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I'm new to Linux. I've got Ubuntu and K&R. Now what?

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Re: I'm new to Linux. I've got Ubuntu and K&R. Now what?

#5
post #3

What's your aim? If you've K&R are you trying to learn C? If you want to learn the Unix philosophy then get Kernighan and Pike's _The Unix Programming Environment_. If you want to create a web start-up, learn Python and Django. What skills do you already have?

Are you a Django fan? If not, what's your motive for solely recommending Django, instead of TurboGears or Pylons?

(Yes, the fact that Python has multiple frameworks is a problem, but settling on Django is not a solution.)

Re: I'm new to Linux. I've got Ubuntu and K&R. Now what?

#6
post #3

What's your aim? If you've K&R are you trying to learn C? If you want to learn the Unix philosophy then get Kernighan and Pike's _The Unix Programming Environment_. If you want to create a web start-up, learn Python and Django. What skills do you already have?

Are you a Django fan? If not, what's your motive for solely recommending Django, instead of TurboGears or Pylons? (Yes, the fact that Python has multiple frameworks is a problem, but settling on Django is not a solution.)

Django is a reasonable enough one to learn. He hasn't the skills to examine the possible contenders and make a good decision himself. After learning Django, then he may be in a position to better appraise the competition.

Likewise, I didn't say "read a book on Unix" but gave a specific, worthy, contender. As a complete newcomer there's little more annoying than general hand-waving.

Re: I'm new to Linux. I've got Ubuntu and K&R. Now what?

#7
post #4

'... I'm new ... Now what? ...' Learn how to become a hacker ~ http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html

He should also read Snow Crash or Cryptonomicon to become inspired to hack. Man I love those books.

Snow Crash at scribd: http://www.scribd.com/doc/10862/Neal-Stephenson-Snow-Crash

Re: I'm new to Linux. I've got Ubuntu and K&R. Now what?

#9
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you a Django fan? If not, what's your motive for solely recommending Django, instead of TurboGears or Pylons? (Yes, the fact that Python has multiple frameworks is a problem, but settling on Django is not a solution.)

Django is a reasonable enough one to learn. He hasn't the skills to examine the possible contenders and make a good decision himself. After learning Django, then he may be in a position to better appraise the competition. Likewise, I didn't say "read a book on Unix" but gave a specific, worthy, contender. As a complete newcomer there's little more annoying than general hand-waving.

Hm, I guess that's fair enough. My main concern is that if he starts with Django, he might never know there's other frameworks.

Re: I'm new to Linux. I've got Ubuntu and K&R. Now what?

#10
Surely the next step is to contact some VC companies and ask for say, $10 million :-). This really is an open ended question! If you are about to start programming then there is no limit to the possibilities so you'd better pick a direction to go in that you will find interesting. Good luck.
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