CentOS - Oct 2014 - CentOS 7 docs, tutorials, etc...

hi all,

after many years of working almost exclusively with Windows servers I am
trying to switch to CentOS.

I have a couple of books which were written for CentOS 5, but many
(basic) things do not apply to CentOS 7 anymore, which is very confusing.

Internet resources suffer from the same problem.

for example, one of the books shows a Services configuration tool, which
should be accessible from System > Administration > Server > Services,
but I don't even have a System top menu anymore.  the closest thing I
have is Applications > System Tools but there is no Services applet there.

also, I am trying to set some shortcuts to the Desktop, and preferably
pin them to the Taskbar if such an option exists, but in vain.

using Gnome 3.8.4 BTW.

any ideas?  advice?  TIA!

On Wed, October 8, 2014 10:51 am, Igal @ getRailo.org
wrote:
> hi all,
>
> after many years of working almost exclusively with Windows servers I am
> trying to switch to CentOS.
>
> I have a couple of books which were written for CentOS 5, but many
> (basic) things do not apply to CentOS 7 anymore, which is very confusing.
>
> Internet resources suffer from the same problem.
>
> for example, one of the books shows a Services configuration tool, which
> should be accessible from System > Administration > Server >
Services,
> but I don't even have a System top menu anymore.  the closest thing I
> have is Applications > System Tools but there is no Services applet
there.
>
> also, I am trying to set some shortcuts to the Desktop, and preferably
> pin them to the Taskbar if such an option exists, but in vain.
>
> using Gnome 3.8.4 BTW.
>
> any ideas?  advice?  TIA!
>
Someone had mentioned on this list the following RedHat Enterprise 7 (and
as you know CentOS is binary replica of RedHat Enterprise with replaced
art work):

https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/7/html/System_Administrators_Guide/part-Basic_System_Configuration.html

This covers CentOS 7 system administration sufficiently well for me (but I
work with Linux and Unix for over 1.5 decades...).

The documentation you have found for older systems is imminently
different. The following is _MY_ opinion which should not be confused for
consensus on this list. The truth is that with release 7 RedHat made a big
step away from being "Unix-like" system towards "M$
Windows-like". Which
is regretful, as this is not the first step, yet the most prominent one.
So, if you decided to walk away from Windows, after you master Linux (or
maybe simultaneously with starting it), take a look at Unix successors
such as FreeBSD (most suitable for servers IMHO, some may recommend
OpenBSD for servers, my preference is FreeBSD), NetBSD (most rich with
what is ported to build and run on it), PC-BSD - based on FreeBSD, yet
made easiest to install workstation whith GUI interface (X11) support.

Just my $0.02

Valeri

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Valeri Galtsev
Sr System Administrator
Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics
Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics
University of Chicago
Phone: 773-702-4247
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++