Newbie Resources
From Sfvlug
Newbie Resources
Here are some links that may be of particular interest to those who are new to Linux and the Open Source community and want to learn more.
Before we get too far, the first thing to learn is that Google is indeed your friend. Here is a link to Google's special Linux search: http://www.google.com/linux Google the Linux way. This should be your primary general resource, that is why it is place here at the top of this list.
Before you start bothering your friends or strangers the first thing to learn is how to ask questions that will return useful information and also won't make people upset. You don't want to alienate the people best able to answer questions with answers not found anywhere in print. This guide should be viewed before posting questions to forums, newsgroups, mailing lists, etc. It is appropriate reading for computer users of all skill levels. http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html The author, Eric S. Raymond also has some other FAQs and HOWTOs at http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/ his emphasis in on bringing people to a high technical level and may contain information specific to IT professionals and people that want to become IT professionals.
If you haven't yet installed Linux or are looking to change to a different flavor of Linux this site has good up to date information on what is available. http://distrowatch.com/ Another great download resource is http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/ with much Linux software available for download from their servers. You can also find documentation at http://tldp.org/ at a different URL but same folks. They are a collaboration of the center for the public domain and unc-ch with many free and open resources besides software. http://www.ibiblio.org/
A good set of online Linux courses can be found over at Linux.org That's a great jumping off site for Linux users of all levels. It is where I (Charles Wyble) spent the majority of my online research time in the first year of using Linux.
