Two Free Linux Books

Weekly Computer Giveaway winner announced!

Read on, winner of this week’s giveaway is revealed below.

The computer this week is a ThinkCentre M710q Tiny with 8GB memory, 120GB SSD storage and Intel i3 (sixth generation) processor.

I use one of these at my workshop for my front desk computer. That computer currently has Linux Mint Debian Edition with Cinnamon desktop on it and it runs great. I did upgrade it to 16GB memory, though, as having both Thunderbird email and a browser with a whole lot of tabs open, as well as other applications, does put a bit of pressure on the memory.

These Tiny computer are great. They are a good way to try Linux, if you haven’t already. If you are interested in the Home Lab or Self-Hosting “hobbies”, these also work great. I host my Fediverse server on a HP mini computer and it works great.

Two Free Linux Books

One of my subscribers asked me a couple weeks ago about books that I would recommend on the Linux command line for someone fairly new to Linux.

I found a recommendation on the Fediverse that I passed on to him.

The Linux Command Line by William Shotts

https://linuxcommand.org/tlcl.php

There’s a free PDF download of the book, as well as a way to purchase a print copy from the publisher.

This last week, I practiced a lot of command line skills by writing a decently long shell script. The last part of this book, Part 4, has an excellent overview and guidance on shell scripting.

Introduction to Linux - selected articles from both.org

https://www.both.org/downloads/introduction-to-linux.pdf

This free e-book is an introduction to Linux for users and readers who are just getting started with Linux software. You’ll find many articles that share great suggestions on how to start learning Linux. You’ll find tips you can use, advice from experts, and introductions to different desktops—such as Cinnamon, KDE, Xfce, and GNOME—that you can use to explore further, based on your own personal preferences and needs.

The first “chapter” is an article on the Cinnamon desktop environment, which has been my preferred DE for the past couple years (though I am actively testing and using others).

The fifth “chapter” is also of special interest to my focus on this newsletter. It examines what an init system is and what the options and advantages are of using an init system other than systemd.

Here’s a link to the original article: 5 reasons to love init by Seth Kenlon

Announcing the Giveaway Winner

bla***wite@*mail.com

If that’s you, reply from that email address to claim this ThinkCentre Tiny .

I will attempt to ship the computer to where ever you are in the world… but there may be some places that I can not ship to.

Until next time

I appreciate you reading and sharing this newsletter. Feel free to reply by email or engage with me on the fediverse.

— Matthew from RetroEdge.Tech