[clug] Linux Resources

Sat Aug 3 05:10:18 UTC 2019

George,

It’s worth reading about the history of Linux (some is obvious) and Open Source - especially attacks on it.

If you wanted to retrace the whole 50 years of Unix / Linux / Open Source source code history, that’s possible too now with Virtual Machines and ‘xv6’ - where it all began. TUHS (The Unix Heritage Society) has many

For an introduction to the FOSS community, their principles and capability, I’d suggest reading up on PJ & Groklaw - and how she saved Open Source from the SCO lawsuit, when even IBM & Redhat couldn’t.

This is Just one instance of many - I hope others may contribute with other examples, such as the EU court decision on licensing the SMB protocol.

Timeline of SCO–Linux disputes
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_SCO–Linux_disputes <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_SCO%E2%80%93Linux_disputes>>
> By mid-2004, five major lawsuits had been filed:
> 
> 	• SCO v. IBM
> 	• Red Hat v. SCO
> 	• SCO v. Novell
> 	• SCO v. DaimlerChrysler
> 	• SCO v. AutoZone

PJ
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pamela_Jones <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pamela_Jones>>

GrokLaw
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groklaw <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groklaw>>

PJ didn’t rest on her laurels - she created and worked on multiple other (non-code) community projects:

Grokline's UNIX Ownership History Project [look at the ‘By Date’ tab]
<https://web.archive.org/web/20100821172504/http://grokline.net:80/ <https://web.archive.org/web/20100821172504/http://grokline.net:80/>>

This is an open, community-based, collaborative research project, a living history, designed to carefully trace the ownership history of UNIX and UNIX-like code with the goal of reducing, or eliminating, the amount of software subject to superficially plausible but ultimately invalid copyright, patent and trade secret claims against Linux or other free and open source software.

She also collected a list of “Resources” - for exactly people like you - new to Open Source.
<https://web.archive.org/web/20130601182508/http://www.grokdoc.net/index.php/Resources <https://web.archive.org/web/20130601182508/http://www.grokdoc.net/index.php/Resources>>

Where’s the currentResources List? There doesn’t appear to be one - an Opportunity for someone / some group.
[Your contribution with your email is a start - it’d be a shame to lose it or not build upon it.]

We’ve had endless homilies and criticism on-list on “writing documentation” etc.
I’ve not found them helpful or enlightening.

PJ had a Professional Writer address this topic - with an acknowledged expert and artisan, not “I did this in my lunchtime”.
It’s not carping and prescriptive, it attempts to lead technical people into good writing habits & strategies for ‘Beginners’.

Writing Technical Documents for Computer Beginners
<https://web.archive.org/web/20080929160318/http://www.grokdoc.net/index.php/Writing_Technical_Documents_for_Computer_Beginners <https://web.archive.org/web/20080929160318/http://www.grokdoc.net/index.php/Writing_Technical_Documents_for_Computer_Beginners>>

> As hundreds of volunteers use this method with computer beginners trying various software packages,
> we can build up a usability library that will prove invaluable in helping
> to make FOSS appealing and inviting to the average Windows user and the total computer neophyte. 
> You know, that 90% of the market whom we want to try Linux. 
> This will go a long way toward making that dream a reality.

PJ’s contributions to Open Source and the community have been profound and long-lasting - we owe her a massive debt.
She’s understood the nature of challenges and their solutions well before others have even noticed there was a problem.

If she’s written things that appear “ dated”, “too simple” or simplistic, I think it’s worth rereading and attempting to understand her points and perspective - yes, she _is_ that good.

regards
steve

==========

PS: Please don’t respond with a homily about “Top Posting” - that’s just being a List Nazi.
I’ve included George’s full post for context, and for future searches to find both.
As I wasn’t responding to a specific point, I didn’t extract just that one point and respond to it.

Please direct ‘flames’ to /dev/null .

> On 27 Jul 2019, at 13:18, George at Clug via linux <linux at lists.samba.org> wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> 
> Just a general question about learning resources.  What Linux
> learning resources do you find useful?
> 
> 
> 
> 1) For Microsoft I found that
> https://learn.pluralsight.com/resource/tutorial/how-to was useful
> 
> 
> 
> 2) For Linux the best I had seen was https://linuxacademy.com/team
> 
> 
> 3) For quantum computing - well nothing I have found so far helps,
> lol  (and I am being serious, here, I would like to learn more about
> quantum computing)
> 
> 
> 
> 4) There was also
> https://www.redhat.com/en/services/training/student-center but I did
> not find it any more useful that Microsoft's training resources.
> 
> 
> 
> 5) LCA and other conference recordings are interesting to keep across
> what's happening and various technologies I would not otherwise know
> about.
> 
> https://www.linuxfoundation.org/press-release/2019/01/the-linux-foundation-announces-2019-events-schedule/
> 
> 
> 6) YouTube has lots of stuff, but it can be challenging finding talks
> that are what about you need and to the point.
> 
> 
> 
> George
> 
> 
> 
> 
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Steve Jenkin, IT Systems and Design 
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