25 free open source projects IT pros will love

Although it’s popular these days to pooh-pooh the advertising-supported, for-profit SourceForge in favor of GitHub, the SourceForge folks want to remind you that the forge still hosts more than 300,000 projects and serves up a good 4 million downloads a day. We asked SourceForge’s new community manager and longtime open source coder, Rich Bowen, to sniff out a few of the cool, lesser-known projects he thinks IT folks will love. What follows are his picks, along with a few of our own.

LEAF 

LEAF is a customizable embedded Linux network appliance for use in a variety of ways. It was originally intended as an Internet gateway but can also be used as a router, firewall, and wireless access point.

Freeplane 

This is an application for an organizational technique called mind mapping. Occupying the middle ground between an editor and a diagramming tool, Freeplane allows the user to add content quickly and produce structured content that can be manipulated as easily as a diagram. It is useful for knowledge management and project management.

FOG 

FOG is a free open-source cloning/imaging suite that is intended to be a substitute for Ghost. It can be used to create images of Windows XP, Vista and 7 PCs using PXE and PartImage. Features include memory and disk test, disk wipe, antivirus scan and task scheduling.

Advanced Onion Router 

Advanced Onion Router is a Windows client intended as an alternative for the Tor+Vidalia+Privoxy bundle. It is able to force a program and its plugins to use the Tor proxy regardless of its configured proxy. Tor is a project for maintaining anonymity on the Internet.

Eraser 

Eraser is a secure data removal tool for Windows. It removes sensitive data from your hard drive by overwriting it several times with carefully selected patterns and it also erases residue from deleted files including MFT-resident files (for NTFS volumes) and directory indices (for FAT). Also allows you to schedule your data removal in advance.

Dmg2iso 

Dmg2iso is a small tool for converting Apple Macintosh .dmg images to .iso images. The application is universal for Mac OS X version 10.4 and above.

TurboCASH Accounting 

TurboCASH is an entry-level accounting package for Windows. It is suitable for single users and small companies. It accommodates developer scripts, local plugins and multi language translation.

Snoopy 

Snoopy is a PHP class that simulates a web browser. It automates tasks such as retrieving webpage content and posting forms, for example.

Iometer 

Iometer is an I/O performance analysis tool originally developed by Intel in the late 1990s. When Intel discontinued work on Iometer, the company gave it to the Open Source Development Lab (OSDL). It measures I/O performance for single and clustered systems.

Create Synchronicity 

Create Synchronicity is a backup application that synchronizes files and folders. It can schedule backups, too. It’s multilingual and lightweight at only 180 KB.

Burn 

Create data discs with advanced data settings. When you create video and audio discs, Burn will convert formats as needed. Copy disks, create DVD-Video discs… just about any CD/DVD burn function you need, Burn can do.

Hugin 

Hugin is a software package for the creation and processing of panoramic images.

Anti-Spam SMTP Proxy Server 

The Anti-Spam SMTP Proxy (ASSP) Server project is a platform-independent SMTP Proxy server which implements auto-whitelists, Bayesian, Greylisting and multiple filter methods. It includes an enormous feature list and integrates with ClamAV.

Blat 

Blat is Windows command line SMTP mailer. Use it to automatically e-mail logs, the contents of HTML forms, or whatever else you need to send.

UltraDefrag 

UltraDefrag is a disk defragmenter for Windows that can even defrag locked system files by running during the boot process. It processes single files or folders from the Explorer context menu and is available for 32-bit and 64-bit Windows.

FREE!ship 

FREE!ship is a surface modeling program for designing ships, yachts and boats. Subdivision surfaces are used to give the designer the freedom to design any desired hull shape.

Classic Shell 

Classic Shell adds some of the classic XP features that are missing in Windows 7 and Vista, like the classic start menu and the toolbar for Explorer.

SNARE 

SNARE (System iNtrusion Analysis and Reporting Environment) is a series of log-collection agents to help you analyze audit log data. Agents are available for Linux, Windows, Solaris, IIS, Lotus Notes, Irix, AIX, ISA/IIS and more.

ZBar 

Take a picture of a barcode and use Zbar to read it on your computer. Supports EAN/UPC, Code 128, Code 39, Interleaved 2 of 5 and QR Code. Includes libraries and applications for decoding captured barcode images and uses a video device (such as a webcam) as a barcode scanner. (There’s also an iPhone app version.)

Icinga 

Icinga is an open source IT infrastructure monitoring system based on Nagios. Icinga will be fully compatible with its predecessor, retaining all the existing Nagios features while adding new features requested by the user community.

WinDirStat 

WinDirStat is a disk usage statistics viewer and cleanup tool for Windows. It shows disk, file and directory sizes in a treelist and graphically in a treemap, much like KDirStat or SequoiaView.

WinMerge

WinMerge is a Windows tool for visual difference display and merging, for both files and directories. It supports Unicode and Windows Shell. It includes a flexible syntax coloring editor, Regexp filtering, side-by-side line differences and highlights differences.

FreeCAD 

FreeCAD is a platform-independent 3D CAD/CAE program, based on OpenCascade, QT and Python. It includes key features like macro recording, workbenches, the ability to run as a server and to support dynamically loadable application extensions.

Audacity 

A multi-track audio editor and recorder for Linux, BSD, Mac OS, and Windows. Supports WAV, AIFF, Ogg, and MP3 formats. Features include envelope editing, mixing, built-in effects and plug-ins, all with unlimited undo.

Pingus 

This list couldn’t be all work and no play. Pingus X-Fi2 is an open source clone of the addictive puzzle game Lemmings. The player takes command in the game of a bunch of small animals and has to guide them through levels. Since the animals walk on their own, the player can only influence them by giving them commands, like build a bridge, dig a hole or redirect all animals in the other direction. Pingus offers its own unique twists, like the worldmap or secret levels.

Five open source technologies for 2012

Next year, if all goes according to plan, Red Hat will become the first open source software company to generate more than US$1 billion a year in revenue. It will be a watershed moment for the open source community, who have long seen their approach of community-based development as a viable, even superior, alternative to traditional notions of how software should be written.
"I think we're seeing a fundamental shift in where innovation happens, going from the labs of a few software companies to these massive open source efforts," said Jim Whitehurst, president and CEO of Red Hat.
Certainly, open source has left the proprietary software world in turmoil over the past few years, as Linux, the Apache Web server, Perl, Apache, Hadoop, OpenOffice, GIMP and dozens of other programs put the pinch on their commercial counterparts. But what are tomorrow's open source heavy hitters? Here are five projects to watch closely in 2012. They may form the basis for new businesses and new industries. Or they may just capture the minds of developers and administrators with some easier, or at least less expensive, way of getting the job done.

--Nginx
For the better part of the last decade, the choice for Web server software has been pretty stable. Apache has been used on the majority of Web servers while Microsoft's IIS (Internet Information Services) is used across many of the rest. Over the past few years, however, use of a third entrant, Nginx (pronounced "engine-x"), has been on the rise, thanks to the software's ability to easily handle high-volume traffic.
Nginx is already run on 50 million different Internet domains, or about 10 percent of the entire Internet, the developers of the software estimate. It is particularly widely used on highly trafficked Web sites, such as Facebook, Zappos, Groupon, Hulu, Dropbox, and WordPress. Not surprisingly, the software's creator, Igor Sysoev, designed Nginx in 2004 specifically to handle a large numbers of concurrent users -- up to 10,000 connections per server. "It is a very lean architecture," said Andrew Alexeev, a co-founder of a company that offers a commercial version of the software, called Nginx.
The upcoming year promises to be a good one for Nginx. Last year, Nginx got $3 million in backing from a number of venture capital firms, including one supported by Dell CEO Michael Dell. It partnered with Jet-Stream to provide Nginx for that software vendor's CDN (content delivery network) package. It also is working with Amazon to streamline Nginx for the AWS (Amazon Web Service) cloud service.
Beyond Nginx's use in large Web operations, Alexeev sees wider use for Nginx in the emerging cloud computing and shared services market. "This is where we can add the most benefit," Alexeev said. The next major release of the software, due next year, will be more pliable for shared hosting environments. It will be better able to handle DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service Attacks), and come with additional security features, he said.

--OpenStack
The OpenStack project arrived relatively late to the cloud computing party, but it comes with one particularly indispensable feature: scalability.
"We're not talking about [using OpenStack to run a] cloud of 100 servers or even 1,000 servers, but tens of thousands of servers. Other options out there aren't really considering that scale," said Jonathan Bryce, chairman of the OpenStack Project Policy Board.
Since its launch in July 2010, OpenStack quickly gained a great deal of support from IT firms interested in the cloud computing space, such as Hewlett-Packard, Intel and Dell. OpenStack devotees like to call their work the fastest growing open source project, with involvement from over 144 companies and 2,100 participants. Dell launched a package, called the Dell OpenStack Cloud Solution, which combines OpenStack with the company's own servers and software. HP launched a beta public cloud service with the technology as well.

The core computational components of OpenStack were developed at NASA Ames Research Center, for an internal cloud to store large amounts of space imagery. Originally, the NASA administrators tried using the Eucalyptus software project platform, but found challenges in scaling the software to the required levels, according to Chris Kemp, who oversaw the development of the OpenStack cloud controller when he was CIO of NASA Ames.
To aid in wider adoption, OpenStack is being outfitted with a number of new features that should make it more palatable for enterprises, said John Engates, chief technology officer for managed hosting provider Rackspace. One project, called Keystone, will allow organizations to integrate OpenStack with their identity management systems, those based on Microsoft Active Directory or other LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) implementations. Also, developers are working on a front-end portal for the software as well. Rackspace, which first partnered with NASA to package OpenStack for general usage, is also spinning off the project as a fully independent stand-alone entity, in hopes that it will be an attractive option for more cloud providers.
"2011 was the year for building the base of the product, but I think 2012 is where we really start to use that base for a lot of private and public clouds," Engates said.

--Stig
The past year has seen the dramatic growth in the use of nonrelational databases, such as Cassandra, MongoDB, CouchDB and countless others. But at the NoSQL Now conference, held last September, much of the buzz surrounded a still unreleased data store called Stig. With any luck, we will see Stig in 2012.
Stig is designed for the unique workloads of social networking sites, its maintainers claim. It was created at the social networking site Tagged by software engineer Jason Lucas, who calls the technology a distributed graph database. It is designed to support heavily interactive and social Web applications. The data store's architecture allows for inferential searching, allowing users and applications to look for connections between disparate pieces of information. Because it was written, in part, in the Haskell functional programming language, it can easily divide up its workload across multiple servers.
Stig is still a bit of a mystery, as it hasn't been actually released yet. But observers are predicting it could fit a niche in the social networks and other applications that keep a wide range of data. The needs of social networking services are inherently different from other types of jobs, and would benefit from a database attuned to its needs, Lucas explained. "You can't be a relevant service in this space without being able to scale to a planetary size," he said.
Stig is currently operating on one server at Tagged, though the company expects to expand its use to the point where it will be the sole database for the company. Originally, the developers were planning to source code by December, but moved back the release to sometime in 2012.
"What I did see looked very interesting," said Dan McCreary, a semantic solutions architect for the Kelly-McCreary & Associates consulting firm. He praised the database's functional language architecture, which should ease the deployment of the database across multiple servers.
--Linux Mint
Despite years of advocacy on the part of open source adherents, Linux has never had a strong presence on the desktop. But usually there is always one user-friendly Linux distribution to use, as an alternative to Microsoft Windows. In recent years, Canonical's Ubuntu has fulfilled this role, though the increasingly popular Linux Mint may trump Ubuntu by being even easier to use.

Software engineer Clement Lefebvre first crafted Linux Mint after a gig of reviewing other Linux distributions for various online forums. From this work, Lefebvre developed ideas about what features should be in the ideal distribution. Just as Canonical appropriated the Debian Linux distribution for its own massively popular Ubuntu, Lefebvre used Ubuntu as the base for Linux Mint. Today, the Linux Mint project is funded by donations, advertising revenue from its Web site, and income derived from user searches, the last through a controversial partnership with DuckDuckGo.
Linux Mint is designed specifically for people who just want a desktop OS, and who don't wish to learn more about how Linux works (i.e. non-Linux hobbyists). This approach makes installing and running the software easy and maintenance pretty much a nonissue. Even more than Ubuntu, Mint emphasizes easy usability, at the expense of not using new features until they have proven themselves trustworthy.
For instance, Mint eschews the somewhat controversial Unity desktop interface, which Canonical adopted to more easily port Ubuntu to mobile platforms. Instead, Mint sticks with the more widely known, and more mature, Gnome interface.
Such rigorous adherence to usability may be helping Linux Mint, much to the detriment of Ubuntu, in fact. The Linux Mint project claims its OS is now the fourth most widely used desktop OS in the world, after Windows, Apple Mac and Ubuntu. Over the past year, Mint has even usurped Ubuntu as the distribution that generates the most page views on the DistroWatch Linux news site, a metric generally thought to reflect the popularity of Linux distributions. No doubt 2012 will see only more growth for the OS.

--Gluster
Could Red Hat revolutionize the world of storage software in much the same way it revolutionized the market for Unix-based OSes? In October, Red Hat purchased Gluster, which, with its GlusterFS file system, makes open source software that clusters commodity SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) drives and NAS (network attached storage) systems into massively scalable pools of storage. Red Hat plans to apply the method it used to dominate the market for Linux OSes for the storage space as well.
According to Red Hat's Whitehurst, the storage software market generates $4 billion in revenue annually, though that's not why the company was interested in the technology. Instead, Red Hat was interested in finding a storage technology that would make cloud migrations easier. "We look for places where open source would be particularly powerful as a way to innovate, and we look for areas in the stack where we think we can monetize," he said. "There are not other solutions like that out there."
The software has some momentum, at least in terms of administrators downloading and testing the software. Over the past year, GlusterFS downloads increased by 300 percent. In November, the software was downloaded over 37,000 times.

30 Best Sources For Linux / *BSD / Unix Documentation On the Web

Man pages are written by sys-admin and developers for IT techs, and are intended more as a reference than as a how to. Man pages are very useful for people who are already familiar with Linux, Unix, and BSD operating systems. Use man pages when you just need to know the syntax for particular commands or configuration file, but they are not helpful for new Linux users. Man pages are not good for learning something new for the first time. Here are thirty best documentation sites on the web for learning Linux and Unix like operating systems.

This article is dedicated to the memory of Dennis Ritchie (1941-2011).

Please note that BSD manpages are usually better as compare to Linux.

#1: Red Hat Enterprise Linux

RHEL Docs

RHEL is developed by Red Hat and targeted toward the commercial market. It has one of the best documentations covering basis of RHEL to advanced topics like security, SELinux, virtualization, directory server, clustering, JBOSS, HPC, and much more. Red Hat documentation has been translated into twenty-two languages and is available in multi-page HTML, single-page HTML, PDF, and EPUB formats. The good news is you can use the same documentation for CentOS or Scientific Linux (community enterprise distros). All of these documents ship with the OS, so if you don't have a network connection, then you have them there as well. The RHEL docs covers everything from installation to configuring clusters. The only downside is you need to be a paid customer. This is perfect for an enterprise company.

1. RHEL Documentation: Unknown format
2. Support forums: Only available to Red Hat customer portal to submit a support case.

A Note About CentOS Wiki and Forums

Centos Linux Wiki

CentOS (Community ENTerprise Operating System) is a free rebuild of source packages freely available from a RHEL. It provides truly reliable, free enterprise Linux for personal and other usage. You will get RHEL stability without the cost of certification and support. CentOS wiki divided into Howtos, Tips & Tricks, and much more at the following locations:

1. Documentation Wiki
2. Support forum

#2: Arch Wiki and Forums

Arch Linux wiki

Arch Linux is an independently developed, Linux operating system and it comes with pretty good documentation in form of wiki based site. It is developed collaboratively by a community of Arch users, allowing any user to add and edit content. The articles are divided into various categories like networking, optimization, package management, system administration, X window system, and getting & installing Arch Linux. The official forums are useful for solving many issues. It has total 40k+ registered users with over 1 million posts. The wiki contains some general information that can also apply in other Linux distros.

1. Arch community Documentation: Wiki format
2. Support forums: Yes

#3: Gentoo Linux Wiki and Forums

Gentoo Linux Wiki

Gentoo Linux is based on the Portage package management system. The Gentoo user compiles the source code locally according to their chosen configuration. The majority of users have configurations and sets of installed programs which are unique to themselves. The Gentoo give you some explanation about the Gentoo Linux and answer most of your questions regarding installations, packages, networking, and much more. Gentoo has very helpful forumwith over one hundred thirty-four thousand plus users who have posted a total of 5442416 articles.

1. Gentoo community documentation: Handbook and Wiki format
2. Support forums: Yes
3. User-supplied documentation available at gentoo-wiki.com

#4: Ubuntu Wiki and Documentation

Ubuntu is one of the leading desktop and laptop distro. The official documentation developed and maintained by the Ubuntu Documentation Project. You can access a wealth of information including a getting started Guide. The best part is information contained herein may also work with other Debian-based systems. You will also find the community documentation for Ubuntu created by its users. This is a reference for Ubuntu-related 'Howtos, Tips, Tricks, and Hacks'. Ubuntu Linux has one of the biggest Linux communities on the web. It offers help to the both new and experienced users.

Ubuntu Linux Wiki

1. Ubuntu community documentation: wiki format.
2. Ubuntu official documentation: wiki format.
3. Support forums: Yes.

#5: IBM Developer Works

IBM developer works offers technical resources for Linux programmers and system administrators. It contains hundreds of articles, tutorials, and tips to help developers with Linux programming and application development, as well as Linux system administration.

IBM developerworks

1. IBM Developer Works Documentation: Unknown format
2. Support forums: Yes.

#6: FreeBSD Documentation and Handbook

The FreeBSD handbook is created by the FreeBSD Documentation Project. It describes the installation, administration and day-to-day use of the FreeBSD OS. BSD manpages are usually better as compare to GNU/Linux man pages. The FreeBSD comes with all the documents with upto date man pages. The FreeBSD Handbook covers everything. The handbook contains some general Unix information that can also apply in other Linux distros. The official FreeBSD forums also provides helps whenever you will get stuck with problems.

Freebsd docs

1. FreeBSD Documentation: Unknown format
2. Support forums: Yes.

#7: Bash Hackers Wiki

Bash hackers wiki

This is an excellent resource for bash user. The bash hackers wiki is intended to hold documentations of any kind about the GNU Bash. The main motivation was to provide human-readable documentation and information to not force users to read every bit of the Bash manpage - which is hard sometimes. The wiki is divided into various sections such as - scripting and general information, howtos, coding style, bash syntax, and much more.

1. Bash hackers wiki in wiki format

#8: Bash FAQ

Bash FAQ

A wiki designed for new bash users. It has good collections to frequently asked questions on channel #bash on the freenode IRC network. These answers are contributed by the regular members of the channel. Don't forget to check out common mistakes made by Bash programmers, in BashPitfalls section. The answers given in this FAQ may be slanted toward Bash, or they may be slanted toward the lowest common denominator Bourne shell, depending on who wrote the answer. In most cases, an effort is made to provide both a portable (Bourne) and an efficient (Bash, where appropriate) answer.

1. Bash FAQ in wiki format.

#9: Howtoforge - Linux Tutorials

Howtoforge

Fellow blogger Falko has some great stuff over at How-To Forge. The site provides Linux tutorials about various topic including its famous "The Perfect Server" series. The site is divided into various topics such as web-server, Linux distros, DNS servers, Virtualization, High-availability, Email and anti-spam, FTP servers, programming topics, and much more. The site is also available in German language.

1. Howtoforge in html format.
2. Support forums: Yes

#10: OpenBSD FAQ and Documentation

OpenBSD Documenation

OpenBSD is another Unix-like computer operating system based on Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). It was forked from NetBSD by project. The OpenBSD is well known for the quality code, documentation, uncompromising position on software licensing, with strong focus on security. The documenation is divided into various topics such as - installations, package management, firewall setup, user management, networking, disk / RAID management and much more.

1. OpenBSD in html format.
2. Support forums: No, but mail lists are available.

#11: Calomel - Open Source Research and Reference

This amazing site dedicated to documenting open source software, and programs with special focus on OpenBSD. This is one of the cleanest and easy to to navigate website, with focus on the quality content. The site is divided into various server topic such as DNS, OpeBSD, security, web-server, Samba file server, various tools, and much more.

Open Source Research and Reference Documentation

1. Calomel Org in html format.
2. Support forums: No

#12: Slackware Book Project

Slackware Book

Slackware Linux was my first distro. It was one of the earliest distro based on the Linux kernel and is the oldest currently being maintained. The distro is targeted towards power users with strong focus on stability. Slackware is one of few the most "Unix-like" Linux distribution. The official slackware book is designed to get you started with the Slackware Linux operating system. It's not meant to cover every single aspect of the distribution, but rather to show what it is capable of and give you a basic working knowledge of the system. The book is divided into various topics such as Installation, Network & System Configuration, System administration, Package management, and much more.

1. Slackware Linux books in html, pdf, and other format.
2. Support forums: Yes

#13: The Linux Documentation Project (TLDP)

TLDP

The Linux Documentation Project is working towards developing free, high quality documentation for the Linux operating system. The site is created and maintained by volunteers. The site is divided into subject-specific help, longer and in-depth guide books, and much more. I recommend this document which is both a tutorial and a reference on shell scripting with Bash. The single list of HOWTOs is also a good starting point for new users.

1. The Linux documentation project available in multiple formats.
2. Support forums: No

#14: Linux Home Networking

Linux Home Networking

Linux home networking is another good resource for learning Linux. This site covers topics needed for Linux software certification exams, such as the RHCE, and many computer training courses. The site is divided into various topics such as networking, samba file server, wirless networking, web-server, and much more.

1. Linux home networking available in html and PDF (with small fee) formats.
2. Support forums: Yes

#15: Linux Action Show

Linux Podcast From LAS

Linux Action Show ("LAS") is a podcast about Linux. The show is hosted by Bryan Lunduke, Allan Jude, and Chris Fisher. It covers the latest news in the FOSS world. The show reviews various apps and Linux distros. Sometime an interview with a major personal in the open source world is posted on the show.

1. Linux action show available in audio/video format.
2. Support forums: Yes

#16: Commandlinefu

Commandlinefu lists various shell commands that you may find interesting and useful. All commands can be commented on, discussed and voted up or down. Ths is an awesome resource for all Unix command line users. Don't forget to checkout all top voted commands here.

Commnandlinefu

1. Commandlinefu available in html format.
2. Support forums: No

#17: Debian Administration Tips and Resources

This site covers topics, tips, and tutorial only related to Debian GNU/Linux. It contain interesting and useful information related to the System Administration. You can contribute an article, tip, or question here. Don't forget to checkout top articles posted in the hall of fame section.

Debian Linux Adminstration: Tips and Tutorial For Sys Admin

1. Debian administration available in html format.
2. Support forums: No

#18: Catonmat - Sed, Awk, Perl Tutorials

Catonmat

This site run by a fellow blogger Peteris Krumins. The main focus is on command line and Unix programming topics such as sed, perl, awk, and others. Don't forget to check out introduction to sed, sed one liner explained, the definitive guide to Bash Command line history, and awk liner explained.

1. catonmat available in html format.
2. Support forums: No

#19: Debian GNU/Linux Documentation and Wiki

Debian Linux Wiki

Debian is another Linux based operating system that primarily uses software released under the GNU General Public. Debian is well known for strict adherence to the philosophies of Unix and free software. It is also one of popular and influential Linux distribution. It is also used as a base for many other distributions such as Ubuntu and others. The Debian project provides its users with proper documentation in an easily accessible form. The site is divided into wiki, installation guide, faqs, and support forum.

1. Debian GNU/Linux documentation available in html and other format.
2. Debian GNU/Linux wiki
3. Support forums: Yes

#20: Linux Sea

The book "Linux Sea" offers a gentle yet technical (from end-user perspective) introduction to the Linux operating system, using Gentoo Linux as the example Linux distribution. It does not nor will it ever talk about the history of the Linux kernel or Linux distributions or dive into details that are less interesting for Linux users.

1. Linux sea available in html format.
2. Support forums: No

#21: Oreilly Commons

Oreilly books

The oreilly publishing house has posted quite a few titles in wiki format for all. The purpose of this site is to provide content to communities that would like to create, reference, use, modify, update and revise material from O'Reilly or other sources. The site includes books about Ubuntu, Php, Spamassassin, Linux, and much more all for free.

1. Oreilly commons available in wiki format.
2. Support forums: No

#22: Ubuntu Pocket Guide

Ubuntu book

This book is written by Keir Thomas. This guide/book is a good read for everyday Ubuntu user. The purpose of this book is to introduce you to the Ubuntu operating system, and the philosophy that underpins it. You can download a pdf version from the official site or order a print version using Amazon.

1. Ubuntu pocket guide available in pdf and print formats.
2. Support forums: No

#23: Linux: Rute User's Tutorial and Exposition

GNU/Linux Book

This book covers GNU/LINUX system administration, for popular distributions like RedHat and Debian, as a tutorial for new users and a reference for advanced administrators. It aims to give concise, thorough explanations and practical examples of each aspect of a UNIX system. Anyone who wants a comprehensive text on (what is commercially called) LINUX need look no further--there is little that is not covered here.

1. Linux: Rute User's Tutorial and Exposition available in print and html formats.
2. Support forums: No

#24: Advanced Linux Programming

Linux Programming

This book is intended for the programmer already familiar with the C programming language. It take a tutorial approach and teach the most important concepts and power features of the GNU/Linux system in application programs. If you're a developer already experienced with programming for the GNU/Linux system, are experienced with another UNIX-like system and are interested in developing GNU/Linux software, or want to make the transition for a non-UNIX environment and are already familiar with the general principles of writing good software, this book is for you. In addition, you will find that this book is equally applicable to C and C++ programming.

1. Advanced Linux programming available in print and pdf formats.
2. Support forums: No

#25: LPI 101 Course Notes

LPIC books

LPIC-1/2/3 levels are certification for Linux administrators. This site provides training manuals for LPI 101 and 102 exams. These are licenced under the GNU Free Documentation Licence (FDL). This course material is based on the objectives for the Linux Professionals Institute’s LPI 101 and 102 examination. The course is intended to provide you with the skills required for operating and administering Linux systems.

1. Download LPI training manuals in pdf format.
2. Support forums: No

#26: FOSS Manuals

FLOSS Manuals is a collection of manuals about free and open source software together with the tools used to create them and the community that uses those tools. They include authors, editors, artists, software developers, activists, and many others. There are manuals that explain how to install and use a range of free and open source softwares, about how to do things (like design or stay safe online) with open source software, and manuals about free culture services that use or support free software and formats. You will find manuals about software such as VLC, Linux video editing, Linux, OLPC / SUGAR, GRAPHICS, and much more.

FLOSS Manuals: a collection of manuals about free and open source software

1. You can browse FOSS manuals in wiki format.
2. Support forums: No

#27: Linux Starter Pack

Linux Starter Pack

New to the wonderful world of Linux? Looking for an easy way to get started? You can download 130-page guide and get to grips with the OS. This will show you how to install Linux onto your PC, navigate around the desktop, master the most popular Linux programs and fix any problems that may arise.

1. Download Linux starter pack in pdf format.
2. Support forums: No

#28: Linux.com - The Source of Linux Info

Linux.com is a product of the Linux Foundation. The side provides news, guides, tutorials and other information about Linux by harnessing the power of Linux users worldwide to inform, collaborate and connect on all matters Linux.

1. Visit Linux.com online.
2. Support forums: Yes

#29: LWN

LWN is a site with an emphasis on free software and software for Linux and other Unix-like operating systems. It consists of a weekly issue, separate stories which are published most days, and threaded discussion attached to every story. The site provide comprehensive coverage of development, legal, commercial, and security issues related to Linux and FOSS.

1. Visit lwn.net online.
2. Support forums: No

#30: Mac OS X Related sites

A quick links to Max OS X related sites:

• Mac OS X Hints - This site is dedicated to the Apple's Mac OS X unix operating systems. It has tons of tips, tricks and tutorial about Bash, and OS X
• Mac OS development library - Apple has good collection related to OS X development. Don't forget to checkout bash shell scripting primer.
• Apple kbase - This is like RHN kbase. It provides guides and troublshooting tips for all apple products including OS X.

#30: NetBSD

NetBSD is another free open source operating system based upon the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) Unix operating system. The NetBSD project is primarily focused on high quality design, stability and performance of the system. Due to its portability and Berkeley-style license, NetBSD is often used in embedded systems. This site provides links to the official NetBSD documentation and also links to various external documents.

1. View netbsd documentation online in html / pdf format.
2. Support forums: No

/etc

• GNU manuals - This site lists official GNU packages with links to their primary documentation, where available.
• IBM AIX - If you are into an IBM enterprise grade hardware, AIX and big irons, than this is a must for you. On a related note don't forget to checkout IBM redbooks on Linux and Unix.
• Another site dedicated to Debian GNU/Linux.
• Safari Books Online's entire collection of over 18,000 books, training videos, rough cuts, short cuts, and articles from the world’s leading publishers is available online, in PDF format for chapter and whole-book downloads, or from your mobile device. This is not a free resource, but nevertheless quite useful for professionals.
• Another introduction to the UNIX (and Linux) operating system and the UNIX - Level I course material.
• Other suggestions made by nixCraft fans.
• Google. Enough said.

Your Turn:

This is my personal list and it is not absolutely definitive, so if you've got your own favorite Unix/Linux specific site, share in the comments below.