OpenGL programming guide - RedBook

I was reading RedBook for past few weeks. I read this book in free time, since it is Guide - it is not very difficult even if you read it with lots of breaks. This book is definitely good. I have not finished it though - have stopped for some time after coming to chapter on Tessellators.

Good thing is you can read it online - officially :) ( old version of this book - version 1.1, hard copy I have has version 2.1). I dont think reading old version will make any great difference for beginner ;).

First few chapters in the book - almost upto chapter 7 can be understood to good extend even if you do not have much background of Computer graphics.
But then when it comes to Bitmaps, texture mapping and further topics it is quite difficult to understand without computer graphics background (I am stuck because of same reason).

I tried most of the programs in this books. There are many links from where you can download the source code, but I will recommend TYPE IT.
Some links which could be of help -
http://www.opengl.org/resources/code/samples/redbook/
http://www.opengl-redbook.com/source/
http://www.sgi.com/products/software/opengl/examples/redbook/

I used Fedora 11 (64 bit), learning OpenGL programs on Linux is easy with the help of GLUT.

I do not remember procedure to set GLUT, but it is very easy few google searches should be enough. Remember you need to install freeglut.

If you are using GCC and do not want have simple make file to compile your OpenGL programs (using GLUT), following make file might be of help

gcc command to create executable -
gcc -Wall -lglut .c -o

I hope this post is of help to beginner in OpenGL. I will try to answer doubts if you post them in comments.

Reading Computer Graphics Principles and Practice by James Foley might be more beneficial if you really want to be good in computer graphics (Note I have not read Foley's book yet)

Cheers!!
Ashish