On Mon, Aug 28, 2017 at 08:19:32PM -0400, Serguei Mokhov wrote:
> 
> Having taught Linux/Unix programming and including bits of
> administration for awhile on one side and lots of publication
> writing on the other, I can contribute. 
> 
> Not sure what Keith's plans are, I'd suggest writing this
> guide on Github using LaTeX.

Interesting ideas.

Most of the feedback I've gotten on this and other lists
prefer "Widow(er)s" to "Widows" - I await feedback from a
feminist librarian friend about the indexing of parentheses.

I don't like "Linux Survivor" and variants, as those imply
Linux must be survived.  Nor long titles.  Subtitles are
good enough for details, but a title should be short and
catchy so book buyers can remember it and find the book.

I expect there will also be a workbook, and a community website
with questions and answers.  The workbook will be a "pencil
in essential configuration information here" document,
useful stuff like where the files with idiosyncratic and
personalization information can be found on a particular
set of systems, what the local network looks like, who the
network provider is, what the IP address was the last time
we looked, what accounts (like rimuhosting or dyn) need to
be paid and who the helpful people are there.

I like the idea of LaTeX, though my wife insists on writing
everything with LibreOffice Writer, including docs that
really ought to be written with vim.  She's approaching 70,
and new tricks are hard to encourage.  "Learning LaTeX" by 
Griffiths and Higham is an easy read, but she doesn't need
to know about math markup, so I hope to find a more basic
book with suggestions about finding usable online documents
and help websites about LaTeX.

The purpose is not to convert a surviving spouse into a
Linux adept, but to help them survive as simply as possible
with what's there, and to encourage a premortem sysadmin to
understand the postmortem implications of system design.

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          [log in to unmask]