Almost every one has misconceptions about the Open Source World. “Yeah I know about Linux” they confidently say, pronouncing it as ‘Lie-Nux’. “Oh it cannot be sustained”, “Then how will programmers make money?”, “Who will support it?” they say so conclusively and dismissively in a manner that makes you think that they did years and years of research and they are handing the final judgement to the rest of the world. Antidote is Eric S Raymond’s penetrating essays. If you come across someone totally confident that GNU/Linux is a joke/fad/something-like-that, please direct them here. You can read the essays for the sheer beauty with which he constructs the arguements. ‘How To Become A Hacker’ is one of my all time favorite creations of his’.
For unix - Kernighan and Pike, Richard Stevens, Other gurus are far far apart in what they explain (both philosophy and technical things) and what esr gives in his books.
Plz excuse, this is IMO