I have been advised by many senior Unix/Linux Administrators to go through "The Linux Documentation Project" on the site www.tldp.org.
Its undoubtedly a very rich site, but I saw many tutorials (as seen here and here) to be more than 3 to 5 years old. I do know and understand that it is definitely worth to go through them thoroughly at least once, but I just want to know that if for topics which are important for me as a learning linux administrator, should I also search for latest articles on same topic on internet?
Hope I do not offend any one with this question.
Best Answer
A large amount of TLDP is obsolete. The howtos are usually good, but many of them are seriously out of date and contain advice that is now counterproductive. Check the date of each howto before deciding whether to read and trust it.
Even back in the day, howtos were not to be followed blindly. For example, many howtos start with instructions on compiling some software which, by the time most readers read the document, was bundled in distributions.
I'm not aware of any similar project that's more up-to-date. The current trend is towards community-edited guides, wiki-style. You get the benefit of more diverse experiences, but you lose the trust that you may (but then again, may not) put in a single author, and information is often spread over more pages and less easy to get at offline. Also remember that information in wikis can get obsolete too.
I don't think TLDP is a worthwhile resource for learning Linux administration nowadays. 10 years ago, yes, but not now. I recommend starting with a book, then exploring the wiki for your distribution (most have one), exploring
/etc, reading Unix & Linux Stack Exchange, skimming newgroups... Refer to howtos if you find recent ones on a subject that interests you.