GNU/Linux, the definitive guide

[zeroth404]

GNU/Linux, the definitive guide
I'm considering writing a tutorial about GNU/Linux, which lightly covers ever aspect that is deserving. I've also considered making it an Open Content Document, but that depends mostly on how popular it gets when I ever get around to writing it. Mostly, I'm doing this because I want to, and because I think I could learn a whole lot more about linux by writing a tutorial about it. Its going to be huge.

What I'm asking for here is some creative input on what I currently have. Additions, changes, if somethings not neccessary, if I've overlooked somethign very important that would need to be included in any such document, etc. I have no idea what the title will be, but thats not important at this point in time.

Here is the outline I've started with:

Introduction
  The Meaning of Open Source
  GNU/Linux, Open Source's Greatest Achievement
Constituents of a GNU/Linux Distribution
  GNU, The Operating System
  Linux, The Kernel
    why different versions?
    version 2.2
    version 2.4
    version 2.6
  The Bootloader
    Lilo
    Grub
    Dual Booting
  Tux, the Penguin
Distributions, to Name a Few
  Debian
  Gentoo
  Mandriva
  Red Hat/Fedora
  Slackware
  SuSE
  LiveCD Distros
    Knoppix
    Slax
    ZipSlack
Files and Directories
  File System Heirarchy
    /boot, /dev, /etc, /home, /lib, /media, /mnt, /opt,
    /proc, /usr, /usr/local, /usr/src, /tmp, /var
  Commands
      cd, ls, find, updatedb, locate, cat, grep, touch,
      mkdir, rm, rmdir, dd
  Attributes and Permissions
    directory, read, write, execute, sticky
    octal representation
    owner, group owner
    Commands
      chgrp, chmod, chown
  Archives
    tarballs, bz2, gz
  Fils System Table, fstab
    device, mount point, file system, options, fsck, boot
  File Systems
    ext
    ntfs
    reiser4
    reiserfs
    vfat
Devices
  Systems
    udev
    devfs (deprecated)
  mount
  umount
Bash Shell
  Environment Variables
    PATH
    PS1
  Aliases
  Bash Scripts
  Pipes and Redirection
    echo
    pipe output
    output to file
    append to file
    xargs
  Useful Features
    Tab Completion
  Other Shells
    csh
    korn
    sh
    tsh
Vi text editor
  save
  undo
  quit and save
  quit without saving
  force command (!)
  find text
  search and replace
  other editors
    emacs
    joe
The Manual Pages
  man
Users and Groups
  root, the Super User
  User Priveleges
  Group Priveleges
  su
  sudo
  Adding and Removing
    useradd, userdel, groupadd, groupdel
X Windows
  The X Server
    XFree
    Xorg
  Window Managers
    blackbox (deprecated)
    Fluxbox
    Enlightenment
  Desktop Managers
    GNOME
    KDE
    XFCE
  Terminals
    rxvt
    XTerm
    Konsole (KDE)
    ATerm (AfterStep)
  Some Notable Applications
    Mozilla Firefox
    Mozilla Thunderbird
    Gaim
    Gimp
    OpenOffice.org
    Wine
    K3B
Packages
  Various Distribution-Specifc Tools
    Slackware, tgz packages.
      pkgtool, installpkg, removepkg, upgradepkg
      third-party tools
        slapt-get
    Debian, deb packages
      dpkg, apt-get, aptitude
    Mandriva, RPM pacakges
      URPMI
    RedHat/Fedora, RPM pacakges
  Package Dependancies
    dependancy hell
  Compiling source
Networking
  Configuring
    /etc/hostname, /etc/hosts
  Strarting and Stopping
  Wireless
  File Sharing
    NFS
    Samba
  Remote user login
    rlogin (deprecated)
    SSH
  Linux as a server
    Web server
      Apache
      MySQL
      PHP
    Mail server
      Postfix
      Sendmail (deprecated)
Printing & Scanning
  CUPS
  SANE
Laptops
  Card Services
    cardctl
  Power Management Daemons
    APM (deprecated)
    ACPI
Jobs and Processes
  Jobs
    ctrl+z, bg, fg,
    pausing, unpausing, and stoping
  Processes
    ps, kill, killall
Boot Services
  Runlevels - inittab
The Kernel
  Lodable Kernel Modules
  Installing Kernel Source
  Configuring a Kernel
  Compiling a new Kernel
Hardware Drivers
  Video
    ATI
    NVidia
  Audio
    ALSA
Programming, C/C++
  Compilers
    gcc
  Make files
  GUI Development
    GTK+
      Glade
    Qt
Security (System Hardening)
  Programs
    tripwire
    snort
    bastille
  Configuration
    Services
    Firewalls
    Password Shadowing (an overview)
    Passwords
  Risks
    SUID-bit Programs
    Deprecated Programs
    Race Contitions
    Buffer Overflows
  Other Topics
    Security Mailing lists
    Protecting Physical Access
Linux as an embedded OS (a brief overview)
  PDAs, Cell Phones, Tablets
Lexicon
  Distro, Fork

I've also posted this thread here: http://www.justlinux.com/forum/showt...935#post837935

edit: 2006-01-18 changed a few things. It's also important to note that I'm not intending to add any sort of historical informations in the guide, to keep it focused on specificly how to use GNU/Linux.

edit 2006-01-18(2): added a lot of things.

edit 2006-01-18(3): expanded some things.

[fingal]

That looks very ambitious and time consuming, but highly worthwhile. Anything on security and servers?

[zeroth404]

That looks very ambitious and time consuming, but highly worthwhile. Anything on security and servers?

I could cover different web/file/mail server daemons such as Apache, maybe a section on "sendmail vs postfix". I'll at least cover a number of them and mention where to find documentation for each.

edit: and a section on system hardening.

[technossomy]

Hi zeroth, will this be a wiki type of document? On another note, there is already a lot out there which most of us have benefited from, perhaps (with appropriate attribution) you could copy as opposed to create? Furthermore, as a recommendation, I would like to see some images: partitions, file systems, screenshots etc.

Hope this helps