Where do you go for help and news?

[Paul Lussier]

"Matt Snell" <mattds at gmail.com> writes:

Great list of resources.  I don't think I was aware of any of
them. Exactly wha t I was looking for, thanks!

>
> Personally, I think that you making yourself available to answer questions
> would help a lot.

You must be new here :) You might want to dig through the GNHLUG
archives a bit...  My Inbox is always open.


> That's something that I'm missing and would treasure.  I don't
> personally know anyone with Linux experience,

You've got a whole list of them right here at your disposal for free :)

> and think just watching a sysadmin do his job and asking questions
> would be an insanely useful way to learn.  (anyone need an
> apprentice?)

It's a great way to learn, but you have to find someone who likes to
teach and explain things.  It also helps if you can find a company who
will hire you with basically no experience and train you, which is
pretty much how I started.

Ironically, running a large site of *NIX systems isn't much different
than admin'ing just your home network.  The things you tend to focus
on in larger environments tend to be more of the organizational or
automating nature, but the basics are the same: installing,
maintaining, troubleshooting, etc.  Ironically, when it comes to sites
like this, things tend to get so automated you forget some of the
basics.  My friend asked me the other day how he could install Linux
on a system and I was mostly stumped.  I haven't manually installed an
OS in several years. I run Debian at home, installed it from a Potato
install CD and instantly apt-get upgraded it to testing, where it
remains.  An apt-get here and apt-get there, and you stay rather
current :) At work, our 300+ systems are automatically installed on a
fairly frequent basis.  "It just works" goes a long way to making you
forget how you partition a disk !

But, as for making myself available, I'm almost always available via
e-mail, on or off list.  I'm also on the GNHLUG IRC channel
frequently, but tend to log on but not be there for days or weeks at a
time (the hazards of having everything in an emacs buffer that gets
buried :)

Thanks again for the lists of resources!

-- 
Seeya,
Paul
--
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