try the yellow and black book called "linux for dummies". its certainly an 
interesting read.

Technomage

On Wednesday 21 January 2004 05:11 pm, Phil Mattison wrote:
> Wow, that article about Sterling Ball is impressive.
>
> http://news.com.com/2008-1082_3-5065859.html?tag=3Dlh
>
> I've been toying with the idea of using Linux for more than a web server,
> but have been hesitant because of the apparent learning curve relative to
> the benefits. I've already sworn never to adopt WinXP, so maybe I was
> already half way there, but this article convinced me it is worth the
> effort to become proficient with Linux. Part of the reason I started using
> Linux was that I sort of missed the old days with DOS (believe it or not)
> because then you had complete control over the machine, such as it was. You
> have that with Linux but its a lot more complex. Along those lines, I've
> bought quite a few books already in an attempt to 'grok' Linux, but they
> all seem either too rudimentary (click here to install) or too bogged down
> in the details of some specific distro. Can anyone suggest a good source
> for the overall structure and conventions used in Linux, other than "Linux
> Internals?" I read "Linux Programming," which helped a lot, but I still
> don't quite feel like I've got the big picture. My problem is I have lots
> of other things to do besides tinker with Linux, so, "Learn Linux in
> 100,000 Easy Steps" won't do it for me. I worked my way through "make
> xconfig" recently and it seems a lot of stuff is baked into the kernel that
> I wouldn't have expected to be. Is there a clean boundary between kernel
> and device drivers, for example? I guess what I'm looking for is where are
> the boundaries and what do the interfaces look like, without getting an
> explanation of how to write a demand-paged virtual memory manager. --
> Phil Mattison
> Ohmikron Corp.
> 480-722-9595 ext.1
> 602-820-9452 Mobile
>
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