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“Help! I Need Some Help!”
Before this chapter gets into solving specific problems, it first describes several sources of information. Because we cannot cover more than a few of the most common problems, we first point you in the direction where you can find more information and help.
Books and more books
When we were working with computers many years ago, the number of books about computers could fill little more than one bookshelf, and they were mostly about the electronics of the hardware itself. Networking books concentrated on such subjects as the probability of two Ethernet packets colliding and not on how to build simple networks. Hardly any books about computers were ever in the popular bookstores. Thousands of books about computers are available now; most describe the software and its interactions, with the hardware taking a back seat. Books such as the ones in the For Dummies series aren’t just for bookstores any more. You can also find them in mass-market venues, such as your local superstore.TipOne great source for information about For Dummies books is the television series The Simpsons. That show loves For Dummies authors in particular and provides an amazingly accurate portrait of us. D’oh!Perhaps you looked at other books before you bought this one and were intimidated by their use of technical terms. Or, you thought that the other books were too general for what you want to do and you want something more task oriented. You may want to look over those books again because your knowledge level should be higher after reading this book. TCP/IP networking, compiler design, operating system theory, formal language theory, computer graphics, and systems administration training are all topics you can study in greater depth when you have a Linux computer at your disposal.Many books specifically about the Unix operating system are partially or completely applicable to Linux, such as books about Perl, a comprehensive interpreter. By getting one (or more) books about Perl and sitting down with your Linux system, you have both a new tool for doing your work and a new appreciation for a complete programming language. If you want to find out how to write Perl, you can just view the source code.
Linux HOWTOs and Red Hat manuals
Don’t forget about the Linux HOWTOs, which come in the commercial version of Red Hat Linux. These excellent guides to Linux are covered under the Linux Documentation Project (LDP) copyleft, which means that you can print them.Red Hat also provides online versions of the manuals you get when you purchase their full distribution. Look at www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/ linux/RHL-10-Manual for information about nearly every aspect of Red Hat Linux.
School days
Another way to find out more information about Unix and Linux is to take a course, perhaps at a local community college. Many colleges offer courses in Unix, and some have started using Linux to teach their Unix courses. You can do your homework on your system at home, or, if you have a notebook (laptop computer), you can work anywhere. (Jon typed text for the first edition of this book in a hotel in Auckland, New Zealand, and updated text for the second edition in the United Airlines lounge in Chicago.) What we would have given during college for the chance to do computer projects while sitting in the comfort of our own pub — er, dorm rooms. Instead, we had to sit in a room with a bunch of punch-card machines — well, never mind. We would have been much more comfortable and productive with a Linux system.
In the news
You can obtain additional information about the Linux operating system from mailing lists and newsgroups on the Internet. In fact, one of the first popular uses of the Internet was the Usenet information-sharing system. Usenet is similar to the World Wide Web in that it uses a set of protocols to perform a special type of communication over the general-purpose Internet. Usenet provides the capability to let people participate in discussions via e-mail. People post messages to a specific interest group that anyone can view and respond to.Newsgroups and mailing lists are dedicated to specific topics: technological and any topic that two or more people (or one person with multiple personalities) are interested in. Dozens of newsgroups and mailing lists are devoted to Linux topics. Searching these groups often provides laser-like answers to your questions. That’s because someone else is quite likely to have encountered your problem and found a solution to it. You can also post your questions to newsgroups when necessary.You can search for newsgroups at, for example, www.dejanews.com and www.mailgate.org. Google also provides an excellent mechanism to search groups, named Google Groups, at www.google.com/advanced_group_search.Don’t neglect to check out the Red Hat mailing lists directly, at listman.redhat.com/mailmain/listinfo. This Web page provides a summary of all Red Hat groups.
User groups
User groups are springing up all over the country. Some are more active than others, but most hold meetings at least once a month. Some groups are Linux only; others are connected to a larger computer group — either Unix or a more general computer users’ association. User groups offer a great opportunity to ask questions. User groups also tend to stimulate new ideas and ways of doing tasks.You can find out whether a Linux user group is in your area by checking with GLUE (Groups of Linux Users Everywhere), a service run by Specialized Systems Consultants, Inc. (SSC), which publishes Linux Journal. You can find GLUE, an automated map of user groups, at www.ssc.com.When you arrive at the site, click the Resources link, which takes you to the Linux Journal site. Then check out the Resources area there, to find out where the user group closest to you meets.TipNo user group in your area? Post a message at your local university or community college saying that you want to start one; other people in your area may decide to join you. Terrified at the thought of trying to start a user group? User group leaders often aren’t the most technically knowledgeable members but are simply good planners. They organize the meeting space, find (or hound) speakers, send out meeting notices, locate sponsors, arrange refreshments (usually beer), and perform other organizational tasks. Sometimes, being the leader seems like a thankless job, but when a meeting goes really well, it makes all the work worthwhile. So, as a newbie to Linux, you may not know a grep from an awk, but you still may make a good chairperson.
