Any newbie Linux forums 4038

Thanks Roger.

I didn't express my question very well since most responders are looking at it differently than I meant. (Thanks all, anyway).

I have a couple of older books. When I get into the big city in a couple of weeks I will pick up some more current ones.

I am very new at Linux and it is not part of my work, so finding out info for a particular fix is not the problem. I have a whole list of things that I can't make work, but the last thing I want is to be GIVEN an answer for each one, since I learn about 50 things for each one that I learn to fix.

It is just that I am realising that Linux is so mbuttive that I wonder just how much I am not learning because I don't even know that it exists. Sometimes another beginner will give a useful answer to a question that a guru will wonder just what the heck this boot is talking about. Plus, the other beginner will also know from experience that manpage so-and-so, while it is as clear as crystal to the experienced folks, is totally mud to the new guy.

I was told that in the beginning, all you need is a book - any book - since the basics apply to all. But I am finding out that there is not Linux, but Linuxes. I discovered that while trying to use a Red Hat 9 book to configure my network card on Knoppix. The two are totally different and I don't know why (Does anybody?). It was a total showstopper for a couple of days since I automatically buttumed that a book is always right and I must have installed something wrong. If I had posted that question, I suspect that the voice of the MAN would have decended from the newsgroup and said "You idiot, EVERYBODY knows that RH networks are different from other distros." Whereas, if I saw the question come up now, I would immediately glory in my semi guruness and tell the poor newbie where he went astray.

Its all kind of like a weekend golfer who shoots about 80 on the average and who would be really nervous to find himself paired with Tiger Woods in front of a local crowd.

Phil