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12.3 For More Information
Apart from the product-specific help resources, there is a broad range
of information available for Linux topics.
12.3.1 The Linux Documentation Project
The Linux Documentation Project (TLDP) is run by a team of volunteers
who write Linux-related documentation (see https://www.tldp.org). The set of documents contains tutorials for
beginners, but is mainly focused on experienced users and professional
system administrators. TLDP publishes HOWTOs, FAQs, and guides (handbooks)
under a free license.
HOWTOs
HOWTOs are usually a short, informal, step-by-step guides to
accomplishing specific tasks. HOWTOs can be found in the package
howto and are installed under
/usr/share/doc/howto
Frequently Asked Questions
FAQs (frequently asked questions) are a series of questions and answers.
They originate from Usenet newsgroups where the purpose was to reduce
continuous reposting of the same basic questions.
Guides
Manuals and guides for various topics or programs can be found at
https://www.tldp.org/guides.html. They range from
Bash Guide for Beginners to Linux
Filesystem Hierarchy to Linux Administrator's
Security Guide. Generally, guides are more detailed and
exhaustive than a HOWTO or FAQ. They are usually written by experts for
experts. Some of these books are old but still valid and ship with
openSUSE. Search and install these books and guides with YaST.
12.3.2 Usenet
Created in 1979 before the rise of the Internet, Usenet is one of the
oldest computer networks and still in active use. The format and
transmission of Usenet articles is very similar to e-mail, but is
developed for a many-to-many communication.
Usenet is organized into seven topical categories: comp.* for computer-related discussions,
misc.* for miscellaneous
topics, news.* for
newsgroup-related matters, rec.* for recreation and entertainment,
sci.* for science-related
discussions, soc.* for social
discussions, and talk.* for
various controversial topics. The top levels are split in subgroups. For
instance, comp.os.linux.hardware is a newsgroup for
Linux-specific hardware issues.
Before you can post an article, have your client connect to a news server
and subscribe to a specific newsgroup. News clients include Knode or
Evolution. Each news server communicates to other news servers and
exchanges articles with them. Not all newsgroups may be available on your
news server.
Interesting newsgroups for Linux users are comp.os.linux.apps, comp.os.linux.questions, and comp.os.linux.hardware. If you cannot find
a specific newsgroup, go to https://www.linux.org/docs/usenetlinux.html. Follow the general
Usenet rules available online at https://www.faqs.org/faqs/usenet/posting-rules/part1/.
12.3.3 Wikipedia: The Free Online Encyclopedia
Wikipedia is a multilingual encyclopedia designed to be read and
edited by anyone (see https://en.wikipedia.org).
The content of Wikipedia is created by its users and is published under a
free license (GFDL). Any visitor can edit articles.
12.3.4 Standards and Specifications
There are various sources that provide information about standards or
specifications.
-
https://www.linux-foundation.org/en/LSB
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The Linux Foundation is an independent nonprofit organization that
promotes the distribution of free software and open source software.
The organization endeavors to achieve this by defining
distribution-independent standards. The maintenance of several
standards, such as the important LSB (Linux Standard Base), is
supervised by this organization.
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https://www.w3.org
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The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is one of the best-known
standards organizations. It was founded in October 1994 by Tim
Berners-Lee and concentrates on standardizing Web technologies. W3C
promotes the dissemination of open, license-free, and
manufacturer-independent specifications, such as HTML, XHTML, and XML.
These Web standards are developed in a four-stage process in
working groups and are presented to the public as
W3C recommendations (REC).
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https://www.oasis-open.org
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OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information
Standards) is an international consortium specializing in the
development of standards for Web security, e-business, business
transactions, logistics, and interoperability between various markets.
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https://www.ietf.org
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The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is an internationally active
cooperative of researchers, network designers, suppliers, and users. It
concentrates on the development of Internet architecture and the smooth
operation of the Internet by means of protocols.
Every IETF standard is published as an RFC (Request for Comments) and
is available free-of-charge. There are six types of RFC: proposed
standards, draft standards, Internet standards, experimental protocols,
information documents, and historic standards. Only the first three
(proposed, draft, and full) are IETF standards in the narrower sense
(see https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1796.txt).
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https://www.ieee.org
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The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an
organization that draws up standards in the areas of information
technology, telecommunication, medicine and health care, transport, and
others. IEEE standards are subject to a fee.
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https://www.iso.org
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The ISO Committee (International Organization for Standards) is
the world's largest developer of standards and maintains a network of
national standardization institutes in over 140 countries. ISO
standards are subject to a fee.
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https://www.din.de
,
https://www.din.com
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The Deutsches Institut für Normung (DIN) is a registered technical
and scientific association. It was founded in 1917. According to DIN,
the organization is the institution responsible for standards in
Germany and represents German interests in worldwide and European
standards organizations.
The association brings together manufacturers, consumers, trade
professionals, service companies, scientists and others who have an
interest in the establishment of standards. The standards are subject
to a fee and can be ordered using the DIN home page.
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