Fedora™ Unleashed, 2008 edition

management, onsite consulting, device driver development, and so on), but needs vary according to customer circumstances and installations.

The Benefits of Joining a Linux User Group

Join a local Linux Users Group (LUG)! Joining and participating in a local LUG has many benefits. You can get help, trade information, and learn many new and wonderful things about Linux. Most LUGs do not have membership dues, and many often sponsor regular lectures and discussions from leading Linux, GNU, and open source experts. For one great place to start, browse to http://www.tux.org/luglist.html. Another great place to meet up with like-minded people is at one of the numerous Linuxworld shows held around the world. Head on over to http://www.linuxworldexpo.com/flash/ for a list of international shows.

Documentation

Nearly all Linux distributions include thousands of pages of documentation in the form of manual pages, HOWTO documents (in various formats, such as text and HTML), mini-HOWTO documents, or software package documentation (usually found under the /usr/share/doc/ directory). However, the definitive site for reading the latest versions of these documents is the Linux Documentation Project, found athttp://www.tldp.org.

Linux Guides

If you are looking for more extensive and detailed information concerning a Linux subject, try reading one of the many Linux guides. These guides, available for a number of subjects, dwell on technical topics in more detail and at a more leisurely pace than a HOWTO. You can find copies of the following through the web:

> 'Advanced Bash-Scripting Guide,' by Mendel Cooper; a guide to shell scripting using bash

> 'LDP Author Guide,' by Mark F. Komarinski; how to write LDP documentation

> 'Linux Administration Made Easy,' by Steve Frampton

> 'Linux Consultants Guide,' by Joshua Drake; a worldwide listing of commercial Linux consultants

> 'Linux from Scratch,' by Gerard Beekmans; creating a Linux distribution from software

> 'Linux Kernel Module Programming Guide,' by Peter J. Salzman, Michael Burian, and Ori Pomerantz; a good guide to building 2.4 and 2.6 series modules

> 'Securing and Optimizing Linux,' by Gerhard Mourani

> 'The Linux Network Administrator's Guide, Second Edition,' by Olaf Kirch and Terry Dawson; a comprehensive Net admin guide

The Fedora Project

> http://fedoraproject.org/ — The community home page for the Fedora Project. Also includes an ever-growing Wiki that provides a lot of tutorials and HOWTOs for Fedora.

> http://planet.fedoraproject.org — Find out what's going on in the lives of people closely connected with Fedora.

> http://fedoraforum.org — A good place to go if you need specific Fedora support.

Red Hat Linux

> http://www.redhat.com — The home page for Red Hat's distribution of Red Hat Enterprise Linux for multiple processors and architectures.

> http://www.redhat.com/apps/support/documentation.html — A web page with links to current official Red Hat manuals and guides, FAQs, HOWTOs, whitepapers, free books, mailing list archives, hardware compatibility lists, and other documentation.

Mini-CD Linux Distributions

Mini-CD Linux distributions are used for many different purposes. Some distributions are used to boot to a read-only firewall configuration; others are used to provide as complete a rescue environment as possible; whereas others are used to either install or help jump-start an install of a full distribution. Mini-CDs are available in a wide variety of sizes, such as 3' CD-Rs (or CD-RW) with sizes ranging from 185MB to 210MB. You can also download an ISO image and create a Linux bootable business card, typically fitting on a 40MB or 50MB credit card-sized CD-R (consider using a mini-CD-RW, especially if you want to upgrade your distribution often). Here are some links to these distributions:

> http://www.lnx-bbc.org — The home page for the Linux BBC, a 40MB image hosting a rather complete live Linux session with X, a web browser, and a host of networking tools.

> http://crux.nu/ — The home page of the CRUX i686-optimized Linux distribution.

> http://www.trustix.net/ — The home page for the free version of the Trustix Secure Linux distribution, which currently uses the latest 2.6 kernel. Trustix is RPM based.

> http://smoothwall.org/get/ — The 34MB SmoothWall distribution, which easily fits on a bootable business card and is used to install a web-administered firewall, router, or gateway with SSH, HTTP, and other services.

Floppy-Based Linux Distributions

> http://floppix.ccai.com/index.html — Debian-based floppy

> http://www.toms.net/rb/ — Tom's root and boot disk distribution

> http://www.coyotelinux.com/ — Secure routing and embedded Linux disk distributions

> http://trinux.sourceforge.net — Ultra-secure Linux distribution on floppy

> http://PenguinBackup.sourceforge.net/ — Unique, floppy-based distribution that allows quick backup of your Palm-type PDA

Various Intel-Based Linux Distributions

Choosing a Linux distribution (distro) for an Intel-based PC is generally a matter of personal preference or need. Many Linux users prefer Red Hat's distro because of its excellent support, commercial support options, and