Where do you go for help and news?

[Ted Roche]

On Jan 30, 2007, at 9:58 PM, Paul Lussier wrote:

> So, what sites to people here frequent?  What Linux-related RSS feeds,
> blogs, help sites to people tune into to increase their knowledge?
> What other suggestions are there for people new to Linux to reach for
> when they need help understanding some of the more heady
> sysadmin-related topics?

1. I went to the "Where Did You Learn That?" session at CentraLUG [1]  
in July 2006 where we asked exactly that question ;)

2. I have an entire menagerie of animal books. I don't think I've  
ever read one completely, but use many for reference, and wish for  
more hours in the days to get to the rest of them.

3. I subscribe to several linux magazines. Some months I only get to  
skim the table of contents, but I have some idea what's out there.

4. I subscribe to a couple dozen mailing lists, though "Mark All as  
Read" is my most common action.

5. I have an RSS reader (this month, Google Reader) with feeds for  
world news, local news, linux news and A-List feeds (ditto for Mark  
as Read). Linux-related feeds include:

http://fedoranews.org
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/au/27
http://www.redhat.com/magazine/
http://www.osnews.com/
http://www.linux-watch.com/
http://www.itconversations.com/
http://www.pythonware.com/daily/
http://arstechnica.com/
http://wiki.gnhlug.org/twiki2/bin/view/Organizational
http://lxer.com/

... and many more. The advantage of RSS feeds is that the news comes  
to me, and I don't have to remember to ferret out these sites. While  
waiting for a compile (or stuck on troubleshooting a problem), it's  
easy to toggle to the page already open in my browser and see what  
the latest news is.

6. Our two-person company has nine computers: a few for production, a  
few for development, a few for testing and experimentation.

7. I attend as many meetings as my brain and life can stand, and try  
to learn from those who've been there.

So, no one thing works, but immersion in reading material, browsing  
materials, audiocasts, hands-on practice and attendance at live  
events can combine to give you the best overall view of what's going on.


[1] http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.org.user-groups.linux.gnhlug/6135

Ted Roche
Ted Roche & Associates, LLC
http://www.tedroche.com