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Can you recommend a good Documentation site?

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ePHende
ePHende Posts: 4
in Getting Started with Linux

I have decent xp with Windows and DOS, as well as moderate hardware knowledge, but am a total noob about Linux. I just wiped my netbook and installed a fresh xubuntu OS to use it to learn linux from. But seeing as how I know NOTHING about linux, I was hoping to find some docs that I could print out and read through that would cover the basics of how to do stuff.

Can anybody point me to a good site for docs? I found a few places that have online "manuals" but nothing that I could print out unless I wanted to print each page one at a time. I was hoping to find something semi-detailed, about 20-30 pages, covering a lot of the basics like what each folder is for; where to put stuff; how to recognize, run and/or install linux-compatible programs; special features; lists of commands and what they do; etc...

Any ideas? Just post a URL if there's something out there already...

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  • gomer
    gomer Posts: 158
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    Ubuntu Help:
    http://ubuntuforums.org
    https://help.ubuntu.com

    the Linux documentation Project:
    http://tldp.org/

    Or, right on your hard drive, look in /usr/share/doc/

    ;)
  • ePHende
    ePHende Posts: 4
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    Ok, I didn't know about the hard drive file, I'll have to look that up when I get home. But the other three sites are all organized so that you have to go into one "chapter" at a time and can't download the whole thing to print it. It would take me all day.
  • gomer
    gomer Posts: 158
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    TLDP has all of their HOW-TOs in HTML format in one big tar/gzip file:
    http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/Linux-HOWTOs.tar.gz

    If you didn't like the fact that these were "chapterized" you may not like the contents of /usr/share/doc either, as that's a folder that contains MANY folders filled with documentation for all / most of the packages you currently have installed.

    :(

    When you boot into xubuntu, you could try the on-line help feature (if there is one, there is in gnome and KDE, but I don't use XFCE often enough to be sure)

    There's also always the man pages (but that can be a pain).

    You can also open your command prompt and type in the following:
    ls -1 $(echo $PATH | sed -s 's/:/ /g') | xargs -L1 whatis 2>/dev/null | grep -v "nothing" | less

    That will give you a list of commands available to you and brief blurb on what each one does.
  • ePHende
    ePHende Posts: 4
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    Thanks, I think that might work.

    OK, so now I'm going to test out the text functions to see what combination just got accidentally converted to the winking smiley...
    :/
    ;/
    ;\
    ;-/
    ;-\
    ;|
    ;-|
    ;)
    ;)
  • gomer
    gomer Posts: 158
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    Oops, my bad. 
    ls -1 $(echo $PATH | sed -s 's/:/ /g') | xargs -L1 whatis 2>/dev/null | grep -v "nothing"
  • vtel57
    vtel57 Posts: 164
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    Scot's Newsletter Forums - Bruno's All Things Linux ... friendly help for the grizzled veteran or the new Linux Explorer alike.

    Tips For Linux Explorers ... a nice collection of information about Linux.

    Have FUN and learn something while you're at it!

    ~Eric
  • altNull
    altNull Posts: 65
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    Two words - Distro Forums. Each distro will have the best documentation for its distro, and the better the distro, the better community, the better the Documentation. If your trying for something more specific - like BASH, or an installed program - then look for forums for that software. You can try general websites like this, but they tend to lack the hardcore users. Also, try freenode irc. Once you sign up for free, you gain a direct link to some of the hardcore users. Again, if there is an irc for a distro or software - then use that irc.

    Finally, GOOGLE - that is all.

    /altNull
  • ePHende
    ePHende Posts: 4
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    PERFECT!!!
    The starterpack pdf is EXACTLY what I was looking for. (Actually it's a bit longer than I had in mind, but I will never, ever complain about too much info. Anyone who knows me personally will confirm that I have no right to do so.)
    Thanks.
    Thanks lots...
    :D

    --:Pete
  • Goineasy9
    Goineasy9 Posts: 1,114
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    Linux Format a.k.a.TuxRadar is a great source for How-To's and tutorials. I've been collecting their magazines for years and I follow them on Identi.ca. A great way to get links to all sorts of Linux info.

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