used on my home
TWiki to the new style used with the last two releases of TWiki.

Randy Kramer

PS: I guess my alternative answer might be "there is no quick way to
learn Linux".  It's not entirely true, and it depends on your
objectives.  I tried to move to Linux about 18 months ago with the idea
of learning it (and Perl, C++, make, CVS, Python, etc.) very quickly.  

(After all, I basically minored in computer science in school (while
earning a BSEE degree).   (They didn't officially have a computer
science minor, but, IIRC, I took three computer hardware courses and
seven computer software courses.)  Since then, I've managed electrical /
process control (computer) projects for more years than I want to admit,
while using computerized project management tools (and writing them on
an ad hoc basis, mostly in dos/Windows -- TurboPascal, DataStar ;-) ,
dBase, AskSam, Paradox, Access, Visual Basic).  

I'm embarrassed to admit I have not made very much progress.  Eventually
I bit the bullet and decided I would have to dig in and learn Linux (and
Perl, C++, make, CVS, Python, etc.) the slow way.  But, I'd like to
blaze a path for the next person.  WikiLearn will be the tool to blaze
the path.

PPS: I signed up for a free online couse in Linux called Basic Linux
Training.  It seems fairly useful so far.  See
http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Wikilearn/BltBasicLinuxTraining.

Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? 
Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com

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