the book thing

[Greg Kettmann]

> Which is more appealing:
> 1) A Linux book that covers EVERYTHING...
> 2) Two Linux books.  One that covers the basics... the other more 
> advanced...

This is a good thread and has ALWAYS been a pet peeve of mine.  Sadly, 
two things apply strongly.  First, one-size does NOT fit all and 
probably never will.  Second, as mentioned, there is so much stuff 
(books and online) out there it's often difficult to find that which is 
best for you.  

Me, I vote for two.  It's been my experience that the average newbie 
just wants to get something going so that they can learn from it.  So, 
to me, the perfect newbie book would only have the minimum information 
necessary to get the task done. Perhaps a chapter on each of the key 
subsystems with step by step instructions for installation and 
configuration (FTP, SaMBa, SSH, HTTPD (Apache), etc.).  I know that's 
more difficult than it sounds.  Hopefully some of the obvious problems 
encountered would be discussed and the solution shown (how to extract a 
TGZ file, for example).  Just enough to bootstrap a new user.  From 
there they can make their own choice about leaning more, however it's a 
lot easier to learn on a working system and it's very frustrating trying 
to get something, which you don't understand, working. Once the service 
is running, there is a great deal of  documentation on each.  

Also, a comment about "newbies".  Many or most come from a Windows 
environment.  That is a severe impediment, but mostly because of 
existing paradigms and what is expected.  Linux may do something a 
million times more intelligently than Windows but Windows users are 
_expecting_ things to work a certain way.  That does NOT mean Linux 
should change, indeed it shouldn't, however it's a hurdle that needs to 
be considered in any Newbie Book.