Teach Yourself Unix in 24 Hours 250
Spencerian writes "The surge of Unix-derived operating systems such as Mac OS X, Linux, and the now-free Solaris is not slowing against the fortified but embattled breakwaters of the Microsoft operating system family. But new power users of other operating systems, including those just starting with Unix as well as the graphical interface of the operating system (such as the Mac OS Finder, or the navigators of KDE or Gnome), remain in need of a comprehensive primer for Unix that complements their previous knowledge. The fourth edition of Dave Taylor's "Teach Yourself Unix in 24 Hours" should remain on the top of the buy list for computer users in need of a strong Unix reference where they may find themselves managing or using the subtle variants of Unix flavors." Read the rest of Spencerians' review.
Sams Teach Yourself Unix in 24 Hours, 4th Edition | |
author | Dave Taylor |
pages | 518 |
publisher | Sams Publishing |
rating | 7.5 of 10 |
reviewer | Kevin H Spencer |
ISBN | 0-672-32814-3 |
summary | The fourth edition of Dave Taylor's "Teach Yourself Unix in 24 Hours" should remain on the top of the buy list for computer users in need of a strong Unix reference where they may find themselves managing or using the subtle variants of Unix flavors. |
The format of this Sams book, as with other books in this "Teach Yourself...In 24 Hours" series has not changed. The book content does favor Windows or Macintosh users when describing, comparisons and contrasts of Unix tasks to those popular operating systems. Unless the reader has been a fan of very little-used operating systems in their past and somehow managed to avoid Mac OS, Windows or Linux, absorption of what is needed for each chapter shouldn't be difficult.
Each chapter is technically noted as a one-hour lesson, although the author acknowledges that many may need more than one hour to absorb some material and should take as much time as they need to understand what they need to know. Chapters include the Unix basics such as using text editors such as vi, moving and copying files, viewing file contents and locating files in the operating system, and topics scale upward to advanced shell programming and even Perl programming. Generally, most readers need not read from beginning to end, chapter to chapter. Despite the lesson-like mode of the book, "Teach Yourself Unix" is a reference.
The "Teach Yourself" books are not advanced reference books, however, and "Teach Yourself Unix in 24 Hours" is no exception. As someone that's used more and more Unix commands in the background of Mac OS X to make things easier or to circumvent limitations or flaws of the Mac OS X Finder, the previous editions of "Teach Yourself Unix" were handy references when I needed a quick and certain process to accomplish a task. Sometimes it's too easy for graphical interface users to moan and while when the Windows Explorer or Mac OS X desktops stick and slows to a crawl when managing something as simple as copying a file, forgetting that there is another way. This book contains the basics to manage these tasks without being too basic of a reference.
The author's breadth of knowledge in many Unix-derived systems such as BSD, Solaris, and Linux continue to extend themselves well in the lessons. Each chapter contains explanations and examples to aid those that need more information. Most Slashdot readers might find this level of detail a bit plodding, but some newbies to Unix may need this since Unix is not inherently a graphical operating system that's easy to understand by sight, so things need to be literally spelled out. Peppered throughout the book are sidenotes that keep the reader apprised of exceptions or proper etiquette when handling, discussing or pronouncing Unix tasks and terminology.
There's a marginally useful amount of back matter on the book, consisting of two appendices, one on frequently-asked Unix questions, and another more useful appendix on managing the Apache web server from a command line. The back cover has a simple command-line reference that's not bad, however, being Unix, the amount of commands and versatility seem a bit limited, so the command-line reference lacks a bit of punch. Some chapters seem a bit archaic and probably need to be reconsidered in a future edition--very few of us may have a need to send mail from the command line in this age of Yahoo Mail and the sheer number of mail services available on computers in schools, businesses, homes, and even from cell phones for jotting off a quick note to a comrade for quick answers. Full-time conversing by mail in Unix isn't something I feel anyone but the most hardcore Unix user will relish--and those users aren't the audience of this book.
This book is designed for new Unix users, but intermediate users will find "Teach Yourself Unix in 24 Hours" a handy reference when having to workaround GUI pitfalls or failures. This book's previous versions have saved my bacon in reinforcing my previous experience and skills at the command line when the Mac OS Finder seizes, leaving no graphical way to complete a task. Unfortunately, given the volume of information I must remember in using both Mac OS X and Windows XP, I, for one, can't remember every nuance of Unix needed, particularly since it's not as easily remembered as icons or menus. Perhaps the author may find that a fifth edition will need information on the long-awaited Windows Vista in the event it contains Unix parts and pieces."
You can purchase Sams Teach Yourself Unix in 24 Hours from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
Good start... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Good start... (Score:5, Insightful)
Using and learning are very different things. There are people out there, right now - probably millions of them - doing software development the wrong way. They're implementing their small set of knowledge over and over again, for years at a time, not realizing how redundantly and incorrectly they're doing things (a great example would be the millions of developers squeezing out terrible database designs year after year - a particular vice of mine. Perhaps they'll imagine that they're expert database designers after a few years, but that couldn't be further from the truth). If they took a moment and actually learned for a few hours, it would make the implementation part much more effective, but people shun learning when they can just use what they already know as their hammer.
A "Vice"? (Score:2)
Re:Good start... (Score:5, Insightful)
See, one day I was wrestling with a CUPS upgrade that broke printing and telling myself I was learning something in the process, when it dawned on me -- there are more rewarding challenges in life than fighting with a computer.
To the degree that Unix makes my life easier, it's worth using. (There's a VNC window open now saving me from something that would be excruciating in Windows.) But using it to make life more difficult has lost its luster.
Re:Good start... (Score:3, Interesting)
Funny, I had this same issue on my server at home, my solution eventually was to buy a Netgear wireless router/print server. I tried with CUPS, I really did, for a few years as I thought it was a cool solution, but upgrading would *always* break it. I'm at work, phone rings, my wife says, "I can't print". As a client, CUPS is fine, but on a server? No thanks.
CUPS = Can't Usually Print Stuff.
Re:Good start... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Good start... (Score:3, Interesting)
I have a UNIX cert, and know what I'm doing on many flavors of *nix. I'm proud to say (as I push my glasses up the bridge of my nose) that I have vi skillz.
I have not opened the command prompt on any of my OS X systems in over a year.
When I was doing it, over a year ago, it was to ssh to a Linux web server that I used to have.
Once you get used to harnessing the full potential of OS X, bash becomes as redun
Re:Good start... (Score:3, Funny)
I recommend "Teach yourself Unix in 24 years", by the University of Life press...
work with someone knowledgable... (Score:5, Informative)
The best way is to solve a problem (Score:5, Interesting)
I've found that the best way is to solve some particular problem. Example: add these four new disks from the JBOD enclosure to your linux system. This teaches about the physical device drivers, device files, volume mgmt, filesystem mgmt, and mounting them upon boot (which touches many important aspects of UNIX).
Working with someone else who can help point you in the right direction and solving a problem by yourself is much much better than a book.
Re:work with someone knowledgable... (Score:5, Funny)
In India, I hear they give you a free sysadmin with your coffee at Starbucks.
It's on my bookshelf next to... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:It's on my bookshelf next to... (Score:2)
Jeesh, usually people on
Marketing Titles Rejected By Publishers (Score:5, Funny)
The Shallow Unteachable Twit's Manual For
Become Dangerous With Too Little Knowledge Of In 24 Hours
For The Brainless
For Assholes
Re:Marketing Titles Rejected By Publishers (Score:2)
Chicken Soup for Dummies
Re:It's on my bookshelf next to... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:It's on my bookshelf next to... (Score:4, Informative)
Its pretty well thought and explained to be able to teach yourself .
In 24-hours? Not unless your a crazed, methampthetamine monkey with an IQ of 180 and a degree in speed reading, not too mention the ability to type ~200 wpm.
More realistic would be 1-3 hours per lesson, 3-5 lessons per week.
Each 'hour' in the book is one 'lesson', and there really is no reason to try and complete each lesson in one hour; far better to go over it and make sure you grasp it, and to just generally take it at a relaxed pace.
Re:It's on my bookshelf next to... (Score:2)
Re:It's on my bookshelf next to... (Score:2)
Re:It's on my bookshelf next to... (Score:3, Funny)
But with the power of UNIX, I can.
Re:required reading (Score:2)
Seems to me it would be reasonable to assume that blind or illiterate people would know to ask for a braille or picture menu. It's not like most of these people just lost their eyesight or forgot how to read yesterday. Putting up a sign is mostly just saying "Yay, l
time (Score:3, Funny)
Just kidding :P
screw that book (Score:4, Insightful)
Some time ago I found an old text book for sysadmins written in 94.
It skipped all that about guis and actually explained how to manage the OS via commandline.
I had been using gnome for some time, but after reading that book I finally understood what all those scary commands meant when I configured my wifi card.
You must have found one amazing book... (Score:5, Funny)
Was it called "Configuring Not-Yet-Invented Hardware for Dummies" ?
Re:You must have found one amazing book... (Score:2)
Re:You must have found one amazing book... (Score:2)
Re:screw that book (Score:2)
And again, it points out that there still is not a good way to manage a system from a GUI. Like it or not, the GUI paradigm should be the way to go. I was raised on command line interfaces (real no kidding TeleType and DEC Writer machines). It is great for encouraging the user to have a mental picture of what is going on with the system. To have a Masterly grasp of the commands needed to
Step #1 (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Step #1 (Score:2)
Re:Step #1 (Score:2)
And seriously what did you geeks expect?
Re:Step #1 (Score:2)
And seriously what did you geeks expect?
Wait, does this mean that that entry is automatic or that the entry is incompatible with type 'finger'?
Re:Step #2 (Score:2)
Re:Step #1 (Score:2)
Couple things I hated about man pages.
groff -Tascii -man
Then you can read all those man files directly! (check
Also, use man -a when you read,
Re:Step #1 (Score:4, Interesting)
*nix has a weird learning curve. At first, the CLI-centered approach is intimidating. Then you learn the FHS (or BSD's hier); some basic commands like man, apropos, ls, cd, cp, mv, rm, and eventually find, grep, and a couple of other things; and it's not so scary. Then you try to figure out how to add a kernel module, and you either have people hold your hand through it without actually teaching you anything, or you have to try to dig this out from man and co. yourself.
I've found it very difficult to get beyond knowing the basics to actually being comfortable with the system. It doesn't sound like this book would help much...
Re:Step #1 (Score:2)
Back in the old days, when men were men, and info was man...
Re:Step #2 (Score:2)
Display all 5176 possibilities? (y or n)
"Display" only opens up Image Magick. "All", "5176", and "Possibilities" aren't accepted as commands. Surely there are more commands in Unix that that! </sarcasm>
Solomon
Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years (Score:5, Insightful)
And in fact that's the truth - you can't learn that something in few days. Progamming? unix administration? sailing? playing chess? Man... that takes years to master.
Re:Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years (Score:4, Insightful)
Learning how to accomplish tasks like adding a user and its options is simpler and takes far less time than learning how to write 'adduser.' Evaluate the book on the standard it sets for itself: learning how to do things. Don't judge it wanting because it doesn't teach the entire universe of how unix works.
I learned web design in 24 minutes (Score:2)
Seriously check it out, I laughed for an hour at this site.
Re:oops (Score:2)
http://budugllydesign.com/archivebud/bud9806/bud.
All the versions are available from their main site name.
Re:Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years (Score:2)
Your sentence should read more like this: "And in fact that's the truth - you CAN learn that something in few days. Programming? UNIX administration? s
Ok, but what if mastering isn't your goal? (Score:2)
Or what about if you work in a very related discipline and want to get some introductory knowledge? For example a Windows admin that is good with computers, troubleshooting, and so on but only has done it in a Windows domain. What they need is a primer to UNIX so they know where
insulting? (Score:4, Insightful)
Sure you can learn how to type "cd
Nor do I think people can learn C or C++ or Java in 24 hours. It's just insulting. Now I know they don't literally mean one day, but even college classes run longer than 24 hours. In college you'll have a 50-60 hour class on "intro to C" followed by FIVE MORE SEMESTERS of classes that build on it.
I hate these books because they're retarded. I learned C primarily from "type and learn C" [I think by Sams] when I was 12. Then I proceeded to actually write programs [lots of them, 1000s of them]. I learned by doing and it took a long time. I wasn't half-way decent at "coding" until I was 19 and I'm just getting solid at proper development [well I'd say the last year has been really smooth].
For all of us who do take it serious and have been through a lot of training I find these books insulting. And no, it isn't because I sunk a boatload of cash into the courses like a MCSE. I think people are quite capable of teaching themselves how to use UNIX shells or C programming. I just don't think it's the sort of thing you can do over a weekend or two.
So fuck off already with the books that serve no purpose but to flood the market with a lot of "smart" people who turn out to be useless as the day is long.
Tom
Re:insulting? (Score:5, Insightful)
dude, lighten up...
What does this have to do with a book designed to get new users familiar with using Unix? (which BTW the book in question is designed to do?) I would add, that yes you could learn to develop and debug scripts in 24 hours if you were so inclined, you might not be any good at it, but you could learn the basics.
The purpose of this book and other like it are to teach the reader the basics of doing something, and overall they tend to do this fairly well. Nowhere do they say that you will gain 10 years of experience in a book.
That statement seems to reflect more about your ignorance and some of the problems with higher education then actually making a valid point. The main text on the C language is "The C Programming Language" by Kernighan and Ritchie. I quote from the book "C is not a big language, and it is not served well by a big book." The book in question is less then 300 pages... easily worked through in a week or so (and could possibly be absorbed in 24 hours as well). And while this book isn't going to teach you every library and algorithm necessarily to create many outstanding applications, This book will in fact teach you the C language pretty much in it's entirety. (After all all the extensions and libraries are essentially built out of the these very basics taught in this book).
So if you must, be insulted. I don't think too many people on Slashdot really care (and seriously who hasn't been insulted by something on Slashdot at one time or another). But you arguments just point out what are apparently your own shortcoming and misunderstandings about anything. I mean anyone who states "I hate everything that ..." without exploring everything you supposedly hate represents the height of ignorance.
Re:insulting? (Score:2)
My point about bringing college into this is sometimes you have to be told what you don't know you don't know so you can later know what you don't know and th
Re:insulting? (Score:2)
I don't think anyone is trying to fool himself that after 24 hours of study he can be an expert in UNIX, or anything else for that matter. What these books do offer, however, is a kind of boot camp for autodidacts. The "24 Hours" are more a measurement of the minimum time that one would have to devote to study in order to get even the most elementary concepts.
Once you've gotten your head around the basics, the hope is that you can go on to more complicated and satisfying tasks. But the main thing is to e
Type and Learn C (Score:2, Insightful)
I do like the '24
Hit TV series on the way? (Score:5, Funny)
It would be modeled after the hit American TV series with Mr. Sutherland in it. He'd have just 24 hours to learn Unix, or a bomb goes off yadda yadda. Each hour of the show would show him at the command line, or trying to get X Windows running, and about hour 15 someone should show him a Linux Live CD and nearly save the day.
It could be shot under the BSD license, and run on either a Mac or Intel processor, depending on what they'd think would get better ratings.
Any TV producers out there want to buy the rights to my idea?
Re:Hit TV series on the way? (Score:2)
Re:Hit TV series on the way? (Score:2)
"Teach Yourself UNIX in a week" - by same author (Score:5, Funny)
But he's way behind on speed. The current record holder is "Teach Yourself UNIX in 10 minutes". [amazon.com]
You may also need "Advanced Speed Typing" [letterchase.com] and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Treatment [nih.gov].
Re:"Teach Yourself UNIX in a week" - by same autho (Score:2)
Only if you're also using this [amazon.com] book.
Re:"Teach Yourself UNIX in a week" - by same autho (Score:2)
I had a boss with horrible carpal, even with one of those bowl-shaped kinesis keyboards he could only type for a couple hours a day. He blamed the damage on emacs and had gone to vi, but too late.
The Difficulty (Score:5, Informative)
The problem is that many people who first start out with the command line seem to view it as more of them having to simply type in obscure commands to correspond to the same steps they would take were they using a GUI. I've seen many people type: instead of simply typing mv ~/foo/foo.txt ~/bar.txt Of course this is a simple example, but I think that it illustrates my point that people are often locked into the GUI mindset. As such, even if they understand in the abstrace the use of piping and output redirection, etc, the difficulty is in understanding how to use those tools efficiently.
Let's be honest... (Score:2)
Re:Let's be honest... (Score:2)
I quit Sam's years ago (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm afraid I can't pull any punches on this one: any "teach yourself X in 24 hours" book is snake oil to get your money. It's there to take advantage of people with the wrong attitude - Unix (and most of IT along with it) evolves so continuously, it practically re-invents itself every five years (through BSD, Linux, Solaris, etc). Get it in your head that it's a "learn-it-once" thing and you end up ten years later still able to babble Apple 2 Basic and remembering that SIMM = "single inline memory module" and DIMM = "dual inline memory module", but having to scurry back to the docs every time you edit your Python script.
Step 1: rm vwls -r (Score:5, Funny)
I don't even want to think what Unix would have been like if it had been created by Finns or Hawaiians.
Re:Step 1: rm vwls -r (Score:2, Funny)
> I don't even want to think what Unix would have been like if it had been created by Finns or Hawaiians.
I recall hearing something about a Finnish student dabbling in creating his own Unix back in the early 90's... named Linos or something... anyone know if he had any success with that? He could call it "Finnux" or something...
Re:Step 1: rm vwls -r (Score:2)
Riiiight.
lst -l | glbllysrchfrrglrxprssnsndprnt -i budget | srt | mr
Yeah, that worked well. Yes, there are vowels missing in several, but like english, there seems to be more exceptions than rules...
My problem with "learning Unix" (Score:5, Interesting)
I've only played with HP-UX and a couple of Linux flavors - and not long or thorough enough to know what's going on under the hood.
Some examples:
How does **nix boot? How does it interact with hardware? Is there a general hint to what all the directories are about or any memory aids for knowing what's in them? Permissions - any chance of an overview of what the bits mean, why they might be used and how they're actually used?
The books I've seem go right from a brief history of Unix to either installing it or talking about commands. I've got no problem learning the "how", but I really need to know the "why" before I will spend the valuable time re-learning my way around an OS. Until then, I'll be sticking with Windows.
Does anyone know any books that address the "how it all works together" part? I'll be happy to read man pages and cryptic HOWTOs once I know why I'm doing it.
There are many books about UNIX internals. (Score:4, Informative)
They explain how each portion of the system works, in addition to how they work together. And then they explain exactly why.
You should be able to find such books at a university bookstore.
Re:There are many books about UNIX internals. (Score:2)
The 4.4BSD Daemon book says in its preface: "This book is suitable for use as a reference text to provide background for a primary textbook in a second-level course on operating systems. It is not intended for use as an introductory operating-system textbook; the reader should have already encountered terminology such as memory management, process scheduling, and I/O systems."
The 4.4BSD Daemon book has very little code in it, and what is th
Re:My problem with "learning Unix" (Score:2)
I'll second that (Score:2)
Not the case with UNIX. Now it's ok, I suppose, UNIX isn't my job, but I won't necessiraly have this job all my life and it'd be good to learn. However I know the basics, I don't have any trou
Re:My problem with "learning Unix" (Score:3, Informative)
The BIOS (also called "boot prom" on some systems like Suns) loads a bootloader (one of GRUB, LILO, SILO, etc.) which loads the kernel which runs a special program called init. Depending on the flavor of Unix (System V vs BSD types), it either reads /etc/inittab and executes scripts found in there, or starts executing the script /etc/rc.
So, once
Re:My problem with "learning Unix" (Score:2)
I second this; after you learn some of the hows and whats, it's quite straightforward to learn about the whys if you need to. I started to use Linux out of pure geek interest, plus a frustration with Microsoft products, and I rarely think about the grand design philosophies.
I find it interesting that the grandparent asked about the "deep" things in unix, because I've always thought Windows is all about hid
Re:My problem with "learning Unix" (Score:2)
Re:My problem with "learning Unix" (Score:2, Informative)
Wow! You're a born Unix person. Really. Windows was made for people who don't care how it works, Unix was made for people who do. You're a perfect fit.
Unfortunately, the current crop of Unix advocates are too busy trying to shield the potential newbie from the "why" to realize how important it really is. If the "why" scares the newbie, then they're not a good fit
Re:My problem with "learning Unix" (Score:2)
Re:My problem with "learning Unix" (Score:2)
Re:My problem with "learning Unix" (Score:5, Informative)
The hardware runs a program. That program loads the kernel and executes it. Any more specific, and you're now talking platform-specifics which don't have to with UNIX.
For example, Linux on a DEC Alpha might boot like this:
- Windows NT ARC loader configured to spawn program MILO.EXE on FAT-formatted disk in Drive A:
- MILO.EXE understands Linux ext2fs, and launches the kernel wherever the Windows NT ARC loader's environment variables tell it to find it. (Hint - it's faster if you point it at a harddisk). The kernel is generally called
Another example, Solaris on a SPARC box might boot like this:
- The EEPROM stores the identity of the boot partition
- The PROM loader goes looking for the boot blocks (installboot (1M)) on that partition, and executes the code it finds there
- The software just executed understands the Unix Filesystem (UFS), goes looking for the kernel where it belongs (set by the installer, I forget where it's written down). Traditionally, it was
- The kernel looks in
Solaris on an x86 box boots pretty much like windows.
- The BIOS goes looking for the first "active" partition, as marked by the disk partitioning utility. Generally on the first IDE controller's master disk.
- The BIOS executes the code in the master boot record (MBR), which somehow winds up loading the boot blocks.
- The software just executed understands the Unix Filesystem (UFS), goes looking for the kernel where it belongs (set by the installer, I forget where it's written down). Traditionally, it was
- The kernel looks in
> How does it interact with hardware?
Same as any other operating system; through the PCI/ISA/etc bus and the API implemented by the hardware.
> Is there a general hint to what all the directories are
> about or any memory aids for knowing what's in them?
Keep in mind, UNIX is not Windows. Generally speaking, you can put anything anywhere you want, as long as you change everything which cares about it. Which is usually possible!
Keep in mind also, that nothing is absolute.
> Permissions - any chance of an overview of what the bits mean,
Permissions are most useful to examine as four-digit octal numbers. Assign each octal digit as such: SOGW
S - Special stuff, like sticky bits. Almost always 0
O - Permissions for the file owne
Re:My problem with "learning Unix" (Score:2)
I'm not sure what you mean by asking 'how does Unix boot?'; on a PC the BIOS boots Linux or FreeBSD essentially the same way that it boots Windows: searches the known drives for a boot loader and runs the first one it finds. Of course, the Unix boot loaders typically offer more features than the Windows boot loader.
Likewise with most of the other questions, actually. Perhaps if I grokked what you're asking better I would have a better idea
Re:My problem with "learning Unix" (Score:3, Informative)
I only really know how Linux boots at an overview, but other *NIX systems may be very similar. There is something called a "boot loader" that sits at the beginning of the boot disk and points to the Linux kernel. The linux kernel then takes over the machine in terms of getting an inventory of the hardware attached on the computer and initializing the device drivers and the devices. It then looks for
Re:My problem with "learning Unix" (Score:3, Informative)
Some others have given some really good explanations on most of these questions, I'll try explaining a little more about the way the system deals with hardware.
The operating system kernel is this part of it that runs all the time and takes care of the scheduling of the various processes and of servicing the requests that these have for access to disks, keyboard, mouse, screen, serial ports, network ports, printers and so on. Since there is a lot of different varieties of these, the operating system uses
Not 24 hours (Score:2)
Who Needs a Book?! (Score:4, Funny)
Me: What else should I put on my resume?
Friend: Can you use grep?
Me: Yeah kind of
Friend: Bam! Instant Unix admin!
The book simply wouldn't have sold as well... (Score:2)
Best intro to Linux book out there... (Score:2, Informative)
The title is a little pretenious but... (Score:2)
Sometimes all people need is a little push to get them started. If all that book does is to effectively intro some commands and some ideas into the head of someone who never used unix, I think it is sucessful.
Learn to be an elitist slashdotter in 24 hours (Score:2, Insightful)
24 Hours is SOOOO yesterday's news (Score:2)
* theme of this joke shamelessly stolen from the 8-Minute Abs vs. 7-Minute Abs scene in "There's Something About Mary"
Re:24 Hours is SOOOO yesterday's news (Score:2)
I'm holding out for (Score:2)
I found the third ed. useful. (Score:3, Informative)
Given the intro... (Score:2)
learn %s in %d days (Score:3, Insightful)
"I did the following power search at Amazon.com:
pubdate: after 1992 and title: days and
(title: learn or title: teach yourself)
The conclusion is that either people are in a big rush to learn about computers, or that computers are somehow fabulously easier to learn than anything else. There are no books on how to learn Beethoven, or Quantum Physics, or even Dog Grooming in a few days."
Re:ohh yeah thats right, i read this once (Score:2, Funny)
Re:ohh yeah thats right, i read this once (Score:5, Funny)
man mount && touch tail more && more; finger assets |grep && fsck; locate cat && tar; whereis find mysqldump..... chpwned.
i need to get out more...well.. on second thought, ill do society a favor.
Re:ohh yeah thats right, i read this once (Score:2)
Re:ohh yeah thats right, i read this once (Score:3, Insightful)
What is not mentioned in the review of the book, but that you joke about, is the importance of high quality and relevant documentation. Many people today just don't read documentation (be it man pages or not), but perhaps that is the result of shoddy documentation practices on some non *BSD platforms. All to often I see someone post about a "problem" that reading the man pages, the FAQ or a few minutes of Googling will solve.
Re:Just stick with Mac (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Just stick with Mac (Score:2, Funny)
Indeed, get some Sun! (Score:2, Insightful)
You can obtain used SPARC-based Sun workstations relatively cheaply these days from a number of sources, and their newer Operton-based workstations are quite fantastic. If you do happen to find that Solaris isn't to your liking, you can always install Linux, NetBSD, Open
Re:Indeed, get some Sun! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Just stick with Mac (Score:2)
Re:Dubya! (Score:5, Funny)
Stupid gits: 56
Blithering morons: 48
Bumbling fools: 44.3
Fucking Idiots: 37
Bleeding halfwits: 29.1
Fucking Imbeciles: 26
You have to get to the level of inanimate objects or at the very least slow-moving vegetables as a basis for comparison with Dumbya before you can completely abolish all concerns for counterattacks.
Re:power users with bookshelves (Score:2)
Re:power users with bookshelves (Score:2)
windows user, are we?
better yet, teach 'em man or info (Score:2)
from an xterm terminal (command line), type
ls
administrators - repeat with
most newer systems support 'info' as well as man - replace man with info above to try this
warning: on Linux or UNIX systems be sure to install the man and/or info pages first.
yes, I skipped pages (e.g. man 5 ), but do you REALLY think I was serious
anyhow, I coulda done a really nasty command string to do all that, but it isn't worth my