Linux Books

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.

This is an excellent resource for anyone who is looking to negotiate Fedora. The book is very direct, pragmatic, and well written. The author speaks clearly and has the material organized in a manner such that it can be applied directly and understood easily. I have been working on the CompTIA Linux+ exam, and this book has taken me 'to the next level' in terms of understanding what is going on and how to apply it. An absolute beginner to computers would be best to look for something more basic. A beginner to Linux may take a bit of time to absorb the material. I'm convinced there's something in here for anyone who is into the Linux OS.

This book is great! I covers alot of things I need to understand & know. I know basic linux commands & when work wanted to implement a fedora core 5 server I knew I had some work to do. There are many things that this book has shown me that I am able to do more than just find, grep, and ps commands that this book has taught me do actually use! A definate MUST buy for anyone useing core 5 applications (and you are not a master already)

If you're considering expanding the use of Linux in your organization, this is a must read. Mr. Teter succinctly and accurately notes the pro's and con's of moving into an open-source Linux environment. Using his book as a roadmap saved our company time, pain, and money.

In his book Paradigm Shift, Mark Teter shows corporate executives and IT Directors how to assess their companies and judge whether or not Linux is right for them. He starts the book off with a general road map of Linux, where it has been and where it is heading. Mark believes that most, if not all companies can take advantage of Linux and the Open Source community to gain a competitive advantage over their competitors.

It is clear that Linux has matured and come a long way since its inception. Under the right circumstances, I would have to agree with Mark that a company could simplify their environment and reduce their TCO by switching to Linux. Granted, this switch is not for the faint of heart. If you are coming from a UNIX environment, the switch should be fairly easy. However, if you are attempting to migrate from a Windows environment, it may be a longer road to a full switch. This is where Mark's Seven Keys take hold.

The Seven Keys give you a standard process that will help guide you to a successful migration. These Keys are critical to any IT project but they are especially prudent when making a switch in operating systems. Following these keys from Identifying Business Objectives all the way through to Practicing Process Improvement will ease the transition, but Mark is very honest and speaks truth to potential failures.

Not only is this book beautifully visual to look at, it is full of information and ideas. Though it's not for digital cameras per se but for 35mm instead. Photography is subjective and you can use the information to make you a better photographer. The same information about technique, philosophy, etc. can be used when you shoot with your digital camera. Many digital cameras have similar functions so that the information found can be carried over such as manual vs. auto focus. Lenses and filters can translate to using filters in Photoshop™ or another graphic manipulative software. The author's favorite filters are warm up, polarizer and soft focus which can be replicated in Photoshop™.

She urges you to experiment with aperture priority to control the depth of field. Term "depth of field" refers to the zone in a photograph which appears to be completely sharp. Just using the camera's Auto mode is unlikely to succeed in how she creates her beautiful photos of flowers. She makes them look ethereal or more like art. There are many examples of flower photos at different apertures and shutter speeds which helps you to understand the concept. With digital cameras being so popular today I think many of us never turn the knob to something other than "Auto".

The technical aspects in this book are very important but what affected me the most were viewing the beautiful flower photos. The author prefers impressionist and abstract painters and it shows in her photography. Creating abstract views brings us up close and personal. I have been photographing my garden flowers for years but come next summer I will certainly look at them differently through my lens because of this book. I highly recommend this book if you seriously enjoy photographing flowers or just looking at the beautiful prints. What is a book for but to expand your mind and perhaps to make you look at a subject in a different way. This book certainly does!

I am very happy with the book. The wrapping was seamless; the images are beautiful; and the tips are practical and they work.

This book is an excellent multimedia experience for someone to learn Java Programming at home. It can also be used as a supplement to a lecturer or a hardcover Java book. I highly recommend it as the best way to learn on your own. This is what online or multimedia teaching is all about!

I loved this product. Like nothing else I have seen on programming, it makes learning programming and java easy and interesting because it is so visual and dynamic. The CD is a resource that you can keep for life. i would recommend this to anyone wanting to learn how to program in java from a master of the discipline.

I collect unix books, close to 300. This is the best book for beginners in unix, it actually shows a beginner how to install (the only beginner book that does this) 2 flavors of unix, sun solaris and sco's unix. the chapters are short and to the point. errors are nearly non-existent. If you are serious about learning solaris, then start with this one and go straight to answer2book, the solaris documentation set that comes with the operating system. You can easily multi-boot solaris with all the windows flavors as well as ms-dos. Mark Sobell's book is also an excellent source.

Steve Moritsugu and DTR Business Systems' Practical UNIX is recommended for UNIX programmers who seek a reference book of solutions for common UNIX problems. From modifying and compressing files to determining how to extract fields and using networking capabilities, this expands upon the UNIX platform of knowledge.

Since I cut my teeth on Microsoft, this Linux CBT was exactly the
kind of training I was looking for. Although I've had some very minor
exposure to linux, I am absolutely a newbie. This CBT allowed me to
pop the cd into my WindowsXP machine and use videoclips, audioclips and
multimedia demonstrations to get a jumpstart on the Linux learning curve.
Right off the bat there are step-by-step instructions/demos for
the Red Hat 7.x install. Then you get a walk through of the various parts

of the GNOME and KDE desktop. The CBT book and course line seem to follow
along the RHCE exam guide but I haven't gotten that far.
There is a min. req. to use a Netscape browser but I used IE6
without a problem.
I was really impressed with how the author brought his real world
experience to the training. In the case of printing, the author feels
strongly in using the CUPS configuration even though this not out-of-the-box
Red Hat.
I could tell he is very concerned about security and wants to make
sure you are too. Passwords info, account management and good admin practices
are sprinkled through the training.
For newbies like me Linux can be intimidating. With this CBT you can
just re-run modules until you feel comfortable with a section.
I give this training very high marks for content, presentation and
ease of use. I'd recommend it to any new Linux user.

Since I cut my teeth on Microsoft, this Linux CBT was exactly the
kind of training I was looking for. Although I've had some very minor
exposure to linux, I am absolutely a newbie. This CBT allowed me to
pop the cd into my WindowsXP machine and use videoclips, audioclips and
multimedia demonstrations to get a jumpstart on the Linux learning curve.
Right off the bat there are step-by-step instructions/demos for
the Red Hat 7.x install. Then you get a walk through of the various parts

of the GNOME and KDE desktop. The CBT book and course line seem to follow
along the RHCE exam guide but I haven't gotten that far.
There is a min. req. to use a Netscape browser but I used IE6
without a problem.
I was really impressed with how the author brought his real world
experience to the training. In the case of printing, the author feels
strongly in using the CUPS configuration even though this not out-of-the-box
Red Hat.
I could tell he is very concerned about security and wants to make
sure you are too. Passwords info, account management and good admin practices
are sprinkled through the training.
For newbies like me Linux can be intimidating. With this CBT you can
just re-run modules until you feel comfortable with a section.
I give this training very high marks for content, presentation and
ease of use. I'd recommend it to any new Linux user.

For years, any system administrator running Linux who was worth his paycheck knew that Qmail was the defacto standard for running a mail server (heck, even Yahoo uses it!). Sendmail has always been ripe with security holes and headaches -- something Qmail has went to great lengths to correct. However, the problem has always been there was no easy reference guide to Qmail. You had to be either a Linux-geek, or know someone who was, to get it installed and working correctly!

Now, thanks to O'Reilly, even us non-geeks can get our Qmail systems up and running in no time. This book covers everything you need to know in an easy-to-follow format. From installation, to making the switch from sendmail, even how to tune and setup third-party components with Qmail to help control spam, scan for viruses and run your own mailing list server.

One of the great things about this book is it, for the most part, is not dependent on any particular flavor of Linux. The author does a good job of making it generic enough that you can follow along no matter what distribution you use.

Granted, you will need to know a bit about Linux to use read and fully understand this book. It is geared towards system admistrators and not the end-user of a Qmail system. However, you don't need to be a Linux Guru to understand it -- it has just enough detail to satisfy without overwhelming.

Overall, this is the handbook for Qmail that has been long overdue -- a one-stop technical manual that puts the final touch on Qmail.

Although sendmail is installed in more Internet mail servers than any other Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) it has come under scrutiny for being a large awkward program by today's standards. More and more new MTA servers are moving to a modular program like qmail that has a multitude of smaller programs for each function instead of one huge program that does everything. This allows for greater speed and flexibility. John R. Levine's new book "qmail: Managing Unix-Based Mail Systems" examines the qmail program in depth from installation to configuration to troubleshooting. While qmail is fairly straightforward and you can achieve great results on both small and very large systems, it is a very different way of thinking if you are moving from sendmail and are already familiar with it. The author recognizes this difficulty of changing the way you think and spends a good portion of the beginning of the book detailing qmail and how it works so you understand the "qmail frame of mind". I've never setup a sendmail server and so I did not have the obstacle to overcome but I have setup and configured the postfix MTA which is also a modular type program. With that background the book was a breeze to follow along and I was even able to download a copy and configure it correctly for my system. The coverage was excellent and the installation and configuration information provided all the information I needed to get it up and running. If you are thinking of building a qmail MTA you will find "qmail: Managing Unix-Based Mail Systems" absolutely indispensable and the only reference you need to get it done right the first time.

The short of it is -- if you're the type of person who can install MS Windows on a machine, then there's no reason you can't install Linux on a machine. And I think this book is probably the fastest way you can get started.

While the typical computer geek can wade through the websites and find documentation and get help from newsgroups, I think this book is the best way for "regular folks" to go about it.

Confession: I'm a computer programmer who got into the habit of buying "For Dummies" books during college when I wanted to learn the basics really, really fast without having to think too much.

My goal was NOT to be able to program in Linux. I just wanted to see how close Linux has gotten to be a viable alternative to MS Windows. I wanted to install it on my laptop, but didn't want to spend more than a weekend on the endeavor.

I started out by downloading Mandrake Linux and installing it. All went really well. It was sort of anti-climactic. But then I wanted to go into it a little deeper. For example, adding users, reading files off my windows machine (I have a home network), downloading and installing programs that didn't come with the distribution.... But I just didn't have the patience to wade through the documentation. I just wanted the steps for doing the basic stuff right in front of me. Okay, I'll be honest -- I didn't want to think, I just wanted to do it.

Red Hat Fedora....For Dummies was the answer. After installing the Fedora distribution (the book explains "distributions"), I was customizing the desktop, reading files off my windows machine, browsing the web, printing from the printer connected to my windows machine, etc., in no time -- I'm talking the first day. It was so easy, I wanted to delve further. So I followed the directions in the book and was compiling programs and upgrading the Kernal.

If computers are sort of a hobby for you, meaning you like to dink around on them, can set up a network, can install MS Windows and stuff like this, you HAVE to try installing Linux on a machine. Try and find a used P3 or better machine with more than 128 MB RAM. (The book goes through how to install it on the same machine as your windows system, but I wouldn't do it.) Use this book and go for it. You will be AMAZED. If you mostly use your machine for e-mail, word processing, MP3's and photo/video manipulation, you may find that you can say goodbye to Windows and "HELLO!" to affordable (often free) software of equal, if not better quality than what you find on MS Windows.

Good Luck!

Although this titles clearly says that it's For Dummies, you'd best not be too terribly stupid to expect to tie into an 850 page book on Linux and come out knowing everything there is to know about Linux.

Having said that, this is still a For Dummies book. It starts off making the assumption that you at least know how to turn the computer on. One thing I particularly liked was the idea of you can put this on your main PC, but you might do better (that means less chance of screwing it up) if you put it on an old retired PC. I happened to find a PC at a local thrift store for $75 that I could dedicate to the Linux OS so the family doesn't get upset when I leave the thing in a mess. The software included with the book comes on a DVD. Or if you want you can order this software from the publisher on 9 CD-ROMs for a nominal fee.

The book is advertised as being 9 books in one. And I agree. The section on open office is clearly enough to get you started on using the integrated office package that comes with the software. And the section on programming is as good as any that I've seen. It's not enough to make you a professional programmer, but it will get you through the installation, setup and first programs. All in all, quite a book.

After reading through this book I found that I liked it not only for an exam guide but also as a source of quick answers to miscellaneous small questions. For example, I had a minor problem where I knew what the problem was and what had to be done, but could not remember the specific utility or specific steps needed. A quick turn to the appropriate section of the book and I had my answer. This is not a book that you would use to try to learn Linux and it does not profess to be such a book. On the other hand if you have a familiarity with Red Hat Linux and want a refresher, or a short summary of the most common administrative tasks this is an excellent book. If I were to take a good Linux book and write an outline so that I could just jump to the answers when I had questions this is the kind of book that I would end up with. "Red Hat Certified Engineer Exam Notes" is a highly recommended read for anyone wanting a summary of Red Hat Linux in a well-organized format.

A great cram book. Short and to the point. Highly recommend reading it just before going to course to get an overview.

If you dont plan on going to course, read it BEFORE starting your
studies from the bigger Study Guide for a good overview. (I recommend "RHCE Red Hat Certified Engineer Linux Study Guide, Third Edition" by Michael Jang) Published by McGraw-Hill.

Happy Studying!

Good luck with your exam.