Here's a collection of books I've read and software I tried, things you may not have heard about but might find useful. It's very personal, filtered through my experience.

Programming books

The Art of Unix Programming
So, you want to be a real programmer? Then you'd better read this. Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs
Thinking Forth, by Leo Brodie
A classic book on how to think like a programmer. Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs.
Eloquent Javascript
Excellent programming manual by Marijn Haverbeke. Creative Commons Attribution.
Impatient Perl
Brief overview of the core language by Greg London. GNU Free Documentation License.
Programming Ruby
A most comprehensive Ruby book. The 2001 edition is freely available.
Thinking in C++ 2nd Edition by Bruce Eckel
Freely available e-book on using C++ the way it was designed.
Bruce Eckel's Thinking in Java, 3rd Edition
Same as above, only for Java. Both recommended.
Practical Common Lisp, by Peter Seibel
Good Lisp book, freely available online.

Operating systems

Fedora
A Linux-based operating system with a good balance between user-friendliness and expert-friendliness. Cutting edge, yet very stable. Community-driven; dedicated to software freedom.
Arch Linux
A Linux distribution for knowledgeable users. Exceptionally well documented. Bleeding edge, with a vibrant community.
Linux Mint
Elegant GNU/Linux destkop distribution with an excellent live CD, useful both for day-to-day tasks and basic data rescue.
Mandriva Linux
Developed by a commercial enterprise; very friendly; equally good as a live CD and an installed system.
SliTaz GNU/Linux
A new operating system in a very small package. Equally good as a live CD and an installed system. Low requirements.
FreeBSD
A modern, friendly Unix under a liberal open source license. Lightweight, supports old hardware well. Base distribution requires some expertise; derivatives such as PC-BSD are suitable for anyone.
Haiku
The open source successor to BeOS is a friendly and very lightweight operating system. Unfinished; development is steady, but slow.
AROS
A modern, open source revival of Amiga OS. Still in development. Distributions are available.

Wiki engines

PmWiki
Lightweight but feature-rich wiki in PHP with flat-file storage. Originates in academia. Batteries included. Some assembly required.
DokuWiki
Large, user-friendly wiki in PHP with flat-file storage.
OddMuse
Single-file wiki in Perl with flat-file storage and built-in blogging support.
Moin Moin
Wiki written in Python; can run stand-alone, via the built-in webserver. Easy to get started with; just unarchive and run the main script.
MediaWiki
Large, complex wiki in PHP using an SQL database for storage. Originally written for Wikipedia; very complex administration.
Last modified: Fri 02 07 2010, 18:03:02 UTC