From owner-freebsd-questions Fri Sep 10 16: 6:55 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from dt011n65.san.rr.com (dt014nb6.san.rr.com [24.30.129.182]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1C1E814A1B for ; Fri, 10 Sep 1999 16:06:51 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from Doug@gorean.org) Received: from gorean.org (master [10.0.0.2]) by dt011n65.san.rr.com (8.9.3/8.8.8) with ESMTP id QAA87043; Fri, 10 Sep 1999 16:06:48 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from Doug@gorean.org) Message-ID: <37D98F08.9D733772@gorean.org> Date: Fri, 10 Sep 1999 16:06:48 -0700 From: Doug Organization: Triborough Bridge & Tunnel Authority X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.61 [en] (X11; U; FreeBSD 4.0-CURRENT-0904 i386) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Eric Saylor Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Learning path References: <37DAD428.4B7BBB34@sprynet.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Eric Saylor wrote: > > I am a technical support rep for a small internet provider (yes, I do read > www.userfriendly.org). Not having much success with Debian Linux, I > downloaded FreeBSD 3.2 and now have a running config, with a stable XFree86 > server. I like Unix, and I want more experience with it, but the online > information isn't arranged in any order and there isn't a clear path to > follow. I want to know what to study, what to know first, and what to > learn next. One of the interesting things about unix is that there isn't any "first." All of the knowledge you gain is equally applicable to all the other areas, the problem comes only when you're not learning things in an order that provides you immediate benefits related to what you need to know. All of which is of course, highly subjective. > I don't have a CS degree and I'm not an engineer, but I have no fear of the > hard-to-do. What I'm afraid of is running in circles, which is what I'm > doing right now. Can anyone point me to an online resource, online class, or > give me his best outline? How do I lay a stable foundation, a body of > knowledge to build upon? I'd say first, buy and read the most recent versions of "The Complete FreeBSD" and "Essential System Administration." The first is by our own Greg Lehey and is available a lot of places, including http://www.freebsdmall.com/. The second is available from O'Reilly and Associates, and really you can't go wrong with any of their books. After that, it's up to you. Something in those two books will spark your interest and encourage you to go on reading/learning/studying other topics. Good luck, Doug To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message