what manuals would be good for a newbie?

[revolve]

And while I don't mind links to manuals, I would also appreciate some actual books I could go out and buy, so i could read when paying homage to the porcelein(sp?) god.

[l_Kriss]

http://www.accu.org/

thats a good link. good luck

[kpzani]

some of the best books are distro specific - what distro are you using / intend to use.

Also many other books are more specific thatn that such as samba, bind, apache books etc. What do you want your linux box to do?

I found the Red Hat Linux Bible very good.
and Sams teach yourself samba in 24 hours. There are also some good books on Bind but if you just want to play with Linux then you might be better off sticking with the HowTos check out the Linux Documentation Project. http://www.tldp.org.

Cheers and good luck
Kris

[revolve]

well im just looking for a book that explains what most of the commands do.

[revolve]

oh, and I'm using Mandrake 9.1

[Dolda2000]

Well, if that's just it, why don't you just use the manpages and texinfo?

[revolve]

Because I'm not lugging my computer into my bathroom for reading material. I mean an actual BOOK on the stuff. You know, with paper.

[Voffinn]

bookstore ? amazon ?

[slant6]

I highly recommend the UNIX: Visual QuickStart Guide is you are a newbie and need to be walked through the commands. It's a small book and a quick read, and it gets you through the most basic commands for all unix operating systems. Once you get familiar with the basic commands and you no longer need to be walked through them, pick up a reference like: Linux Essential Reference which will list the commands more specific to linux. Both books are very detailed, under $25 a piece and small enough to read in the bathroom without putting your legs to sleep while you are taking care of business.