One more reminder: the FLOSS manual libraries, hosted by Elf and Jamal, have a great book on the GNU/Linux system running bash. Coming from Windows, you will be absolutely amazed at what you can do with a simple command line script.
Over on the accessibility@xxxxxxx mailing list, a guy named Don has posted a program he calls Speedy OCR and its a really useful scan and read program written entirely as a bash script that calls pre-made executables. Six weeks ago, he didn't know GNU/Linux from VMS or OS/2 and now he's making serious contributions.
Jump on in, the water's great! On 07/28/2010 08:46 AM, Jay Macarty wrote:
Jim,I find myself in somewhat the same boat just recently. I have just been informed that we are switching all our HP/UX environments over to Suse linux. While I have been asured that I can continue to use Tera Term for my SSH sessions, I know there are going to be some differences between the KSH shell I am used to and whatever shell linux is using. So, I will be jumping into some linux book or books myself shortly. We use Weblogic instead of Apache but still I need to learn how to manage the Weblogic environment under linuyx right away. So, while I don't as yet have any suggestions, I will certainly be following this thread closely.----- Original Message ----- *From:* Homme, James <mailto:james.homme@xxxxxxxxxxxx> *To:* programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> *Sent:* Wednesday, July 28, 2010 7:36 AM *Subject:* Learning What I Need To Know About Basic Linux Hi, On the system I'm using, I don't have the authority to administrate the operating system, but I do have the authority, and need to, administrate the other software on the box that doesn't come with it, so I need to come up to speed yesterday. You know how that is. I cracked open the book called Learning The Unix Operating System Fifth Edition and started using it to learn basic commands. Among other things, two things are tripping me up. First, I'm using Putty. I have it set up properly with JAWS, but I'm being driven crazy any time data needs to scroll the screen because the whole screen is being spoken. The second thing has to do with knowing what I need to learn. I'm just trying to learn what I need to know for now, and branching out from there. Unfortunately, I'm not sure exactly what all that entales. But fortunately, I do have some time, because we're just starting to use MySQL and PHP. So I see three big tasks or things to learn. * What's involved in administrating Apache, like not letting the logs get too big, possibly installing a friendly statistics package, or whatever. * Setting up daily backups of the changed MySQL database or databases that we have. * Whatever MySQL administration that I have no earthly idea I may need to do. * I'll have to upgrade MySQL at some point. * I'll have to upgrade PHP at some point. * I pray that I never have to upgrade Apache. * Possibly installing some nice, convenient packages like PHPMyAdmin. But I'm thinking that like the people who were advocating learning the dirty way, I think it's best to probably learn how to do it from command lines so that I have total control and really know what's going on. But I'm starting with basic commands, but at the same time, trying to do my first Drupal installation, and I'm in real trouble because of course there's this deadline. Back to my UNIX book. Specifically, I didn't see in the book two things. First, what permissions do files and directories automatically get when you create them? Second, I used to know a little more about some sort of file in my home directory that I could put stuff in to customize the environment a little more. I know that that file has a name that starts with a period. Yet another thing. I'm pretty sure that the shell I'm using is called the bash shell, but I don't know how to find out. And how does that affect how I work with the system? For example, if there's another shell that's better, what is it, what does better mean, and how to I turn it on. Like I was thinking of making aliases for cp and rm that automatically run the -i option to keep myself from trashing stuff. Someone please hold my hand and tell me it'll be all right. <grin> Jim Jim Homme, Usability Services, Phone: 412-544-1810. Skype: jim.homme Internal recipients, Read my accessibility blog <http://mysites.highmark.com/personal/lidikki/Blog/default.aspx>. Discuss accessibility here <http://collaborate.highmark.com/COP/technical/accessibility/default.aspx>. Accessibility Wiki: Breaking news and accessibility advice <http://collaborate.highmark.com/COP/technical/accessibility/Accessibility%20Wiki/Forms/AllPages.aspx> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This e-mail and any attachments to it are confidential and are intended solely for use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender immediately and then delete it. If you are not the intended recipient, you must not keep, use, disclose, copy or distribute this e-mail without the author's prior permission. The views expressed in this e-mail message do not necessarily represent the views of Highmark Inc., its subsidiaries, or affiliates.