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| Newer page: | version 3 | Last edited on Monday, October 25, 2004 4:43:13 am | by AristotlePagaltzis | |
| Older page: | version 2 | Last edited on Friday, June 7, 2002 1:07:45 am | by perry | Revert |
@@ -1,1088 +1 @@
-
-
-
-HOWTO: How to stay updated
-
-
-
-----
-
-!!!HOWTO: How to stay updated
-
-!!Kjetil Bakkeskaug, Kjell Sundby and Stein Gjoen, sgjoen@nyx.netv0.32, 20 May 2002
-
-
-----
-''
-
-
-This document describes how to stay updated and abreast of the development
-that takes place in the Linux world of development.
-Although most of this text is Linux specific there is also a lot of general
-information on searching efficiently for specific information that can be
-useful for a wider audience.''
-----
-
-
-
-
-!!1. Introduction
-
-
-*1.1 Copyright
-
-*1.2 Disclaimer
-
-*1.3 News
-
-*1.4 Credits
-
-
-
-
-
-!!2. Documentation Installed on Your Hard Disk
-
-
-
-
-!!3. Subscription
-
-
-*3.1 Usenet News
-
-*3.2 Mailing Lists
-
-*3.3 Magazines
-
-
-
-
-
-!!4. Meetings
-
-
-
-
-!!5. Searching
-
-
-
-
-!!6. Conclusion
-----
-
-!!1. Introduction
-
-
-
-
-Development in the world of Linux takes place at an incredible speed and it
-can be difficult to keep abreast with the latest development. This HOWTO
-gives you a few guidelines on how to get the information you need, fast and
-efficiently. Most are quite familiar with using the World Wide Web (WWW)
-and Usenet News but as will be shown
here there are many other methods that
-can be as good or even better.
-
-
-
-
-
-There are now many new translations available and special thanks go
-to the translators for the job and the input they have given:
-
-
-
-
-
-*
-Polish translation by Tomasz Sienicki tsca (at) cryogen.com
-
-*
-
-*
-French Translation by Jean-Albert Ferrez Jean-Albert.Ferrez (at) epfl.ch
-
-*
-
-*
-Portuguese Translation by Duarte Loreto dnloreto (at) esoterica.pt
-
-*
-
-*
-Japanese translation by Satoru Takahashi hisai (at) din.or.jp
-
-*
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-!!1.1 Copyright
-
-
-
-This HOWTO is copyrighted 1998 Kjell Sundby, Kjetil Bakkeskaug and Stein Gjoen.
-Permission is granted to
-copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the
-GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version
-published by the Free Software Foundation with no Invariant Sections,
-no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.
-
-
-If you have any questions, please contact <{linux-howto@metalab.unc.edu}>
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-!!1.2 Disclaimer
-
-
-
-Use the information in this document at your own risk. We disavow any
-potential liability for the contents of this document. Use of the
-concepts, examples, and/or other content of this document is entirely
-at your own risk.
-
-
-All copyrights are owned by their owners, unless specifically noted
-otherwise. Use of a term in this document should not be regarded as
-affecting the validity of any trademark or service mark.
-
-
-Naming of particular products or brands should not be seen as endorsements.
-
-
-You are strongly recommended to take a backup of your system before
-major installation and backups at regular intervals.
-
-
-
-
-!!1.3 News
-
-
-
-
-
-
-Updated links to !LinuxNetMag
-
-
-Did a major link check but linkrot sets in quickly.
-
-
-Added link to Penguin Magazine.
-
-
-Added more information on the workings of mailing lists. Also proper
-indexing is now added.
-
-
-Renamed Dejanews to Deja and one chapter title. Also added note on
-translation now underway. Minor typos fixed.
-
-
-Added link to Polish translation
-
-
-Added link to Linux Focus and Linux Magazine.
-
-
-Added links to French and Japanese translations as well as several online resources.
-
-
-Link rot is setting in, numerous corrections made. Also expanded on searching choices.
-
-!!1.4 Credits
-
-
-
-
-
-
-Tomasz Sienicki | tsca <tsca (at) cryogen.com>
-Satoru Takahashi <hisai (at) din.or.jp>
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-----
-
-!!2. Documentation Installed on Your Hard Disk
-
-
-
-
-
-
-When you start out with a Linux installation you will normally get quite a
-bit of information along, not just the installation pamphlet but also
-substantial online help and information files as well as HOWTO files. This
-gives you a good starting point but after a while you will find yourself
-interested in knowing more, updating your system and basically staying
-informed. For simplicity this kind of information is here divided into
-several types, the type you subscribe to, information you search for as
-well as a bit on getting more specific help efficiently.
-
-
-Even if you don't get printed information of some kind with your Linux
-packages you will along with any self respecting distribution get a
-number of directories with documentation of some kind, ranging from
-the tersest ''README'' files for most software packages to the more
-in depth ''HOWTOs'', of which this is one.
-
-
-Have a look in the
-document archive
-where most packages store their main documentation and README files etc.
-Also you will here find the
-HOWTO archive
-of ready formatted HOWTOs
-and also the
-mini-HOWTO archive
-of plain text documents.
-
-
-The
-kernel source
-is, of course, the ultimate documentation. In other
-words, ''use the source, Luke''.
-It should also be pointed out that the kernel comes not only with
-source code which is even commented (well, partially at least)
-but also an informative
-documentation directory.
-If you are about to ask any questions about the kernel you should
-read this first, it will save you and many others a lot of time
-and possibly embarrassment.
-
-
-The online documentation is excellent for browsing and searching but
-don't dismiss the printed version altogether; if you cannot even
-get the machine to boot, how are you going to be able to read that
-piece of information you need to get the system going again?
-
-
-
-
-
-
-----
-
-!!3. Subscription
-
-
-
-
-This basically means you set up a subscription of some sort and then follow
-the news as they come in. Be careful not to bite over more than you can
-chew, ''information overload'' is more than a buzzword. There is also
-rather more junk out there than is just annoying, it is a real problem
-these days. Read critically and be prepared to unsubscribe.
-
-
-There are two distinct medias for getting continuous updates: news and
-mailing lists, though sometimes news is gatewayed to mail and vice
-versa. In general news is a larger volume, larger noise source compared to
-mailing lists. Trying to follow too many newsgroups is like drinking from a
-fire hose.
-
-
-
-
-!!3.1 Usenet News
-
-
-
-
-
-Getting access to Usenet News is outside the scope of this HOWTO, there are
-others that will help you with getting and reading News directly from a
-Linux system. If you have never used News before you should be careful to
-read the introductory information thoroughly. In spite of looking like an
-anarchy it does have its own distinct culture, follow a newsgroup for some
-time before posting yourself. Most importantly, look out for postings
-called ''Frequently Asked Questions'' or ''FAQ'' as they will show you
-the ropes for the group it is posted to, and most likely give you the
-answer to what you are looking for. Asking an FAQ will earn you severe
-negative credibility points as well as a place in many killfiles.
-
-
-FAQs should be posted regularly but if you cannot find it you can always
-find it at the
-main FAQ archive
-at MIT.
-
-
-These are also available as
-web pages.
-
-
-
-
-
-Still, there is a lot of noise, spam and junk in News and this is where
-killfiles come in. You will need a news reader with killfile capability and
-when properly set up it will scan through a newsgroup according to a search
-key of your own design and mark all flagged postings as already read so you
-don't have to be bothered by the noise. This improves the signal-to-noise
-ratio and lets you concentrate on the important parts. Similarly, if you
-make noise in News others will killfile you so if you later were to ask for
-help they will never see your post.
-
-
-Now to business: the following is a list of useful newsgroups:
-
-
-*
-announcements
-*
-
-*
-answers, HOWTOs, FAQs etc.
-*
-
-*
-development of applications
-*
-
-*
-development of the system
-*
-
-*
-hardware
-*
-
-*
-misc
-*
-
-*
-networking
-*
-
-*
-setting up linux
-*
-
-*
-X11 on linux
-*
-
-
-
-Many national hierarchies also have Linux groups, such as the
-Norwegian Linux groups. If you
-cannot find your national or local group you might be able to use
-Deja
-to find the names for you.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-!!3.2 Mailing Lists
-
-
-
-
-
-Unlike Usenet News a mailing list is centralised, someone sends a mail to
-the server and the server in return mails everyone that is subscribed to
-that particular list. These lists are generally low volume but also very
-low noise. Any breaches of the charter will be looked harshly upon. Equally
-seriously it will delay the development or the project that the list is
-dedicated to. When you subscribe you will normally get an introductory mail
-describing the charter, again you are strongly recommended to read this
-very carefully.
-
-
-There are many types of mail servers that can handle a list and you will
-need some information on how and where you can subscribe.
-
-
-One of the most common list servers is ''Majordomo'' which is what the
-list server at
-vger.rutgers.edu
-is running. To learn how it works you send a mail message with the word
-help in the body. If you send it something it cannot parse you will
-get this help message anyway.
-If you instead mail it the word lists you will be returned a list of
-all mailing lists it serves, and that can be a considerable number.
-
-
-Other mailing lists use several addresses, one where you send your requests
-such as subscribe and unsubscribe, and one where you send your
-contributions to the list which is usually also the address from which the
-list is also redistributed to you.
-Again, sending it the message help or something it cannot parse will
-give you the help information.
-An example: you send the word subscribe to the
-address corned-beef-requests@somelistserver.org
-and then you get mail from and contribute to the
-list address corned-beef-list@somelistserver.org
-until you unsubscribe.
-
-
-A few tips before you start sending in to mailing lists:
-
-
-*Do not send subscribe etc. to the list itself, only to the
-server address, otherwise you will look silly and you will annoy
-people. There can be several thousand subscribers to a list and if such errors were to
-pour in the noise would be too much.
-*
-
-*When you subscribe you will often get an introductory message
-sent to you automatically. Read it carefully as this should answer
-most of the initial questions.
-*
-
-*Do not gateway mailing lists to news without asking first as this
-can cause mailing loops as well as spam.
-*
-
-
-
-As mentioned above,
-vger.rutgers.edu.
-is one of the main mailing list servers and here is an abbreviated index
-of what is available for the Linux community:
-
-
-
-
-
-* linux-8086 (Linux on Intel 8086 processors)
-*
-
-* linux-admin (Administration of Linux systems)
-*
-
-* linux-alpha (Linux on the Alpha processor platform)
-*
-
-* linux-apps (Applications)
-*
-
-* linux-arm (Linux on the Arm processor platform)
-*
-
-* linux-bbs (Linux Bulletin Board Systems)
-*
-
-* linux-c-programming (C-programming with Linux)
-*
-
-* linux-config (Configuration)
-*
-
-* linux-console (Console)
-*
-
-* linux-diald (Dial on demand daemon)
-*
-
-* linux-doc (Linux documentation)
-*
-
-* linux-fido (Linux fido network)
-*
-
-* linux-fsf (Linux and the Free Software Foundation)
-*
-
-* linux-ftp (Linux File Transfer Protocol)
-*
-
-* linux-gcc (Linux and the GNU C compiler)
-*
-
-* linux-gcc-digest (Digests of the above)
-*
-
-* linux-hams Amateur Radio and Linux discussions
-*
-
-* linux-hppa (Linux on the HP Precision Architecture processor platform)
-*
-
-* linux-ibcs2 (Linux and the Intel Binary Compatibility system)
-*
-
-* linux-ipx (Linux and Novell IPX networking protocol)
-*
-
-* linux-isdn (Linux and Integrated Services Digital Network)
-*
-
-* linux-japanese (Linux and Japanese extensions)
-*
-
-* linux-kernel (Linux kernel)
-*
-
-* linux-kernel-announce (Announcements for the above)
-*
-
-* linux-kernel-digest (Digests of the linux-kernel list)
-*
-
-* linux-kernel-patch (Linux kernel patches)
-*
-
-* linux-laptop (Linux on laptops)
-*
-
-* linux-linuxss
-*
-
-* linux-lugnuts (Linux User Groups)
-*
-
-* linux-mca (Linux and the IBM Micro Channel Architecture bus)
-*
-
-* linux-mips (Linux on the MIPS processor platform)
-*
-
-* linux-msdos (Linux and MSDOS)
-*
-
-* linux-msdos-devel (Linux - MSDOS development)
-*
-
-* linux-msdos-digest (Digest of the linux-msdos list)
-*
-
-* linux-net (Linux and networking)
-*
-
-* linux-new-lists (New mailing lists for Linux)
-*
-
-* linux-newbie (Linux and the inexperienced)
-*
-
-* linux-newbiew
-*
-
-* linux-nys
-*
-
-* linux-oasg
-*
-
-* linux-oi
-*
-
-* linux-opengl (Linux and the OpenGL graphics system)
-*
-
-* linux-pkg
-*
-
-* linux-ppp (Linux and the Point-to-Point Protocol)
-*
-
-* linux-pro
-*
-
-* linux-qag
-*
-
-* linux-raid (Linux and Redundant Array of Inexpensive Drives)
-*
-
-* linux-scsi (Linux and Small Computer Systems Interface)
-*
-
-* linux-serial (Linux and the serial system)
-*
-
-* linux-seyon (Linux terminal system)
-*
-
-* linux-smp (Linux Symmetric Multi Processing)
-*
-
-* linux-sound
-*
-
-* linux-standards
-*
-
-* linux-svgalib (Linux and the SVGA library)
-*
-
-* linux-tape (Linux and tape storage)
-*
-
-* linux-term (A Linux communications program)
-*
-
-* linux-userfs (Linux User File System)
-*
-
-* linux-word
-*
-
-* linux-x11 (Linux and the X Window System, Version 11)
-*
-
-* linux-x25 (Linux and the X25 Networking Protocol)
-*
-
-* sparclinux (Linux on the SPARC processor platform)
-*
-
-* ultralinux (Linux on the Ultra-SPARC processor platform)
-*
-
-
-
-There are of course a number of other lists on other server. As this
-is in a constant state of flux there is little point in naming all but
-the most important here. Instead you could check out a web page that
-maintains such a
-list of lists
-on various servers of interest to Linux users. It also offers an user friendly
-interface to subscribe or unsubscribe to the various lists directly.
-
-
-There is also a web page listing a huge number of lists concerning much more
-than Linux at
-Publicly Available Mailing Lists.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-!!3.3 Magazines
-
-
-
-
-
-Many have been disappointed at the lack of information on Linux in the
-trade press. This is probably because certain commercial products would
-not stand up for any comparison and the advertisers would not stand it
-at all. Fortunately there is one Linux specific journal, called
-the ''Linux Journal''. More information on subscription etc. can be
-found at the
-SSC
-home page. A table of contents is usually also available online.
-
-
-Another commercial paper magazine is the
-Linux Magazine
-which also offers table of contents and some excerpts online.
-
-
-Also
-Unix Review
-(formerly known as Performance Computing)
-gives a lot of Linux coverage.
-
-
-
-
-
-Some popular e-zines are
-
-
-
-
-
-*
-Linux Gazette
-
-*
-
-*
-Linux Focus (available in a number of languages)
-
-*
-
-*
-Linux Research
-
-*
-
-*
-Linux Today
-
-*
-
-*
-Linux News
-
-*
-
-*
-Linux Netmag (English)
-and
-Linux Netmag (German)
-
-*
-
-*
-Penguin Magazine
-
-*
-
-
-
-and probably a few others as new ones seem to pop quite frequently.
-
-
-Check out
-LinuxHQ
-for up to date information on current news services.
-
-
-New web pages with literally daily news on linux are popping up
-everywhere, many are quite professional in layout as well as in
-scope. One of the bigger ones is
-Freshmeat
-which serves out news daily.
-
-
-For those who cannot afford the time to follow the net on an hourly
-basis yet need the important news quickly there is the
-Linux Weekly News,
-which gives you a weekly update of important news, including
-securities alerts and also announcements of new and updated
-software.
-
-
-You can also find directions to IRC online chat lines at
-Linux.com.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-There are also a number of more hardware oriented web sites
-worth visiting, such as
-Toms Hardware,
-Anandtech
-for general hardware reviews, and
-Storage review for the latest in disk, tape and other storage technology..
-
-
-
-
-
-
-----
-
-!!4. Meetings
-
-
-
-
-Linux has been created through a massive networked effort, mostly by
-heavy use of the Internet. Still, there is the chance of meeting real
-people, face to face, in Linux user groups (LUG) that are all over the
-world. Search the lists that are published regularly, there could be
-one near you.
-
-
-Conferences, install fests, creating new user groups and more is regularly
-announced on Usenet News
-announcements.
-Such events are excellent venues for staying on top of events and also for
-getting help.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-----
-
-!!5. Searching
-
-
-
-
-There are many avenues open when searching for something particular.
-Remember you can also use the web search engines and that some, like
-
-
-*
-Altavista
-
-*
-
-*
-Excite
-
-*
-
-*
-Hotbot
-*
-
-can also search Usenet news.
-
-
-There are numerous search engines available but they are not all equal
-neither in method of rating relevance nor in size of database.
-For established, authoritative pages I recommend using
-Google
-since it scores pages by the number of links pointing to them.
-People often link to pages they find important or useful and
-Google uses this.
-
-
-Google takes time to score a page properly so it is not that useful
-for searching for the newest or more exotic topics. For that I
-normally recommend either the very fast and wide spanning
-!AllTheWeb
-or meta engines, web systems that forwards your request to
-a number of other search engines, receives the results,
-collates and scores before presenting you with the result.
-My favourite meta engine is
-Go2Net
-formerly known as !MetaCrawler.
-
-
-Such preferences are all subjective and the systems improve
-continuously so you need to experiment yourself. There is
-no perfect search engine and as less than 10 percent of all pages
-are indexed you need to try several engines if you don't succeed
-at first.
-
-
-
-
-
-Also remember that
-Deja
-is a dedicated news searcher that keeps a news spool from early 1995 and onwards.
-
-
-Even though more and more things take place of the web these days, do
-not forget that there is a lot of information available on the various
-ftp servers around the world. Some web search engines also index ftp
-servers but the tool of choice is still the Archie servers, systems
-that regularly scan major ftp servers around the world and keep lists
-of files. These can be accessed in many ways, either by Archie clients
-like archie or the X11 version xarchie which should be
-available on any well maintained linux system. Failing that you can
-access archie servers using telnet to any of the servers listed
-
-
-
-
-
-*
-Australia
-*
-
-*
-Austria
-*
-
-*
-Belgium
-*
-
-*
-Finland
-*
-
-*
-Germany
-*
-
-*
-Korea
-*
-
-*
-Italy
-*
-
-*
-Japan
-*
-
-*
-Poland
-*
-
-*
-Sweden
-*
-
-*
-Spain
-*
-
-*
-United Kingdom
-*
-
-*
-United States
-*
-
-*
-United States
-*
-
-
-
-
-
-
-Of course you should try to use the server closest to you, and to see
-the list of current server you can either start the Archie client with
-no arguments or, if telnetting, by querying the server. Online help is
-available. Unfortunately not all servers are synchronised, so you
-might have to search a few before finding what you are looking for.
-
-
-Recently a more user friendly ftp index server entered the net, the
-ftpsearch
-engine, featuring many options and with a rather stark interface,
-in the best Unix tradition.
-
-
-Most of these offer help on efficient searching techniques, reading this
-can speed up your searches enormously. Investing a little time here will
-pay off in the long run.
-
-
-If you have trouble getting onto the Internet but have mail then you
-should have a look at the ''access via mail'' FAQ. Naturally you can
-get it over e-mail using the
-US, Canada and South America server
-entering only this line in the BODY of the note:
-
-
-send usenet/news.answers/internet-services/access-via-email
-
-
-or
-Europe, Asia etc server
-entering only this line in the BODY of the note:
-
-
-send lis-iis e-access-inet.txt
-
-
-or look through your news spool if you have one locally in
-news.answers newsgroup.
-
-
-Finally, you might wish to get more information from a person, say an
-author of a software package. usually you can find the e-mail address
-in the accompanying documentation which normally would be in the
-documentation subdirectory
-but failing that and also if the given address is no longer valid you
-could find help in the FAQ for
-finding e-mail addresses.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-----
-
-!!6. Conclusion
-
-
-
-
-Finding information fast and efficiently is more of an art than a science
-and we still have not touched on the really difficult part: how do you
-determine the actual ''quality'' of the information? It is outside the
-scope of this HOWTO to tell you that but it is still something you should
-keep in mind. You should at least check the information is recent enough
-to be current to your problem.
-
-
-As a bare minimum you should ensure a minimum of validity of the
-documentation to avoid misleading or malicious advice. A surprising
-number of people suggests things like rm -rf / as a solution
-for a given problem. Some see it as an obvious prank, the unaware can
-end up destroying his or her setup. Just to avoid such things you
-should check out a few things before rushing ahead:
-
-
-
-
-
-*Is there a name attached to the document? If people are serious
-about what they write it should not be anonymous.
-*
-
-*Is it dated? Documents tend to evolve as the technology advances.
-Be sure you are reading the latest version. Internet search engines can
-help you here.
-*
-
-*Are there any followups? Be sure to check any followups or comments
-to what you read, otherwise you might miss a warning or a correction.
-*
-
-
-
-If you keep this in mind you should not fall for too many of the scams
-that circulate on the net, from get well-cards for Craig Shergold,
-chain letters to the more recent problems of Trojans for Linux that
-tries to trick you into mailing off your password.
-
-
-There is a number of FAQs available that deals with more serious research
-method topics and you can also see a comprehensive
-on-line version.
-
-
-Finally, do not forget the
-Linux Documentation Project
-site that coordinates documentation for Linux. Updates and new documents
-are issued regularly, reflecting the development in the field.
-
-
-
-
-
-Quoted from someone's signature:
-
-
-''Be alert! The world needs more lerts
.''
-
-
-
-----
+Describe [HowToUpdate]
here.
