Part VIII
Appendixes

A  Sources of Information

B  The Linux HOWTO Index

C  The Linux Hardware Compatibility HOWTO

D  The GNU General Public License

E  Installing StarOffice

F  What’s on the CD-ROM

Appendix A
Sources of Information

by Jack Tackett

In this appendix

Linux Web Sites

Usenet Newsgroups

Online Documents

Magazines

Linux FTP Sites

Contacting InfoMagic

For Linux Developers

Because Linux is based on UNIX, almost any UNIX-based book provides some information on Linux. The best source for information, however, is the Linux community itself, which offers everything from updated versions of Linux to extremely active Usenet newsgroups. Linux also provides online documents through the Linux Documentation Project (LDP), which is writing a complete set of manuals for Linux. The most recent editions of this project are available via the Internet.

The following listings provide Internet FTP sites, magazines, conferences, and newsgroups from which you can gather more information about Linux.

Linux Web Sites

Because Linux is a child of the Internet, you will find a great many Web sites related to Linux. In fact, Linux is a pretty popular subject on the Web. Table A.1 lists the URLs that contain most of the Linux information on the Web.

Usenet Newsgroups

If you have access to Usenet newsgroups, you’ll enjoy the following newsgroups, which provide a variety of information about Linux. Only two,comp.os.linux.announce and comp.os.linux.answers, are moderated.

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• See “Usenet Culture,” p. 661

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NOTE:  The original Linux-related newsgroup, comp.os.linux, no longer exists because more specific newsgroups have been created.

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•  comp.os.linux.announce This moderated newsgroup is used for important announcements, such as bug fixes.

•  comp.os.linux.answers This moderated newsgroup provides answers to any of your Linux questions, especially about setting up Linux. Please read the appropriate Linux documentation and FAQs before posting a question to this group.

•  comp.os.linux.development.system This newsgroup is devoted to the many programmers around the world who are developing the Linux system.

•  comp.os.linux.development.apps This newsgroup is devoted to the many programmers around the world who are developing applications for Linux.

•  comp.os.linux.hardware This newsgroup provides answers to hardware compatibility questions.

•  comp.os.linux.setup This newsgroup provides help with Linux setup and installation problems.

•  comp.os.linux.advocacy This newsgroup provides a medium to discuss why Linux is the greatest OS.

•  comp.os.linux.networking This newsgroup provides answers to networking Linux with the rest of the world.

•  comp.os.linux.x This newsgroup provides answers to installing and running X under Linux.

•  comp.os.linux.m68k The purpose of this newsgroup is to promote interest and development of the port of Linux to Motorola’s 680x0 architecture.

A newsgroup named comp.os.linux.misc serves as a catch-all for any Linux topic not suited to the other newsgroups. Also, more than 170 other Usenet newsgroups contain the word Linux. A sample of the more common Linux newsgroups are listed as follows. Go exploring!

Online Documents

Matt Welsh spearheads a dedicated group of Linux enthusiasts who are systematically writing a complete set of Linux manuals that are made available on the Internet. The latest versions of the documentation can be found at sunsite.unc.edu in the /pub/Linux/docs directory. You can also find earlier versions of these documents in your version of Linux’s /docs directory. The current home for the LDP is located at this address:

http://sunsite.unc.edu/mdw

Available documents include the following:

•  “Linux Installation and Getting Started,” by Matt Welsh

•  “The Linux System Administrators’ Guide,” by Lars Wirzenius

•  “The Linux Network Administrators’ Guide,” by Olaf Kirch

•  “The Linux Kernel Hackers’ Guide,” by Michael K. Johnson

•  “The Linux Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) List,” maintained by Ian Jackson; it’s composed of questions and answers on myriad Linux topics

•  “The Linux META-FAQ,” maintained by Michael K. Johnson

•  “The Linux INFO-SHEET,” maintained by Michael K. Johnson

•  “The Linux Software Map,” maintained by Aaron Schab; contains information about each of the software packages available for Linux via FTP

Linux HOWTOs

The Linux HOWTO Index provides an index to all the available HOWTO documents. These HOWTO documents provide a detailed explanation of their topic. Some of the titles include the following:

•  The Linux Installation HOWTO

•  The Linux Hardware HOWTO and The Linux Printing HOWTO

See Appendix B, “The Linux HOWTO Index,” for a complete list of Linux HOWTO and Mini HOWTO site addresses. These files are located in the /usr/doc/faq/howto directory on your local drive. Most are archived with gzip to save disk space. To read these or other compressed files, use the zless command.

Many FAQs about Linux topics and GNU programs are shipped with Linux and can be found in the /usr/info directory.

man Pages

The Linux operating system itself provides plenty of online help via the man command. To access online help, enter man followed by the topic for which you want information.

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• See “Getting Help for Commands with man,” p. 114

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Magazines

Linux Journal is the leading U.S. periodical devoted explicitly to Linux. You can request more information about this publication from the following address:

Linux Journal

P.O. Box 85867

Seattle, WA 98145

(206) 527-3385

http://www.linuxjournal.com

Linux FTP Sites

You’ll find a great deal of up-to-date information regarding Linux on the Internet. Table A.2 lists the FTP sites that maintain Linux archives. The main archive site, located at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, is named sunsite.unc.edu.

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• See “Using FTP for Remote File Transfer,” p. 580

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Contacting InfoMagic

InfoMagic produces the CD-ROMs enclosed with this book, and the company is gracious enough to help support the product. If your disc is damaged, please contact Que Publishing at http://www.mcp.com. If you’ve exhausted the resources above, contact InfoMagic’s support at [email protected].

For Linux Developers

So you think that Linux is the greatest thing to come along in quite some time, and you want to help develop future releases. Well, you’re in luck. An active set of mailing lists on the Internet is devoted to various topics and issues surrounding Linux development. This is a multichannel mailing list, meaning that messages on different topics are sent to different groups of people. You must subscribe to each channel that you’re interested in. If you think you want to get involved in a Linux development project, you can get more information by sending an e-mail message to

[email protected]

with lists in the body to get a list of the lists there. Add a line with help in the body to get the standard Majordomo help file, which has instructions for subscribing and unsubscribing.