Yet another Newbie

[bookworm9]

Hi folks

I am an old fart who is experimenting with LINUX. I'm still at the "Run Spot Run" stage. I am using SUSE 10 on an old Thinkpad.

I am particularly interested in security issues and scripting to find potential security or performance concerns. If anyone can point me to some good resources, I would appreciate it.

I am also interested in tools to automate research and to do screen scraping. Help here would also be nice.

Since I am an old dog, I would prefer not to have to learn too many tricks. If someone could point out resources that outline the advantages and disadvantages of the various scripting languages, I would also appreciate it.

Since I am from the great white north and it is still winter, I have time to do research and to experiment.

Have a good day to one and all.

[MikeTbob]

Hi bookworm9,
Welcome to the forums, we seem to have several old farts here. I am not too far away from being there myself.
Here's a link that contains more links than you can shake a stick at. Suse administration included.
68 Linux Related Free E-books | LinuxHaxor.net
Most of these "E-books" will apply to any version of Linux, although some of this stuff is outdated. Happy Researching!

[elija]

Hi Bookworm9,

As to your question about scripting languages, it really depends.

I personally use PHP5 and Perl and not just for websites either. If
you want to start automating things on your computer you will
probably need to get into bash scripting.

If you are looking to get into programming in general, I have been
hearing good things about how easy Python is to pick up.

Hope this helps point you in the right direction

[bookworm9]

MikeTbob - Thank you for the link with ebooks. My significant other will hate you for weeks to come.

Elijah - Thank you for your comments on scripting languages. I've started teaching myself bash and gathered information on Perl, Python and PHP. From what I can see, each has its strengths and limitations. I guess I hoped that at least one of these was effectively absorbed and / or replaced by another (e.g. like C and C++).

In my opinion OOPs is a dastardly ploy by technical writers to ensure that everyone thoroughly documents what they write since so much code is hidden from view. Unfortunately, it didn't really work.

Thanks again, be healthy and happy.