Linux Books

You have to be a computer geek to understand the humor. If you are, and especially if you have a unix/linux background and/or have worked with internet or other computer support you will find this one of the most hysterical comics around.

The characters fight to stay awake with the geek drink of choice, prepare for covert operations at Columbia Internet, obsess over Quake, and live in cramped quarters called cubicles.

Apple, Microsoft, COMDEX, AOL, and other bigwigs are the subject of a few pokes. Even Clippy makes a guest appearance. This one like the other books is a history book of geeky events that occurred in recent years with a funny bone added. But, students, do not use this to study for that next history exam!

Warning, serious sentence ahead. This book includes 9/11 tribute cartoons that have been drawn and handled with respect.

If you're not familiar with User Friendly, go to its site (www.userfriendly.org) to get a taste of it and get to know Greg, Stef, Mike, and Dust Puppy, the UF mascot. The other editions available are User Friendly, Evil Geniuses in a Nutshell, and The Root of All Evil. Those whose companies have strict rules about Internet surfing can surf the book to get their UF fix. Don't get mad at users, read User Friendly.

Security is becoming more and more important in IT environment. This book discusses security issues and their solutions related to HP-UX system and network administration. Knowledge of these issues is critical to securely maintain HP-UX systems. The book is a good reference and will help and improve readers skills related to security.

This book provides excellent information on HP-UX security - not only for 11i, but also on previous versions. Included are a number of man pages, that are not always available with OS. The book is worth it as it contains so much useful information in one book. System Adminstrators of all skills levels will get something from this.

Very complete book, just What I need, the delivery was very fast. Thank you!!

This book is an excellent overall view of the Unix/Linux operating system environment. The book starts with a short bit of history about Unix/Linux and points out that it is growing in popularity because it is more reliable, faster, and cheaper than the alternative offerings. The book is kind of a basic introduction at the command line level. While it does talk a bit about the KDE and Gnome GUIs, it's oriented to command line, and vi and traditional Unix stuff.

There are three other comments I'd make about the book.

1. As with most such books it tells you that you can set up your system to dual boot so that you can run with Linux when you want and Windows when you want. If you're a beginner, don't. Set up Linux on a separate machine so you don't have to try to set up all this stuff and make it work. The book includes a Fedora (used to be Red Hat) core, complete with instructions on how to install it. All you need to make it work is a 400MHz Pentium II with 3 GB of disk. I bought such a system at a thrift shop recently for $55. The effort of dual booting, multiple partitions is well worth $55.

2. This book does not talk about applications. If you want to run Star Office or any of the many other applications you'll need another book or spend some time on the web. The Fedora core is certainly capable of running them, they just aren't part of this book.

3. If you are a MAC OS X user, you already have Linux. All you need to start using Linux as an operating system is to start typing.

Knoppix is an outstanding programming achievement, allowing users to boot Linux from CD/DVD without installation (WITHOUT installation?!?). Also contained in the Knoppix package is a whole slew of open source tools and other favorite goodies that any Linux programmer might want to use and learn from. Knoppix has so many tasties and fun stuff present that content wasn't the problem, instead navigating through all this had to offer was the only issue. With 'Knoppix Hacks: Tips and Tools for Using the Linux Live CD to Hack, Repair, and Enjoy Your PC' those days of navigating through Knoppix have come to an end. Jam packed with 120 tips and tricks of the trade, you will learn it all. From basic administration to desktop tweaks to file I/O work to playing with Windows, it's all here. If you are a Linux lover that wants to learn what Knoppix can do for you or you simply are a weekend computer warrior that wants to take it to the next level, this is a great guide, written in the classic spirit of past 'Hacks' books by O'Reilly.

***** RECOMMENDED

Like all the O'Reilly hack books, Knoppix Hacks consists of a collection of recipes for carrying out a variety of tasks. The overwhelming majority of the recipes stand on their own, so you can use them without reading the rest of the book.

The Knoppix version 5.1.1 DVD is included with the book. Since Knoppix is a live-boot DVD, arguably the premier live-boot DVD, you don't have to modify your system's hard disk in order to try out most of the ideas in the book. This makes for a great environment for experimentation and learning. You have a sandbox in RAM where you can play with new concepts and commands without messing up your hard disk.

In this reviewer's opinion, Knoppix Hacks 2nd edition is one of the very best computer books available, and belongs in the library of every technically-inclined PC owner.

Full Disclosure: The publisher, O'Reilly, gives many books to Kernel-Panic Linux Users Group for review. I am a founding member of the group and am currently serving as its treasurer. The review copy of Knoppix Hacks went to another member, and I purchased my own copy. A more complete review and errata is available on my website.

Pros:

This book is well-organized, well-written, and has both depth and breadth. It is an excellent resource for learning Linux. Although many of the recipes cover advanced topics, they are relatively easy to follow in part because they start with the system in a known state -- booted from the included Knoppix DVD.

Knoppix Hacks covers everything from familiarizing you with the KDE desktop, to mastering your own customized Knoppix DVD. Two examples: Do you want to learn the basics of Linux system administration? Read Chapter 5, "Put Knoppix in Your Toolbox". Do you want to use free software for Windows system administration -- possibly saving hundreds of dollars? Read Chapter 7, "Rescue Windows".

There are a lot more pros I could list, but you get the idea.

I found a few cons, but they are very minor:

The included version of Knoppix is not suitable for really old PCs that lack DVD drives. But, the text explains how to download and burn your on copy of the Knoppix CD version.

On the copyright page, my copy shows a printing date of November 2007 and a copyright date of 2008 -- that seems odd.

The book contains a few terms and phrases that the editor probably should have changed. In the in forward they say some "forged new ground" instead of "broke new ground". They talk of "MD5sum" rather than "md5sum", the command, or "MD5 sum", the algorithm.

This book is extremely helpful!

Really hard to find, but well worth it

A practical drill in the use of Linux in everyday small businesses. Linux eTudes are about two dozen Lessons in using the Linux operating system & applications for every day office use. What is unique about this book, is that the Author teaches the small businessman to use Linux & open source applications for basic accounting & other relevant tools. All in all the businessman will reduce his software overhead.

Linux Etudes is unique. It's a Linux book written for the small office, home office user trying to do business with Linux. It is not a Linux installation or system installation guide.

An etude is a musical composition designed to develop skill through practice. Linux Etudes gives you a set of 27 practical tutorials. Each Etude lab exercise was designed so you can apply your new Linux knowledge to your unique business. Each Etude starts with a discussion, is divided into easily digestible parts and includes step-by-step, business-oriented exercises you can try on virtually any Linux operating system. You learn to use the utility programs provided free with Linux to improve your productivity and enhance your creativity.

The first four etudes are core topics: file operations with either gnome file manager or Konqueror, Kedit editor and the ins and outs of using floppy disks with Linux. Then you learn how to share files between Microsoft and Linux partitions and the pitfalls to watch for when doing so.

Need a personal organizer, a time tracker, an organized note taker, or need to make screen captures for presentations or tutorials or need to use a spreadsheet? The next six etudes show you what to use. The activity for the spreadsheet even shows you how to create frequency of occurrence or Pareto charts.

Own a Palm Pilot? Linux Etudes shows you step-by-step how to install J-Pilot, the Linux Palm Pilot desktop program with all the functionality of the Windows version. You are carefully stepped through how to set it up and how to inform Linux about your serial cable connected to your Palm cradle.

Need an accounting program similar to Quicken? Try gnucash. This Etude really shines. You are taught more than merely how to punch buttons. The author first teaches you the basics of double-entry accounting and how to create a chart of accounts. Then the activities walk you through the accounting features. By the end, you've created a useable accounting system and can extend it to meet your needs.

Remember the quick and easy programming fun using Basic before it became Visual? It's back in Linux. Etude 14 teaches you how to download YA Basic and how to install and use it. Not only do you gain YA Basic but also the knowledge of how to download and install a program from the Internet. YA Basic lets you unleash your creativity again.

Linux also makes extensive use of the command line - where you have a command prompt and type commands. Learning the command line increases your speed and flexibility. Drawing on his Unix and Linux teaching experience, Professor Tancig painlessly leads you to command line mastery. Navigate the directory tree and learn file commands. Learn piping and redirection and how they're really just assembly line operations. Use alias to create short cuts the history mechanism to speed up using repetitive commands. Next comes grep which finds patterns, words and phrases and this leads into awk. Although awk finds patterns, too, it was also designed to be a simple yet powerful database programming language.

All these skills and knowledge can be integrated when you learn to write shell and awk scripts and learn to pass information you type on the command line into the shell script. Using this capability, the shell script can then make choices, perform looping or anything else you program it to do with the information you pass in.

StarOffice was not included. StarOffice tutorials already exist.

Linux Etudes is the place to start to build a solid foundation that you can actually use in a small office or home office. This is a reference you'll reach for. That's why the publisher printed it on quality paper and gave it non-curl covers. You won't be disappointed.

The author, David Tancig, has been a college professor of electronics engineering computer science for twenty three years, has owned and operated a small electronics manufacturing company and made and saved money for AT&T. Linux Etudes includes his business insights and his insights on using technology in business. As Professor Tancig said, "I've never forgotten the wolf at my door when I ran my own business: weekly payroll. You don't have time in business for wannabe software. I included nothing I wouldn't use in my own business. If it didn't work as expected with zero crashes, it didn't make it into Linux Etudes."

Hi Alex, when is the final and definite date of your book's release? The anticipation is killing me. Please advise. Thank you so much!!!

-Gerald

I am the author of this book, and I want to ask my readers for their patience. My schedule prevented me from getting this out on time, but if you stick with me it will be worth the wait.

This book is a dramatic extension of the material in my first book, Linux Cluster Architecture. Many of you wanted less tutorial and more detail about the different kinds of clusters. This book covers data (including Web) servers, supercomputers, and the fault tolerant, failover-cluster techniques, from the software developer's point of view, as well as the system administrator, and the performance analyst.

Thank you.

When asked to suggest a new textbook for our new OS course, I recommended this book.
After speaking with a Franklin-Beedle editor, who allowed us to work closely with the author to help produce this book, it proved to be not only a good fit for our course but an excellent beginner's guide to Linux, the Gnome windowed environment and Red Hat Linux distro.
I highly recommend this text for anyone who is new to and would like to see side-by side examples of the command-line and windowed environments that make Linux such a stable and reliable computing solution.
Bob Ruby II (mentioned in the "Acknowledgements" of this book)
www.bobrubyii.com
bobrubyii.ning.com

My college Unix instructor used this book in class. I found it to be a truly exceptional book both in and out of the classroom. Comes with a Red Hat Linux CD too! The examples were truly outstanding and very "real world applicable". I would strongly recommend this book to any beginner such as myself. We found only one or two minor mistakes in the entire book. Needless to say, I Aced the course.

The Linux Web Server CD Bookshelf gave me everything I needed right at my finger tips. If there was only one major reason that you should buy this Bookshelf it would be the search capabilities alone. This Bookshelf comes with the ability to search all 6 books at once for any subject you want. This was the first type of CD Bookshelf that I have ordered. If it is possible I will only buy CD Bookshelves from now on.

Sean Seely

Putting aside the CD-Roms, the alpha layout of the book itself is wonderful and just what I was looking for. Very concise and and again the book itself is worth the money. It is made to be used as a resource and a reference. I wish other books were laid out this way. After spending hrs and hrs looking thru books I finally found my first choice.

The Linux Web Server CD Bookshelf is an excellent valued reference tool for programmers wanting to develop software in an open source web environment. Not only does it contain the full text for six of O'Reilly's best sellers on open source web development, a search engine for each book, and a master index, but also it has a number of relevant articles that have posted to the O'Reilly Network. It has a easy to read web-browser interface.
The coverage of the topics in this CD library is simple enough to get a newcomer's feet wet in open-source development and keep him up and running, as well as in depth enough to be an asset to the experienced developer who need a easy reference tool.

Just as the Web Programmers CD bookshelf that I had the opportunity to read, the searching abilities of the cd bookshelves are excellent. Being able to search a certain topic across 6 books at once makes searching for quick answers easily accomplished. Being able to buy 6 books on a single cd also helps to save money while at the same time helps to build your own library of in depth books. The combination of books included in the Linux web server cd bookshelf has enough detailed information to help teach you the ins and outs of running an Apache web server on a Linux platform. Also the Programming PHP and the Managing & Using MySQL books should help you make full use of your Linux web server and understand the flexibility of what can be done.

The bonus paperback version of Linux in a Nutshell, 4th Edition, was a nice addition to the 6 book cd bookshelf. I found it useful for when I wasn't around a computer and felt like reading. The Linux in a Nutshell book gives a good summarized rundown of the entire Linux operating system. Included in the summary is about 464 pages of Linux commands which are great for quickly checking a description or options of a certain command. Also, a basic rundown on system administration, boot methods, package managers, shells with a nice section on bash, editors, cvs, and more. At the end of the book is where xwindows and desktop environments such as Gnome, KDE, and fvwm2 are covered. The Linux in a Nutshell book basically is exactly what it says, the Linux operating system summarized and crunched into about 930 pages.

Throughout all of the books I did however notice that the references are made mainly on the 2.4.x kernel along with mentions of 2.2.x and 2.0.x kernels and the 2.5.45 development kernel. Now that the 2.6.x kernel is out, I would love to see how much O'Reilly goes into discussion about it, possibly in the next editions of these books.

I'm not sure If these books would be great for learning from the very beginning on, but they do give plenty of information about the different parts that make up a Linux web server. The books are great sources of info to help you get a Linux based web server up and active, but could be better in the teaching area.