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1 • Books for learning Linux (by Joe on 2016-02-29 01:40:46 GMT from North Americia)
Years ago I bought a copy of Linux for Dummies that came with a demo CD. It was ok, but due to the time it takes to get a book published and on the shelves, it was already dated. Even the Linux magazines have information that is several months old. That is one of the reasons why I love Distrowatch. I like to try new distros as well as beta versions, but am not sure I have the skill to write a proper review. Maybe I will give it a try. Thanks
2 • Haiku (by Stormtrooper #90,900,91 on 2016-02-29 03:18:27 GMT from Europe)
Thanks for the Haiku coverage. I love reading about and trying different Operating Systems.
3 • Linux newbie books... (by tom joad on 2016-02-29 03:31:00 GMT from Europe)
I voted Ubuntu Unleash though it is an older edition. I liked the heft of the book and there was disks in the back to install Ubuntu. I bought the book a good ten years ago. Over that time it has served its purpose. I hardly crack it any more.
I also bought a book titled "The Linux Toolbox." I don't really know why. Because at the time I knew about the man pages. Also there is gobs of info on the internet about OS's, commands, tips and tricks, etc, etc. I didn't really need that book but I have it.
But I am kind of different. I came over from Windows and had been a help desk tech, etc for quite awhile. At the time I started with Linux I had already been through several Microsoft debacles with a couple of different companies. Sorry...I mean Microsoft OS roll outs with Vista being the absolute last straw. For me learning Linux was not that big of a deal though it did take a bit of time to get where I am now.
What I didn't have was any classes or anyone else to help me. I jumped in on my own and did it. And I think that really is the best way. Install it, break it, fix it, learn and repeat.
4 • Good old BeOS days (by Tran Older on 2016-02-29 05:40:25 GMT from Asia)
1. Had Apple decided to choose BeOS over NextOS, there wouldn't be iMacs, iPods, iPhones and iPads :-) 2. There is not a productivity suite for Haiku OS as Gobe Productive for BeOS ceased to be developed for 17 years. The port of KOffice for Haiku OS is not fully functional. Google Docs work better with the Mozilla Firefox port for Haiku OS than with NetPositive. 3. Of course, we can all use ZevenOS Goodbye Edition which is Sawfish window manager running on top of Xubuntu. It has the BeOS look-and-feel and is fully functional. But it's not "the real thing". 4. Amiga and BeBox may belong to the past but contributions to the AROS project and the Haiku project will always be appreciated.
5 • Another book for learning Linux (by Microlinux on 2016-02-29 07:28:15 GMT from Europe)
In 2009, the french publisher Eyrolles published my 530-page book "Linux aux petits oignons", a cookbook-style book that takes a newbie by the hand and guides him step by step to using Linux, mostly on the command line, without dumbing anything down.
The first edition was based on CentOS 5.3. The upcoming second edition will be based on Slackware 14.2.
http://tinyurl.com/no254g
6 • Linux Newbie books (by Zork on 2016-02-29 08:22:43 GMT from Oceania)
Voted for Linux Unleashed as it was what I learned from when moving to Linux.
I've steered clear of any "... for Dummies" books as they always seem a little condescending, simplistic and out-of-date for computing purposes. Trouble with pretty much all "Newbie" guides is that they are either too in-depth or too simplistic. It is rare to see one that hits the sweet spot between.
Question is a bit vague though. A complete computer novice or someone migrating from another OS have vastly different "Newbie" requirements for this sort of book.
7 • Linux Newbie books (by kc1di on 2016-02-29 10:02:42 GMT from North America)
Voted for Ubuntu Unleashed, though there are several free on line books that cover much the same material and would be good starting points for a newbie.
8 • Fedora Atomic OMG!! (by Stan on 2016-02-29 10:22:29 GMT from Europe)
I'm excited with Fedora Atomic, sounds promissing.
9 • linux newbie guide (by jonathon on 2016-02-29 10:24:57 GMT from Oceania)
I'd like to thank Daniel Robbins for his guide http://www.funtoo.org/Linux_Fundamentals,_Part_1 and guides http://www.funtoo.org/Category:Articles may need to be a slightly mature newbie as it's fast paced compared to others I have enjoyed many guides and will continue to do so, differences in delivery and emphasis can help broaden basic knowledge. Examples are great but too.
10 • PSION & Linux (by didier gaumet on 2016-02-29 10:41:01 GMT from Europe)
Concerning PSION and Linux, though NetBSD is not Linux, it has has a port for these machines: https://wiki.netbsd.org/ports/epoc32/
11 • Remix os (by peer on 2016-02-29 11:20:32 GMT from Europe)
Remix OS: "System requirements A USB 3.0 flash drive that supports FAT32 format, with a minimum capacity of 8GB and a recommended writing speed of 20MB/s. A CPU with 64-bit compatibility."
I hope that there also will be a 32-bit version. It would be a nice OS for my EEEpc
12 • remix 32 (by peer on 2016-02-29 12:07:40 GMT from Europe)
I just stumbled upon the Remix OS 32 versieon: http://www.androidplanet.nl/nieuws/remix-os-32-bit/
13 • haiku, etc... (by jc on 2016-02-29 13:04:09 GMT from North America)
keep meaning to set up old box just for the joy of playing w/haiku... tks for the review -- & reminder! how about rounding this out by doing the same sort of thing for the anteros project & amiga-os? seeing that mention of psion was nice nostalgia... LIKED that toy! linux bible etc will ALWAYS be dated by time of sales -- but -- these days that's true of every non-fiction work out there -- DO read magazines even though the same holds true there... thing is that sort of media makes it easy to delve into the surface of things & almost always better organised & written than web pages covering the same material... fast word on android news: downloaded last version but 1 & was very disappointed: for an os that is so web dependent it recognised but NEVER connected with my isp... bleh!
14 • Other books (by albinard on 2016-02-29 15:06:05 GMT from North America)
When I started learning Linux (2009) I found the Keir "Thomas Beginning Ubuntu Linux" books the most helpful, but since then I have mostly referred to Mark Sobell's "A Practical Guide to Ubuntu Linux" or the old "Linux Cookbook" (same title, but one by Carla Schroder and one by Michael Stutz). I know many people love the TLCL book, but I find it awkward to use when you need to look up the details of a particular command.
15 • An option to save any changes to an OS on a USB flash drive (by dhinds on 2016-02-29 15:23:00 GMT from North America)
Porteus may be the best portable OS
16 • Books (by djw on 2016-02-29 16:01:25 GMT from North America)
I bought "Ubuntu Hacks" when I first got into Linux, about 10 years ago. Since then, no books, just search the web when I need something. Anything distro specific becomes obsolete in a short time. Most everything else I need is available on a few bookmarked sites. If Linux was my profession, instead of a hobby, that might be different.
17 • Books (by dbrion on 2016-02-29 16:24:55 GMT from Europe)
First, I much appreciated "Linux aux petits oignons " in 2009 and I am glad there will be another edition. I already had used Unix for years (did not administrate) and I managed to learn new things.
This year, I was advised to read R. Kerrisk "The Linux Programming Interface" http://man7.org/tlpi/ : it shows examples, in a logical order, of many (it seems comprehenstive) C functions documented in the manual . Programming choices are thoroughly explained, improving my knowledge of C with a lot of useful examples. More complicated (less exercices : more concise with humor), but very easy to find with google is Robert Love's "Linux System Programming" ,https://www.rlove.org/ .
18 • Tiny Core (by Poet Nohit on 2016-02-29 18:19:24 GMT from North America)
It's pretty amazing what you can do with just flwm, wbar, aterm and a few other things.
19 • Unity GUI (by Solar Bay on 2016-02-29 20:14:40 GMT from North America)
All these incessant bashings of Unity or Gnome or Whatever, besides their tiresome redundancy, are premised on the bogus notion that The True Interface exists, that the author knows what it is, and the rest of us are stupid for not using it. All Linux GUI interfaces are much more alike than they are different, and they will remain that way as long as we use keyboards and mice. If someone thinks a row of icons *here* is Correct while a row of icons *there* is Incorrect, or lacks the intellectual elasticity to cope with changes like the position of a windows's Close button, then perhaps they ought to look to themselves first.
20 • Unity GUI (by tdockery97 on 2016-02-29 20:27:15 GMT from North America)
@19: The most sensible statements regarding Linux GUI's I have ever read.
21 • Persistence on USB drive (by Terry Parris on 2016-02-29 20:36:38 GMT from North America)
This comment is directed to Jessie Smith with the Miscellaneous News. Not sure if he answered the question about persistence on a USB "thumb drive" fully. He may have forgot some particular tools for this job. I'd like to remind him about UnetBootin. This application will allow you to install a live USB image to it and set up persistence. I used it just today (February 29, 2016) to test out Peach OS. I was able to set up an 8GB persistent file on a 64GB USB "thumb drive." It works beautifully. Also, Ubuntu still has a package in their repo's for doing just this. This package is usb-creator-gtk or usb-creator-kde depending on what desktop you have you can download either.
22 • Books on learning Linux (by eco2geek on 2016-02-29 21:18:18 GMT from North America)
Now that I'm into Ubuntu-based distributions, I'd probably recommend The Official Ubuntu Book for people wanting a book on learning Linux.
If you're interested in a book that's more distro-agnostic, the "Linux Bible" by Christopher Negus seems like a pretty good choice. New editions come out regularly; it discusses several different Linux distributions, and it's written in a way that goes from "just starting" topics to more complex topics.
(On the other hand, not everyone is good at book learning, and these books are typically on the expensive side.)
23 • Wonderful text by Andrew Tanenbaum (by Carlos on 2016-02-29 21:49:19 GMT from Europe)
That writing from Andrew Tanenbaum of Minix is a must read. Fantastic.
24 • Ubuntu Unleashed (by Bill S. on 2016-02-29 23:12:01 GMT from North America)
I voted Ubuntu Unleashed because 8 years ago, it came with Ubuntu 9.10. After playing with that, man I was hooked!! So sorry to see the birth of Unity. I still have Ubuntu 10.04 on a partition. Ah the old days of Gnome 2.30.
25 • #19 & andrew tanenbaum's minix... (by jcoeli on 2016-02-29 23:38:43 GMT from North America)
tks for this ref... finally got around to following the link & reading the effort making minix... a delight! am reminded of pioneers like tim hartnell, clive sinclair and steve vickers of zx81 fame teaching adults and kids how to program homework and games using basic...
26 • Books (by MC on 2016-03-01 01:20:23 GMT from North America)
I voted "other". It was some time ago, but I found out about "The Linux Command Line" by William Shotts right here on Distrowatch. Very useful for learning how to use the terminal back in my early Linux days.
27 • Opinion Poll (by learning Linux on 2016-03-01 01:22:33 GMT from Europe)
I would recommend Linux Bible to first time Linux readers. It's not a technical book in "latu sensu". It's a passionate approach that just works. It was my first reading and I got sold after reading it.
28 • Books for Linux (by Andy Figueroa on 2016-03-01 04:50:36 GMT from North America)
I was an early adopter of Linux when it first came out and was migrating from Unix. My Unix books continue to be the most useful for working with files and shell programming, in particular "Unix Primer Plus." Some early versions of Red Hat, Slackware, and a few others also came with books, and they have all contributed to my Linux knowledge.
29 • Unity GUI @19 & @20 (by ItShowsObviously on 2016-03-01 05:26:32 GMT from North America)
@19 I like free speech and I don't have an issue with anyone expressing their opinion or likes/dislikes (Then everyone knows where they truly stand.). I definitely don't feel the need to attempt to insult or belittle someone because they have a different opinion, taste or preference. "premised on the bogus notion that The True Interface exists, that the author knows what it is, and the rest of us are stupid for not using it.", purely an assumption or speculation at best. "then perhaps they ought to look to themselves first.", yes they are such a terrible person, because they have a different opinion or preference (sarcasm).
If anyone does have a different opinion, I for one don't jump to the conclusion they are "bashing", of course I am not hypersensitive or easily offended either. ;) Another beauty of Linux: choice, not being stuck in a box or a one DE fits all paradigm. Or that only one opinion is all that matters. (No keyboard warriors required. :))
@20 I could not disagree more. :)
Have a good one.
30 • Linux Books (by EarlyBird on 2016-03-01 06:14:51 GMT from North America)
I learned linux waaay back in the last century (1990's) primarily from 2 books published in 1996:
Redhat linux Unleashed on Sam's Books (came with Redhat 3.0.3) and
Using Linux Special Edition on Que Books (came with both Slackware and Redhat). Both books, though dated, still contain useful info usually left out of current books. The "Unleashed books are still around for various distros. Haven't seen Que titles in a while, but if you find a current release for a distro you are interested in, it is probably worth at least having a look at. The Linux Bible is still very much to be recommended.
Another title I found very useful when learning was Linux: The Textbook on Addison-Wesley (2002) - it was the easiest title I came across for getting things done without getting a dedicated "System administration" book (remember, this is supposed to be about titles for newcomers, not experts).
For anyone running Slackware or one of its derivatives, there is always "Slackware Linux Essentials" from slackbook.org.
For everyone, there is tldp.org (the linux documentation project), and too many websites to list here, though the ones featuring cheatsheets and such are especially helpful. Some of the podcasts linked to by this site are helpful, but if you have a local LUG (linux user group), that would be my number one recommended starting point.
Getting back to beginners books, my favourite, How Linux Works was reviewed here maybe about a year ago? Strange that no one has mentioned "Running Linux" on O'Reilly. And of course there's LFS (Linux from Scratch), but the most informative books (ie. -the ones that explain how to use the terminal, and what goes on beneath the gui) are precisely the ones most likely to scare away those transitioning from WinX (unless said user has some familiarity with the DOS prompt, in which case, by now they are probably already using linux.....
31 • linux books (by linuxista on 2016-03-01 07:24:13 GMT from North America)
I don't know why this site full of tech ebooks is free, but it is. It's almost too good to be true, though you can only get pdfs, not epubs. On the other hand it's still an amazing selection of titles. http://it-ebooks.info/
32 • Criticizing GUIs / Linux ebooks (by eco2geek on 2016-03-01 08:05:32 GMT from North America)
@29 wrote: > If anyone does have a different opinion, I for one don't jump to the conclusion > they are "bashing",
Personally, I'd be happy to point out everything I think is wrong with GNOME shell. I'd be happy to tell you why I think the developers of that user interface walked right up to the edge and jumped off into wacky world.
Except it wouldn't do a bit of good. My griping won't change anything. It's obvious that the true owners of a particular desktop environment are the community of developers who write it. If you can't influence them, all you can do is vote with your feet. (And I would argue that Unity, MATE, and Cinnamon all exist due to people's discontent over GNOME shell, so maybe it's not such a bad thing after all.)
@31 - That there would be a large collection of what you might call "copyright-challenged" ebooks. From the looks of it, it ain't exactly legal. Usually they want you to pay for those. :-)
33 • @32 Criticizing GUIs (by ItShowsObviously on 2016-03-01 08:42:34 GMT from Europe)
" all you can do is vote with your feet. (And I would argue that Unity, MATE, and Cinnamon all exist due to people's discontent over GNOME shell, so maybe it's not such a bad thing after all.)" Yep... share what you like or don't like about the DE. IMO if a DE changes, where it fits your needs/usage then you can go back to it or stay with it. If not, I am thankful for alternatives. :) Cheers.
34 • linux books (by peer on 2016-03-01 09:52:59 GMT from Europe)
I discovered linux in the nineties with a book on Red Hat wit a cd in it. I forgotten the book title. I tried it but at that moment I was not ready for it so I stayed with windows. A few years later I tried opensuse because I stil was interested in linux. From that moment I dit not use books but I gathered my knowledge on forums and I read many articles and magazines. Now I am a happy mint kde user
35 • 32 • O'Reilly Media ebooks (by eco2geek) (by FOSSilizing Dinosaur on 2016-03-01 14:40:44 GMT from North America)
'…what you might call "copyright-challenged" …' That's libel. These are try-before-you-buy advertising, with author encouragement. Direct download only, pay for paper; … for private, personal use only. .
Yes, some people are sane, even in an insane world.
36 • @35 copyright (by linusista on 2016-03-01 15:49:18 GMT from North America)
Thanks for the clarification. That's the marketing angle I suspected, and why the ebooks are limited to pdf only. Enjoy.
37 • Linux books (by Jordan on 2016-03-01 20:53:45 GMT from North America)
Distrowatch itself is my main "book." The tips list, the reviews. The stuff in here via search. Shell/cli stuff is all over the place in wikis etc. But Distrowatch is where we see functional real world info, imo.
38 • "That's libel" -- heh (by eco2geek on 2016-03-02 03:04:40 GMT from North America)
@35, @36 - So, let's take an example. "Linux in a Nutshell 6e" is right there on O'Reilly Media's site, with the ebook on sale for $41.99 (that's a good book, btw, but you should never pay retail). You can get the Kindle edition at Amazon for the low, low price of $24.09. Strangely, neither of those prices resemble "free".
The pdf, downloaded from your fine and dandy pirate ebook site (which, for some odd reason, fails to link back to the publisher's web site), is watermarked. "Download at WoweBook.Com" -- isn't that exactly what you'd expect to find on a legitimate copy?
That URL leads you to "Wow! eBook - The best eBook site ever!", from which your site apparently downloaded it. (My goodness. Is there no honor among thieves? :-)
So, common sense forces us to conclude that your so-called "try-before-you-buy advertising, with author encouragement" is just plain ol' piracy.
Good luck with that there libel claim, cowboy.
39 • Running Linux on a USB drive... (by tom joad on 2016-03-02 03:35:06 GMT from Europe)
@ 15
I have been happily daily running Anti-x Mx-15 on a 16gig usb drive for several weeks. I can boot it to systemd or sysvinit too. I have tor loaded and it runs fine. It is stable, fast and I use it like anything else. Then I put the drive on my key chain.
A few days ago I loaded Tahrpup, Puppy, on an 8gig usb drive. Again it runs fine too. I think puppy is a bit cranky but I use it. Tarhpup loads in ram making it very fast. Some times it is too fast for us fat fingered folks.
Porteus is one OS that I hadn't considered. But I have it downloaded so I can give it a go in the next few days. Porteus can be loaded into ram as well. Porteus is Slackware so it is off in a different branch of Linux. Slackware is a bit of an enigma to me. I try to stay in the Debian branch.
I do have a couple 4gig drives. I will try them with these distros to see how they do.
None of the three OS's offer whole disk encryption during installation. Encryption would be nice.
40 • Voted Other (by far2fish on 2016-03-02 08:42:06 GMT from Europe)
I feel a book about RHCSA is a good place to start. Even though it focuses on Red Hat, you learn a lot of the basic commands in it, and you could even be ceritfied if you learn it well enough.
41 • remix os (by peer on 2016-03-02 11:26:18 GMT from Europe)
Remix OS for PC beta has arrived yesterday. The ISO can be run as a live-os. I tried it in Virtualbox as a live os and it runs great without problems.
It also can be installed on a usb-stick or as dual boot on harddisk. Unfortunately the installer is a windows-file so you have to work on a windows pc. Why isn't there a install-function on the live disk??????
I took the installationfiles to a windows-pc and installed Remix on a usb-stick. I booted from the usb-stick and discovered that Remix automatically rebooted during the boot proces. I tried another usbstick and another pc but no luck.
I have not tried dualboot on windows.
42 • Linux books for the new user (by zhymm on 2016-03-02 14:05:55 GMT from North America)
I don't have all the books on the list in the poll and a few that aren't. But the one book that is on my desk and I've used most often is the "Linux Phrasebook, Essential Code and Commands" by Scott Granneman. It's physically small (doesn't take up much desk space) and has a good ToC and index so I can find what I need quickly. A distant second in the book category for me is Mark Sobell's "A Practical Guide to Linux Commands, Editors, and Shell Programming" 3rd Ed.
However, for me, both of these books fall far behind the various wikis and fora available on the web, especially Arch Wiki, as a resource for learning Linux.
OMZ
43 • @38 pirated books (by linuxista on 2016-03-02 16:09:05 GMT from North America)
I can find nothing that says it-ebooks.info is a pirate site. It has been up for 4 years and with a perfect record of being a reliable no-scam site. There are links to buy paper and other ebook formats. There is no info out there of it being a pirated site aside from your postulations.
There are also other sites that seem to use the same business model, such as http://www.onlineprogrammingbooks.com/ http://www.wowebook.info/book/mastering-windows-server-2012-r2/ http://freecomputerbooks.com/
44 • Misc (ordissimo, plain ol piracy, books, tutorials) (by dbrion on 2016-03-02 17:51:59 GMT from Europe)
First, I would like to thank "cow boy" linuxista : I sometimes use it-ebooks, and I was glad to discover other links.
There is a category of people who never will need books, nor tutorial : very old people know they have little time lefts, and want to e-mail, watch photos without having to learn anything ... and without being bothered with viruses . Ordissimo http://www.ordissimo.com/fr/a-propos/changez-davis/ is debian based, and administrative tasks are made as simple as possible. What is ironical is that they are more expansive that the same hardware with XP/7/10 preinstalled .
Some people prefer tutorials (are quite useful for a given task, can be distribution-specific or version specific ), other prefer books (one can decide to have a working OS , and then, if one has time, to learn theory : it seems less difficult than learning what the inner parts of GNU linux are -without practising with examples .... -, and then installing..)
Most of the books I read -once my favourite GNUlinux distribution was installed and working, giving some time for my old brain- have working examples and one can practice. Often, firtt drafts (not fully proof read) are free, what is expansive is thorough rereading and nice cover) . Even with drafts, I did not find errors (and books are written as to be distribution agnostic, and give enough theory to cope with version changes -may be a 20 lines example, in a 400 pages book, will be out dated ... but one can be very glad of having some kind of understanding of why one's OS works, even with a tiny exception-)
45 • liveboot and toram and persistence (by nessie on 2016-03-03 04:39:31 GMT from North America)
Does unetbootin actually provide a persistence mechanism? AFAIK, unetbootin just asks whether you want a persistence partition & creates a blank holding pen. Then, when booting to ubuntu (or distro derived from ubuntu, and using the "casper" mechanism)... if a partition labeled casper is seen by the ubuntu O/S, the O/S saves persistence file(s) there.
antiX Linux, MX Linux, Porteus and various other distros are capable of optionally persisting changes during liveboot sessions. They use different (non-casper) mechanisms and, compared to casper, offer much more flexible options -- save just changes to your home directory or save all changes throughout the root filesystem.
Regarding the comment "porteus can run from ram": yep, you can do so with many other liveboot distros. Just add the bootline argument "toram" (no quotes)
46 • BeOs (by Gilbert Boisvert on 2016-03-03 11:33:58 GMT from North America)
I remember BeOs being advertised as crash-proof. They could load it down and slow it down, but not crash it. Is that still their goal? It was a nice OS but poor in drivers for peripherals, which was their downfall.
47 • 37 • Linux books. Distrowatch itself is my main "book." (by Greg Zeng on 2016-03-03 12:19:13 GMT from Oceania)
Finally someone has reached the 21st century. Hardcopy (books, magazines and other forms) is dying,
Last century's hardcopy books mentioned in the posts before this . exist in softcopy, except for the Unix books. qBittorrent (Linux, Mac or Windows) tells me this.
Screen copy (softcopy) is preferred because I can change font sizes, viewing brightness, etc to suit different situations. With softcopy, I could also launch text-to-audio applications to speak the text aloud, allowing multi-tasking, like other audio-books and podcasts.
48 • @43 : wowebook.info legit? (by Johan on 2016-03-03 13:39:45 GMT from Europe)
I tried to download something from the wowebook site. Just to test, of course. Result: it spawned two instances of Firefox, one a gambling site, another a porno site, and on the original instance of Firefox it warned me my PC was infected and I needed to call a phone number immediately. Oh, and it tried to generate some 200 pop-up screens but Firefox prevented that. Since a previous distrowatch recommended Firejail and I used that + my linux account is that of a normal user I guess there is no real harm done. But I would advise caution when using some of the links in the user comments...
49 • @47 Can linux be compromised by a wowerine windows server? (by dbrion on 2016-03-03 14:57:58 GMT from Europe)
Well, it is a bad, a very bad idea to try to master windows servers.... (the wowebook link, I spontaneously avoided). OTOH, freecomputerbooks seems serious :
in the C category, links to sites offering K & R can be found...(I do not know of its official, legal status)
links to every O Reilly books..
and Firefox did not suffer
50 • Bad sites (by Kragle on 2016-03-03 17:57:23 GMT from North America)
I expect evil website operators to use (or imitate) good (and legitimate) things to lure victims.
51 • The Linux Command Line (by anonymoose on 2016-03-03 20:41:21 GMT from North America)
http://linuxcommand.org/tlcl.php/
I found TLCL quite helpful when I first started using Linux.
52 • wowbooks (by linuxista on 2016-03-03 23:11:59 GMT from North America)
I just tested wowbooks for the first time. Downloaded missing manual for iworks (nothing I need, just a test). Even though a 2 or 3 step process, no pop-ups or porn or whatever and the downloaded ebook was what it was supposed to be and functioned properly. I'm not standing behind it, but the site didn't seem dicey. it-ebooks.info is more straightforward, though.
53 • Books (by Anonymous on 2016-03-04 02:46:18 GMT from North America)
Is it me or people are forgetting the FreeBSD Handbook. It is very solid book with many chapters covering many topics. There used to be a unix primer, and others but most of the BSDs are very solid in their documentation. The Linux commandline by Shotts is also very good. But for many old timers, learning by experimenting and installing using --help and man nameofprog and of course google and now duckduckgo :)
54 • Another book for learning Linux (by Bill L on 2016-03-05 21:10:10 GMT from North America)
The great books by (one f) Michael Kofler are great. In English from Addison-Wesley. Linux Installation, Configuration and Use. They are getting larger, over 1,400 pages, with every edition for the past 20 years. He tries to include all the major distributions, Debian, Fedora, openSUSE, Ubuntu. The CD/DVD has the text and the distributions. 14th edition in December 2015 from Rheinwerk Computing, formerly Galileo Publishing. kofler.info for more.
55 • Porteus Kiosk & Tor Browser ? (by Tom Tite on 2016-03-06 23:39:08 GMT from Europe)
It would be great if this alternative exists. 4G Mobile Broadband Dongles should also work. This is just a thought.
Number of Comments: 55
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• Issue 1129 (2025-07-07): GLF OS Omnislash, the worst Linux distro, Alpine introduces Wayback, Fedora drops plans to stop i686 support, AlmaLinux builds EPEL repository for older CPUs, Ubuntu dropping existing RISC-V device support, Rhino partners with UBports, PCLinuxOS recovering from website outage |
• Issue 1128 (2025-06-30): AxOS 25.06, AlmaLinux OS 10.0, transferring Flaptak bundles to off-line computers, Ubuntu to boost Intel graphics performance, Fedora considers dropping i686 packages, SDesk switches from SELinux to AppArmor |
• Issue 1127 (2025-06-23): LastOSLinux 2025-05-25, most unique Linux distro, Haiku stabilises, KDE publishes Plasma 6.4, Arch splits Plasma packages, Slackware infrastructure migrating |
• Issue 1126 (2025-06-16): SDesk 2025.05.06, renewed interest in Ubuntu Touch, a BASIC device running NetBSD, Ubuntu dropping X11 GNOME session, GNOME increases dependency on systemd, Google holding back Pixel source code, Nitrux changing its desktop, EFF turns 35 |
• Issue 1125 (2025-06-09): RHEL 10, distributions likely to survive a decade, Murena partners with more hardware makers, GNOME tests its own distro on real hardware, Redox ports GTK and X11, Mint provides fingerprint authentication |
• Issue 1124 (2025-06-02): Picking up a Pico, tips for protecting privacy, Rhino tests Plasma desktop, Arch installer supports snapshots, new features from UBports, Ubuntu tests monthly snapshots |
• Issue 1123 (2025-05-26): CRUX 3.8, preventing a laptop from sleeping, FreeBSD improves laptop support, Fedora confirms GNOME X11 session being dropped, HardenedBSD introduces Rust in userland build, KDE developing a virtual machine manager |
• Issue 1122 (2025-05-19): GoboLinux 017.01, RHEL 10.0 and Debian 12 updates, openSUSE retires YaST, running X11 apps on Wayland |
• Issue 1121 (2025-05-12): Bluefin 41, custom file manager actions, openSUSE joins End of 10 while dropping Deepin desktop, Fedora offers tips for building atomic distros, Ubuntu considers replacing sudo with sudo-rs |
• Issue 1120 (2025-05-05): CachyOS 250330, what it means when a distro breaks, Kali updates repository key, Trinity receives an update, UBports tests directory encryption, Gentoo faces losing key infrastructure |
• Issue 1119 (2025-04-28): Ubuntu MATE 25.04, what is missing from Linux, CachyOS ships OCCT, Debian enters soft freeze, Fedora discusses removing X11 session from GNOME, Murena plans business services, NetBSD on a Wii |
• Issue 1118 (2025-04-21): Fedora 42, strange characters in Vim, Nitrux introduces new package tools, Fedora extends reproducibility efforts, PINE64 updates multiple devices running Debian |
• Issue 1117 (2025-04-14): Shebang 25.0, EndeavourOS 2025.03.19, running applications from other distros on the desktop, Debian gets APT upgrade, Mint introduces OEM options for LMDE, postmarketOS packages GNOME 48 and COSMIC, Redox testing USB support |
• Issue 1116 (2025-04-07): The Sense HAT, Android and mobile operating systems, FreeBSD improves on laptops, openSUSE publishes many new updates, Fedora appoints new Project Leader, UBports testing VoLTE |
• Issue 1115 (2025-03-31): GrapheneOS 2025, the rise of portable package formats, MidnightBSD and openSUSE experiment with new package management features, Plank dock reborn, key infrastructure projects lose funding, postmarketOS to focus on reliability |
• Issue 1114 (2025-03-24): Bazzite 41, checking which processes are writing to disk, Rocky unveils new Hardened branch, GNOME 48 released, generating images for the Raspberry Pi |
• Issue 1113 (2025-03-17): MocaccinoOS 1.8.1, how to contribute to open source, Murena extends on-line installer, Garuda tests COSMIC edition, Ubuntu to replace coreutils with Rust alternatives, Chimera Linux drops RISC-V builds |
• Issue 1112 (2025-03-10): Solus 4.7, distros which work with Secure Boot, UBports publishes bug fix, postmarketOS considers a new name, Debian running on Android |
• Issue 1111 (2025-03-03): Orbitiny 0.01, the effect of Ubuntu Core Desktop, Gentoo offers disk images, elementary OS invites feature ideas, FreeBSD starts PinePhone Pro port, Mint warns of upcoming Firefox issue |
• Issue 1110 (2025-02-24): iodeOS 6.0, learning to program, Arch retiring old repositories, openSUSE makes progress on reproducible builds, Fedora is getting more serious about open hardware, Tails changes its install instructions to offer better privacy, Murena's de-Googled tablet goes on sale |
• Issue 1109 (2025-02-17): Rhino Linux 2025.1, MX Linux 23.5 with Xfce 4.20, replacing X.Org tools with Wayland tools, GhostBSD moving its base to FreeBSD -RELEASE, Redox stabilizes its ABI, UBports testing 24.04, Asahi changing its leadership, OBS in dispute with Fedora |
• Issue 1108 (2025-02-10): Serpent OS 0.24.6, Aurora, sharing swap between distros, Peppermint tries Void base, GTK removinglegacy technologies, Red Hat plans more AI tools for Fedora, TrueNAS merges its editions |
• Issue 1107 (2025-02-03): siduction 2024.1.0, timing tasks, Lomiri ported to postmarketOS, Alpine joins Open Collective, a new desktop for Linux called Orbitiny |
• Issue 1106 (2025-01-27): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta 6, Pop!_OS 24.04 Alpha 5, detecting whether a process is inside a virtual machine, drawing graphics to NetBSD terminal, Nix ported to FreeBSD, GhostBSD hosting desktop conference |
• Issue 1105 (2025-01-20): CentOS 10 Stream, old Flatpak bundles in software centres, Haiku ports Iceweasel, Oracle shows off debugging tools, rsync vulnerability patched |
• Issue 1104 (2025-01-13): DAT Linux 2.0, Silly things to do with a minimal computer, Budgie prepares Wayland only releases, SteamOS coming to third-party devices, Murena upgrades its base |
• Issue 1103 (2025-01-06): elementary OS 8.0, filtering ads with Pi-hole, Debian testing its installer, Pop!_OS faces delays, Ubuntu Studio upgrades not working, Absolute discontinued |
• Issue 1102 (2024-12-23): Best distros of 2024, changing a process name, Fedora to expand Btrfs support and releases Asahi Remix 41, openSUSE patches out security sandbox and donations from Bottles while ending support for Leap 15.5 |
• Issue 1101 (2024-12-16): GhostBSD 24.10.1, sending attachments from the command line, openSUSE shows off GPU assignment tool, UBports publishes security update, Murena launches its first tablet, Xfce 4.20 released |
• Issue 1100 (2024-12-09): Oreon 9.3, differences in speed, IPFire's new appliance, Fedora Asahi Remix gets new video drivers, openSUSE Leap Micro updated, Redox OS running Redox OS |
• Issue 1099 (2024-12-02): AnduinOS 1.0.1, measuring RAM usage, SUSE continues rebranding efforts, UBports prepares for next major version, Murena offering non-NFC phone |
• Issue 1098 (2024-11-25): Linux Lite 7.2, backing up specific folders, Murena and Fairphone partner in fair trade deal, Arch installer gets new text interface, Ubuntu security tool patched |
• Issue 1097 (2024-11-18): Chimera Linux vs Chimera OS, choosing between AlmaLinux and Debian, Fedora elevates KDE spin to an edition, Fedora previews new installer, KDE testing its own distro, Qubes-style isolation coming to FreeBSD |
• Issue 1096 (2024-11-11): Bazzite 40, Playtron OS Alpha 1, Tucana Linux 3.1, detecting Screen sessions, Redox imports COSMIC software centre, FreeBSD booting on the PinePhone Pro, LXQt supports Wayland window managers |
• Issue 1095 (2024-11-04): Fedora 41 Kinoite, transferring applications between computers, openSUSE Tumbleweed receives multiple upgrades, Ubuntu testing compiler optimizations, Mint partners with Framework |
• Issue 1094 (2024-10-28): DebLight OS 1, backing up crontab, AlmaLinux introduces Litten branch, openSUSE unveils refreshed look, Ubuntu turns 20 |
• Issue 1093 (2024-10-21): Kubuntu 24.10, atomic vs immutable distributions, Debian upgrading Perl packages, UBports adding VoLTE support, Android to gain native GNU/Linux application support |
• Issue 1092 (2024-10-14): FunOS 24.04.1, a home directory inside a file, work starts of openSUSE Leap 16.0, improvements in Haiku, KDE neon upgrades its base |
• Issue 1091 (2024-10-07): Redox OS 0.9.0, Unified package management vs universal package formats, Redox begins RISC-V port, Mint polishes interface, Qubes certifies new laptop |
• Issue 1090 (2024-09-30): Rhino Linux 2024.2, commercial distros with alternative desktops, Valve seeks to improve Wayland performance, HardenedBSD parterns with Protectli, Tails merges with Tor Project, Quantum Leap partners with the FreeBSD Foundation |
• Issue 1089 (2024-09-23): Expirion 6.0, openKylin 2.0, managing configuration files, the future of Linux development, fixing bugs in Haiku, Slackware packages dracut |
• Issue 1088 (2024-09-16): PorteuX 1.6, migrating from Windows 10 to which Linux distro, making NetBSD immutable, AlmaLinux offers hardware certification, Mint updates old APT tools |
• Issue 1087 (2024-09-09): COSMIC desktop, running cron jobs at variable times, UBports highlights new apps, HardenedBSD offers work around for FreeBSD change, Debian considers how to cull old packages, systemd ported to musl |
• Issue 1086 (2024-09-02): Vanilla OS 2, command line tips for simple tasks, FreeBSD receives investment from STF, openSUSE Tumbleweed update can break network connections, Debian refreshes media |
• Issue 1085 (2024-08-26): Nobara 40, OpenMandriva 24.07 "ROME", distros which include source code, FreeBSD publishes quarterly report, Microsoft updates breaks Linux in dual-boot environments |
• Issue 1084 (2024-08-19): Liya 2.0, dual boot with encryption, Haiku introduces performance improvements, Gentoo dropping IA-64, Redcore merges major upgrade |
• Issue 1083 (2024-08-12): TrueNAS 24.04.2 "SCALE", Linux distros for smartphones, Redox OS introduces web server, PipeWire exposes battery drain on Linux, Canonical updates kernel version policy |
• Issue 1082 (2024-08-05): Linux Mint 22, taking snapshots of UFS on FreeBSD, openSUSE updates Tumbleweed and Aeon, Debian creates Tiny QA Tasks, Manjaro testing immutable images |
• Issue 1081 (2024-07-29): SysLinuxOS 12.4, OpenBSD gain hardware acceleration, Slackware changes kernel naming, Mint publishes upgrade instructions |
• Issue 1080 (2024-07-22): Running GNU/Linux on Android with Andronix, protecting network services, Solus dropping AppArmor and Snap, openSUSE Aeon Desktop gaining full disk encryption, SUSE asks openSUSE to change its branding |
• Issue 1079 (2024-07-15): Ubuntu Core 24, hiding files on Linux, Fedora dropping X11 packages on Workstation, Red Hat phasing out GRUB, new OpenSSH vulnerability, FreeBSD speeds up release cycle, UBports testing new first-run wizard |
• Issue 1078 (2024-07-08): Changing init software, server machines running desktop environments, OpenSSH vulnerability patched, Peppermint launches new edition, HardenedBSD updates ports |
• Issue 1077 (2024-07-01): The Unity and Lomiri interfaces, different distros for different tasks, Ubuntu plans to run Wayland on NVIDIA cards, openSUSE updates Leap Micro, Debian releases refreshed media, UBports gaining contact synchronisation, FreeDOS celebrates its 30th anniversary |
• Full list of all issues |
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Random Distribution | 
Audiophile Linux
Audiophile Linux was based on Arch Linux and provides a minimal graphical environment from which to play multimedia files. The distribution ships with the Fluxbox window manager, DSD support and a custom real-time Linux kernel for improved audio performance.
Status: Discontinued
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Star Labs |

Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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