When you are new to Linux, you have a world of questions. It would be nice to have a resident geek to hit up for a tutorial, but that is not always convenient or possible. So the next step is asking your questions on a mailing list or a newsgroup, or looking up your answer in a book about Linux.

Before you spend $40 or more on a Linux book, you should at least be aware of the Linux Documentation Project (LDP). Nearly every distribution of Linux comes with a copy of the LDP on CD-ROM (when you buy a distribution on CD-ROM), so you can find most answers right from your computer. So when you install Linux, be sure to install the documentation. (You could read the LDP from your CD-ROM; however, your CD-ROM may not be mounted when you boot up, and you'd need to read the documentation to learn to mount the CD-ROM in the first place. So, just install the documentation. I'd even give it priority over installing The X Windows System in your beginning endeavors!) If you've installed it correctly, the LDP should be in /usr/doc/HTML/ldp or something very close.

The LDP exists in several file formats: *.html, *.dvi (device independent files), *.tex (LaTeX or TeX files), *.sgml (Standard Generalized Markup Language, normally the Linux-Doc document type), *.ps (PostScript), or simple text files. Text files in Unix do not necessarily have a *.txt extension; they simply maybe be viewed by a more or less command, or viewed with a simple text editor. You can use any web browser to look at the HTML files, and any text editor will let you look at the SGML, TeX or text files. DVI files may be viewed with the xdvi program, and you can use GhostScript to view any PostScript file. (xdvi filename.dvi and gv filename.ps respectively.) SGML files are generally source files that may easily be converted to other formats or viewed in their native formats.

There are several types of documentation in the LDP: HOWTOs, mini-HOWTOs, FAQs, LDP books, and miscellaneous documentation. The HOWTOs and mini-HOWTOs are sometimes quite good and other times so so in their quality. The authors are competent writers in many cases, while in others, they are competent programmers but struggling writers. In any case, the HOWTOs contain specific information about many fundamental and advanced aspects of system configuration. They are a must-read. Before you dare ask anyone about how to write a PPP script, for instance, you'd better read the PPP HOWTO. Carefully.

The LDP books are good also. Perhaps the best known and most loved is Matt Welsh's Installation and Getting Started manual. It contains lots of information about everything from partitioning your hard drives to creating boot floppies to repairing filesystems. He has an enjoyable writing style and lots of experience with Linux. He's the primary author and founder of the LDP. Other books include Larry Greenfield's Linux User's Guide and The Kernel Hacker's Guide by Michael K. Johnson. You should have a look at The System Administrator's Guide by Lars Wirzenius and The Linux Network Administrator's Guide by Olaf Kirch. And there's also The Linux Programmer's Guide by Scott Burkett et al. These authors receive lots of valuable input from readers like yourself, so please send your comments along to the email addresses included at the beginning of these books. The authors will appreciate your input.

You can also obtain bound versions of most of the HOWTOs and LDP books in titles like Dr. Linux, The Linux Encyclopedia and The Linux Bible. These books contain all the books of the LDP and most of the HOWTOs and mini-HOWTOs. In the beginning, it is no doubt the best way to go; I'd recommend any one of these books as a must for your book shelf under nearly all circumstances.

The nice thing about commercial Linux books is that they often include a spiffy CD-ROM somewhere between the covers. One book actually includes 4 CD-ROMs with 4 separate Linux distributions on them. In general, I would advise against buying a Linux book just because it has a CD-ROM. In many cases, the distribution is very out of date, and in other cases, the book is not well done.

When you're searching for Linux books, or Unix books in general, I would recommend O'Reilly publishers to you. They do a lot of Unix oriented books, and their authors are highly qualified, which is more than I can say of some other publishers. I would tend to stay away from Macmillan imprints, because they often have less experience with Unix titles and treat them as they would simpler, consumer-oriented books about Windows or a single Windows application. Unix and Linux are far too broad a topic to cover in a single book, so you have to choose a title that is restricted to some particular aspect, such as installation and configuration, or using a few Linux applications, or configuring some system detail. O'Reilly's book on Sendmail is over 600 pages, for example, and it is nearly an industry standard.

Addison Wesley and Prentice Hall also have some good Unix-related titles. One of the best Linux titles in recent history is Linux: Installation, Configuration, and Use by Michael Kofler. Michael is a German author who has finally had this title translated to English. His book covers installation and configuration basics (geared to LST and RedHat distributions), and it includes good tutorials on important applications software. Michael gives a terrific introductory tutorial on LaTeX, the ubiquitous Unix typesetting package. He also explains many of the popular emacs conventions and customizations. He gives a breakdown of many command line commands, as well as switches for many popular programs and utilities.

Another popular title is Running Linux by Matt Welsh. I've read and enjoyed this book several times from cover to cover, and have several sections dog eared for handy reference. He's got a lot of important stuff in there, but a few of his tutorials could use some more depth. Still, it's a book you can read and reread, and still learn something useful each time.

You probably should also get a copy of Essential System Administration by Aelien Frisch. It's a seminal work and she covers the commands you need both relative to Linux and Unix. She has a real nack for explaining how things work.

There are a bunch of other books I could recommend, and perhaps even more that I could warn you against. Being an author myself, however, I understand how much a bad review hurts and how unfair it can be. So, I'll simply say that some titles are written for professionals, and other titles are written for consumers who don't know much. I would try to stick to titles written for professionals, because they tend to be more accurate, and their technical reviewers have combed the pages more carefully for errors. Consumer-oriented books often don't receive the same attention to technical detail. For Linux titles, you need accuracy and depth. The titles I have mentioned contain both.