Chapter 6 — Live resources

This chapter lists the resources available on the Internet for studying the topics of ethical informatics in sequence.

They are called live because the list keeps changing, and because each working link depends on others continuing to keep their documentation online. The author tried to remove every unreachable resource and to add new ones. If a link no longer works, go back and move on to the next resource.

If you do not have a permanent internet connection, download the documentation and read it offline. Authors of free documentation usually provide a compressed archive with all the files needed to rebuild the manual on your computer.

You do not need to read each manual in full. Find the part that answers your need. As you learn, it becomes easier to tell useful information from superfluous information.

Italian sources are cited where possible, but the reader is encouraged to start learning English, to benefit from the large contribution of programmers and users around the world.

6.1 A little practical philosophy

• Free Software Foundation, Free software and free manuals: gnu.org/philosophy/free-doc.html (Italian version: free-doc.it.html)
• Elements of computer hygiene: golem.linux.it/igieneinformatica.html (original 2002 address; not verified today)

6.2 Books and online manuals

Most of this documentation can be downloaded for offline reading. The addresses below were correct when the document was written, and may have changed.

• Internet per tutti (Internet for everyone), by Paolo Attivissimo: attivissimo.net/ixt4.htm (original 2002 address)
• Da Windows a Linux (From Windows to Linux), by Paolo Attivissimo: attivissimo.net/w2l1.htm (original 2002 address)
• Linux facile (Easy Linux), by Daniele Medri: linuxfacile.org
• Appunti di informatica libera (Notes on free computing), by Daniele Giacomini: ildp.linux.it/AppuntiLinux (original 2002 address). A vast work, not suited to beginners without experience of another operating system.
• Apogeo Open Press, a publisher that paired its printed books with a free digital edition (original 2002 address: apogeonline.com/openpress).
• The Electronic Frontier Foundation’s guide to the Internet, on Liber Liber (original 2002 address: liberliber.it).
• Italian Linux Documentation Project: ildp.linux.it. Many HOWTOs translated into Italian. A HOWTO is a practical, technical document in which a user describes how they carried out an operation, in the hope of helping others.

6.3 Free software projects

• GIMP, an image editor and photo-retouching program created by programmers around the world: gimp.org
• OpenOffice.org, an office suite built by releasing the source code of Sun’s StarOffice under the GPL. Its successor project today is LibreOffice: libreoffice.org
• Mozilla, a web browser derived from the Netscape source code: mozilla.org

Note: links marked “original 2002 address” were not verified for this edition. Check them before relying on them.