After a few weeks’ worth of work, family vacations, my father having a stroke, and the full-time job of having a 2-year-old and 3-month-old (not to mention work and all that other stuff), the great news has arrived!
Announcing full access to the ebook library for everyone who wants it! There were many people who contacted me about the YAST book, “YAST – Installation and Management of Software”. The common theme was, “We don’t want to have to wait through the course to get the free ebooks, we want them NOW! Because I like to give people what they want, I have made it possible for everyone to get every ebook on this site in 2 clicks. Hopefully that’s up to par for what you want. You can request these books from the form in the left nav of http://www.suseblog.com/.
Here is the current run-down of ebooks available here (and a nice, fat plenty more are on their way):
openSUSE 10.2 – Start-Up Manual (236 pgs)
This manual provided by the good folks at Novell goes over many things you’ll want to know when learning to use openSUSE Linux 10.2. The table of contents reveals the main topics of this book:
- Installation with YAST
- Setting Up Hardware Components with YAST
- Installing or Removing Hardware
- Accessing the Internet
- Managing Users with YAST
- Changing the System Language with YAST
- Basic Concepts
- Shell Basics
- Mobile Computing with Linux
- Managing Network Connections with NetworkManager
- Copying and Sharing Files
- Help and Documentation
- Common Problems and Their Solutions
- GNU Licenses
- Index
Investigation 101 – Gathering Information about Hardware, Filesystem, and Processes (22 pgs) – NEWEST BOOK
Sometimes, you need to gather information about your Linux system. This can be so that you know what is happening on your system, or so that you can install hardware, or so that you can better describe details to other people who are trying to help you resolve an issue.
As I was writing this e-book, I found that there are quite a number of ways to gather some very useful information about your computer.
Table of Contents:
- Introduction
- YAST Knows Hardware
- Sysinfo – A Linux Box System Information Retriever
- System Commands / Command-line Tools
- w
- who
- lastlog
- last
- netstat
- ps
- top
- tail
- lsof
- lspci
- lsusb
- mount
- fstab
- fdisk
- system log
- dmesg
- free
- whowatch
- Other Helpful Resources
- Conclusion
YAST – Installation and Management of Software (23 pgs)
One of the very first things that users need to know is how to install software in Linux. This book is a no-nonsense introduction to mastering the basics of using YAST to manage your system software. It also provides a few tips on how to get all the latest software from all the great servers.
Table of Contents:
- Introduction
- Open YAST
- Installation Sources
- Finding YAST Installation Sources
- Registering Installation Sources in YAST
- Installing Software in YAST
- Uninstalling Software in YAST
- Conclusion
The Easiest Linux Guide You’ll Ever Read – an introduction to Linux for Windows users (162 pgs)
Last year I published this book for SUSE 10.1, though almost all of it is relevant to openSUSE 10.2. It was mainly written for people who are competent with using Windows, who have never attempted to use Linux but are interested in giving it a try.
When I was first learning Linux, I got so lost so fast in so many areas, it was hugely overwhelming for me. I was impressed that I was able to download Linux, burn it onto CDs, and get it installed. But once I got that far, I was excited, but my excitement was short-lived. I had no idea what to do next, how to install software, or what software even to install for what I needed. I didn’t understand the concept of Open Source software. I didn’t know where to go for help. I most assuredly did not know a thing about the command line. 10 years of using Windows was of very little help. I felt that though I was a fairly able computer user, I had stepped into a situation where such experience did me little good.
In the book, I try to explain some concepts of how Linux is similar to Windows, helping people become familiar with it very quickly. I also explain some of the most important differences, many of which are improvements from the environment to which they have become accustomed. The book also dispels many myths that may serve to hamper the adoption of Linux more fully. The overall purpose is to give people a bridge from what they already know to the powerful, fascinating world that is the Linux operating system. Because that world can be a little daunting at first, it’s nice to have a little help getting used to things. This is what the “Easiest Linux Guide You’ll Ever Read” is designed to do.
Table of Contents:
- Who should read this book
- An introduction before we start
- More familiar than you think
- Common Myths
- Things to know about Linux
- Getting Help and Learning More
- General reading material
- Forums
- Mailing Lists
- Other Resources
- How do I get Linux?
- Download Linux and put it onto CDs
- Purchasing Linux Installation CDs
- Installing SUSE Linux
- Installation Options
- Linux-only Installation
- Sharing the computer between Linux and Windows
- Introduction to Users and Groups
- Get to Know Your Desktop
- What is KDE?
- The K Menu
- The Kicker Panel
- The KDE Control Center
- Changing Mouse Behavior
- Changing Time and Date Display Format
- Window Themes
- Desktop Preferences
- Konqueror: filesystem and web browser
- Browsing through your files
- As a web browser
- Kicker Panel
- Installing Applications
- Applications
- OpenOffice
- OpenOffice Writer
- OpenOffice Calc
- Thunderbird
- Setting up your email account
- Sending and receiving email
- Firefox
- So you want to use the command line?
- View directory contents with ‘ls’
- Make a directory with ‘mkdir’
- Remove a directory with ‘rmdir’
- Change to a directory with ‘cd’
- What directory am I in? Using ‘pwd’
- Copying files with ‘cp’
- Moving files with ‘mv’
- Deleting files with ‘rm’
- Viewing text files with ‘cat’
- Viewing text files with ‘less’
- What time is it? What is the date? Using ‘date’
- Using ‘man’ to find help
- Conclusion
You will find the form to get the ebooks in the left nav on suseblog.com, my openSUSE Linux blog. There are a number of other ebooks on the way. These won’t take as long to get finished, so we’ll have some new ones for you shortly.
For those who have not yet checked out the free “Intro to Linux” course, that is also still available, moved over to the right nav on suseblog.com.
Enjoy!
