Fedora Package Listings
You can quickly and easily view a list of the installed RPM packages installed on your Fedora system, along with a short description of each package, by using the rpm command:
$ rpm -qai | less
Fedora users can also use the yum command to view package names and information about not only installed packages, but any available updated packages, like this:
$ yum info | less
If you use Fedora and want to see info about only your installed packages, use the yum command's installed list option like so:
$ yum info installed | less
However, because this will generate a lot of information, you might want to generate a text file that contains all this information for your records. This is fairly easy to do by piping the output from the yum command into a file, as follows:
$ yum info available > -/availablepackages.txt
or
$ yum info installed > -/installedpackages.txt
Certification
Linux certification courses are part of the rapidly growing information technology training industry. Hundreds of different vendors now offer courses about and testing of Linux skill sets. However, because Linux is open source software, there are no formal rules or mandates concerning what knowledge or level of expertise is required for certification. If you are interested in certification using Red Hat Linux and would like to pursue a career or obtain employment with a company using Red Hat Linux, you really should seek training from the best and most qualified company: Red Hat.
That said, the following websites might be of interest if you would like to pursue a certification track for Red Hat or other Linux distributions:
► http://www.lpi.org — The Linux Professional Institute, with Linux vendor- and distribution-neutral programs
► http://www.redhat.com/training/ — Entry page to Red Hat's Global Learning Services and information about the Red Hat Certified Engineer program
Commercial Support
Commercial support for Linux and Red Hat Linux is an essential ingredient to the success of Linux in the corporate and business community. Although hundreds, if not thousands, of consultants well versed in Linux and UNIX are available on call for a fee, here is a short list of the best-known Linux support providers:
► http://www.redhat.com/apps/support/ — Red Hat's main support page with links to its various support programs.
► http://www.ibm.com/linux/ — Linux services offered by IBM include e-business solutions, open source consulting, database migration, clustering, servers, and support. In addition to service-oriented support companies, nearly every commercial distributor of Linux has some form of easily purchased commercial support. There are various ways in which to take advantage of support services (such as remote management, onsite consulting, device driver development, and so on), but needs vary according to customer circumstances and installations.
Join a local Linux Users Group (LUG)! Joining and participating in a local LUG has many benefits. You can get help, trade information, and learn many new and wonderful things about Linux. Most LUGs do not have membership dues, and many often sponsor regular lectures and discussions from leading Linux, GNU, and open source experts. For one great place to start, browse to http://www.tux.org/luglist.html. Another great place to meet up with like-minded people is at one of the numerous Linuxworld shows held around the world. Head on over to http://www.linuxworldexpo.com/flash/ for a list of international shows.
Documentation
Nearly all Linux distributions include thousands of pages of documentation in the form of manual pages, HOWTO documents (in various formats, such as text and HTML), mini-HOWTO documents, or software package documentation (usually found under the /usr/share/doc/ directory). However, the definitive site for reading the latest versions of these documents is the Linux Documentation Project, found athttp://www.tldp.org.
Linux Guides
If you are looking for more extensive and detailed information concerning a Linux subject, try reading one of the many Linux guides. These guides, available for a number of subjects, dwell on technical topics in more detail and at a more leisurely pace than a HOWTO. You can find copies of the following through the web:
► "Advanced Bash-Scripting Guide," by Mendel Cooper; a guide to shell scripting using bash
► "LDP Author Guide," by Mark F. Komarinski; how to write LDP documentation
► "Linux Administration Made Easy," by Steve Frampton
► "Linux Consultants Guide," by Joshua Drake; a worldwide listing of commercial Linux consultants
► "Linux from Scratch," by Gerard Beekmans; creating a Linux distribution from software
► "Linux Kernel Module Programming Guide," by Peter J. Salzman, Michael Burian, and Ori Pomerantz; a good guide to building 2.4 and 2.6 series modules
► "Securing and Optimizing Linux," by Gerhard Mourani
► "The Linux Network Administrator's Guide, Second Edition," by Olaf Kirch and Terry Dawson; a comprehensive Net admin guide
The Fedora Project
► http://fedoraproject.org/ — The community home page for the Fedora Project. Also includes an ever-growing Wiki that provides a lot of tutorials and HOWTOs for Fedora.
► http://planet.fedoraproject.org — Find out what's going on in the lives of people closely connected with Fedora.
► http://fedoraforum.org — A good place to go if you need specific Fedora support.
Red Hat Linux
► http://www.redhat.com — The home page for Red Hat's distribution of Red Hat Enterprise Linux for multiple processors and architectures.
► http://www.redhat.com/apps/support/documentation.html — A web page with links to current official Red Hat manuals and guides, FAQs, HOWTOs, whitepapers, free books, mailing list archives, hardware compatibility lists, and other documentation.
Mini-CD Linux Distributions
Mini-CD Linux distributions are used for many different purposes. Some distributions are used to boot to a read-only firewall configuration; others are used to provide as complete a rescue environment as possible; whereas others are used to either install or help jump-start an install of a full distribution. Mini-CDs are available in a wide variety of sizes, such as 3" CD-Rs (or CD-RW) with sizes ranging from 185MB to 210MB. You can also download an ISO image and create a Linux bootable business card, typically fitting on a 40MB or 50MB credit card-sized CD-R (consider using a mini-CD-RW, especially if you want to upgrade your distribution often). Here are some links to these distributions:
► http://www.lnx-bbc.org — The home page for the Linux BBC, a 40MB image hosting a rather complete live Linux session with X, a web browser, and a host of networking tools.
► http://crux.nu/ — The home page of the CRUX i686-optimized Linux distribution.