Linux Books

This is another book that implies it's for power users, yet most of what's in here can be found in any garden variety book on how to run Linux. Only part of this book is aimed at "geeks".

The promotional text on the back cover implies that it's aimed at sysadmins. And while *some* of it is, most of it is stuff that a system administrator would already be familiar with.

Much of what's in this book is the same stuff aimed at beginning to intermediate Linux desktop users. It's not for real "geeks" or sysadmins by any means.

If only the truly useful stuff for sysadmins/geeks were included, the book would be 1/3 it's size.

It's not that it's a bad book; it's just not marketed well at all and has a very misleading title.

I found it a complete waste of money. It's hard to find books for "intermediate to advanced" users. I figured this would be one of them. It's not.

I was quite disappointed.

Are you annoyed from time to time that you can't find the right hardware; or can't configure a server; or are supporting less experienced users? If you are, then this book is for you. Author Michael Jang, has done an outstanding job of writing a cool book that addresses many of the more common complaints faced by the experienced Linux user.

Jang, begins by providing you solutions for some of the everyday annoyances. Then, the author gives some tips for the less experienced users. Next, the author shows you how to make Internet access as convenient and simple as possible for regular users. He also provides solutions for the geek who needs to set up regular users with access to popular tools, such as PDF files, MP3 players, and Windows-based applications. The author continues by showing the geek how to make choices in hardware, distributions, and systems that are appropriate for his or her users. Then, he shows the geek how to optimize Linux, solve some annoying boot issues, and address some basic security concerns. Next, the author focuses primarily on those kernal-related tasks that make most Linux users look to the geek for help. He then focuses on a variety of annoyances related to keeping your systems running smoothly and up-to-date. The author continues by showing you how to select and configure servers to solve a variety of problems, with a higher degree of security. Then, he focuses on annoyances created by and associated with the presence of different kinds of users in an organization. Finally, the author provides solutions for a wide variety of other annoyances related to system administration.

This most excellent book shows you how to get a stubborn wireless card to work under Linux. Perhaps more importantly, it reveals little-known sources for wireless drivers and information.

The book is a valuable reference text that may help to identify and repair many problems on the desktop or server. Linux professionals responsible for the operation and maintenance of desktop computers and servers will benefit most from the wide range of solutions provided for common problems. Semi-geeky Linux users may enjoy an informative look under the hood of Linux, even if they have low expectations of making the repairs themselves. Non-geeks, who just want to use Linux, are best off with Linux for Non-Geeks by Rickford Grant, published by No Starch Press, affiliated with O'Reilly.

Linux is a great operating system but like every other one it has some annoyances that may crop up from time to time. The purpose of this book is to help the reader to get Linux to work the way they want it to without getting annoyed in the process. As such the target audience is the Linux power user and system administrators.

Some of the areas covered include configuring GNOME applications in KDE and configuring KDE applications in GNOME, X Window configuration, working with CDs and DVDs, configuring sound, converting from Outlook, interfacing with various Instant Messaging programs, working with Microsoft Office documents, multimedia, hardware issues, startup problems, system maintenance, CUPS printing, using Samba, and various administrative tasks. One of the really great features of the book is that the author provides the details of how to make the changes in each of the most common distributions including Red Hat, SUSE, and Debian. So you know right away how to do it in the particular distribution you are working with. This is one of the things that really sets this book apart from others in this category and makes it one of the best choices possible.

Linux Annoyances for Geeks is an excellent book that details step-by-step how to work through the annoyances and get the results you want. With easy to follow the steps and the correct results every time it is a highly recommended resource.

This book isn't for a beginners but for those who already have experience with linux. I consider myself a moderate geek. Although the book doesn't explain everything in detail, it does have good references to other links that go into detail. For examples it explains how to install kerberos, but doesn't go into much detail on the hows or whys. I like the fact that it's not a bible!!!. It's pretty up to date on distros, SuSE 9.3-10, Debain Sarge, Fedora/RHEL 4. I consider this book a wrapping of all the google and forum anwsers I have been looking for. Overall I enjoyed the book.

Everything you need to know about v.1.3, but with Apache 2.0 just around the corner (currently in beta), you might want to hold off until the 2nd edition. This edition touches very briefly on 2.0, providing a general overview of what to expect, but no meat. A lot remains the same, but some critical things are different, and clear documentation of the kind that this book provides for 1.3 is scant. Hopefully something will come out before too long fill the void.

Of course, Apache 1.x is no slouch, has the majority share of servers on the web currently, could be all you need and more. If you're inclined towards the tried, tested, and true, and shun the unproven, consider this a 5 star recommendation for an excellent book on an excellent, if somewhat venerable, web server.

There is a lot of good information contained in this book just waiting to get out. Unfortunately, the poor chapter organisation and the abyssmal index makes finding the information you need (or trying to find it later) a frustrating experience. There's also a lot of padding with CGI and PHP scripts that didn't seem to serve any purpose unless you really wanted to learn how to program 'hello world'. Overall, it will teach you the gist of administrating an Apache Web Server, but I found it disappointing.

You can't go wrong with this book if you need a reference book concerning Linux and Apache Web Server Administration.

Author Aulds has a way with words, and he makes the subject easy to digest mixed with a dose of magical clarity. He is up to date, and this book covers besides Perl and CGI, PHP. Good selection of examples which anyone can use in everyday Apache Web administration shows the author's vast experience which is tempered with an equal amount of theorectical expertise.

Highly recommended.

Having spent a great deal of time wrestling with the more arcane aspects of administering a web server I've read way too much about the Apache server.

This may well be the one book written about Apache that turns into a must buy. It covers earlier in the learning curve and has much better prose than Kabir's "Apache Server Administrator's Handbook" and covers more than Laurie's "Apache: The Definitive Guide". While the sections on Perl, PHP and CGI are not extensive they cover all an Apache administrator needs to know to support the programming efforts of others. I found the sections on troubleshooting and security particularly useful.

I had already compiled Apache from source a number of times so cannot really tell how useful this section might be to the newcomer but it seems to cover everything you need to know to custom build your own httpd binary from source.

The section on configuring Apache is marvellous, I learn something from it every time I open it to assist in reconfiguring a server.

This book is well written, up to date, concise and authoratitive. It has good examples, good explanations and leaves out almost nothing. Everything a computer book should be. I feel that anyone who is starting down the Apache road should buy this book, any real need for earlier information is adequately addressed by the Apache manual while no other volume covers so much of the rest you need to know as well.

Excellent instructions, and an amazing companion to the O' Reiley book. Takes the guesswork out of Linux Apache admin, and is a handy tool for any other Unix folks as well.

It's so nice to read a technical book that is accurate and in English not geek.

Its an OK book has some good things but it covers too many older priorities that aren't really command line concerns while not covering topics that are of more concern to the modern user such as scripts.

As a person who's first computer (PDP-10) experience was using the command line, I am familiar with the basics. However, if you have never worked via the command line before this book is a great start. Its layout is task oriented, rather than by command name. This allows the reader to quickly find out how to do things rather than just reading what a command does. Each task is accompanied by examples and and detailed explanations. At the same time the author also provides information about what is happening "behind the curtain". A command line veteran will find this book a source of new information as well as an excellent reference guide.

I know what most people are thinking,"why can't I just use the GUI in Linux to do what I want? There is no reason to learn the command line." I here it from my students all the time. Every time I bring up command line in class I hear a groan pass over the classroom.
Most people do not know the power command line gives them in using a computer be it Linux, OS X, or even the hated Windows. This book helps with two of them the Linux and the OS X for the Windows I suggest using Powershell and it will give you the same abilities as the ones built in to Linux but I digress.
This book gives new people and intermediate people the commands to use and how to use them in a easy to follow format with lots of examples that actually work, compared to some books. The book is designed with Ubuntu in mind but worked just fine with my Novell SUSE 10.2.
The book was not dry reading and was somewhat entertaining with some of the examples. It is definitely suggested reading for anyone who wishes to learn Linux because that "GUI" stuff is not always available.

I could not have found a better compact Linux reference book. O'Reilly's "Linux in a Nutshell" is very comprehensive, but it gives very few examples and you pretty much have to know what you're looking for since it is organized alphabetically. "Linux Phrasebook" is organized by tasks such as "Finding Stuff" and gives practical examples. This book was money well spent!

I am picking up some Linux knowledge having been a database admin on Windows for many years. While concise, this book gives some explanation and context to commands/operations rather than simply acting as a copy of the built in documentation. More verbose than a "pocket guide", it is still quick enough to use as "how do I do this now" guide, rather than a chapter-by-chapter research book. This will likely be the most used book in my experimentations.

Great book, but the CD-ROM didn't come with it for some reason... slightly disapointed but will be able to read the html version online if I really need to.

The only reason I gave this book three stars is that most of this info regards GNU/Linux systems that are running a 2.2 kernel. The book points out in its text that the 2.4 kernel is upcoming. As I write this, the 2.4 kernel has been around for years now, and the 2.6 kernel (non-testing) is on its way. Likewise, some non-kernel material is also *completely outdated* (sound card configuration and NFS spring to mind). This book doesn't even mention kudzu, which is the bread & butter of RedHat, Knoppix, Mandrake, etc. Another way to put this: if kudzu can't autoconfigure your ISA hardware, this book may help.

However, the material in this book which is still relevent is worthwhile. If the author releases an updated edition, I'd be very tempted to buy it.

I've read (not just scanned) about 15 Linux reference books of varying depth and direction. Rute is the best. If you can have only one or simply can't live knowing you don't have the definitive guide then you must grab a copy of RUTE. Check out the TOC and Preface for an idea of why I'm so enthused. Briefly, let me just say that topics covered (many and well) are each treated with respect (at least a paragraph of text, not just usage summaries that parrot the man pages) and obviously were learned in the field, not from other books. There are other reasons, but I leave them for you to discover. ENJOY.

The best Linux book, period.

Theis title was chosen as the textbook for an introductory class on Linux. After several weeks the class concluded it was not a good choice for an introductory text. Although the book contains a wealth of information the book lacks any ordered teaching structure which a student can build on.

I really like Webmin and use it often since I'm not a Linux geek. There is good information in the book and it is well edited and presented. The problem is, the book describes an outdated version of Webmin. The program has a completely new interface which is sufficiently different to make this book much less desirable as a guide to the program.

In my view, this book contributes to understanding some of the Linux configurations for which Webmin provides an interface. But, if you are looking for help in using Webmin itself, you may be disappointed. I was. I probably won't return it, but I wouldn't have bought it had I known. I would love to see this book updated.

Being a fairly new Linux System Administrator, I find Jamie Camerons book a huge help. Not only does it cover evey aspect of Webmin, but also covers the essentials of Linux System Administration and how Webmin can be used to make things easier. The book follows a good sequence and builds upon previous chapters. I'm actually looking at purchasing another copy as I already have this one full of tabs and nearly worn out!

Gary Hull
Katterbach, Germany

Webmin is a pretty neat tool for administering a server using a GUI, particularly remotely. Managing Linux Systems with Webmin, written by Webmin's author Jamie Cameron, is an extensive look at using and extending it, a good guide not without flaws.

The book is structured as 60 chapters, without any division into sections and I have serious arguments with the order of chapters; why are the chapters about configuring Webmin at the end, for example. That said, the book has a fine index and the usual two-level contents make it a fraction easier to find what you want.

I do, however, have a little digression about the `Bruce Peren's Open Source Series,' of which this book is a member. Frankly, I think they all need, and deserve, a much stronger hand in editing. With this volume it is the bad structure and order; with "Intrusion Detection Systems with Snort" I found myself engrossed by the information and furious at the appalling grammar and sentence construction, particularly in the introductory chapters. The others in the series look significantly better at first glance but could still use better editing.

Once again we have an author or publisher who throws Linux into the title to make sure that it gets found by the greatest mass of likely readers while the tool described is more (not that I criticise the practice, they want to sell books.) Any *nix system can be controlled using Webmin -- including a great deal of Mac OS X not available through `System Preferences.' Indeed, I'd recommend the tool to all OS X users who want to gain better control and install better tools for the underlying BSD layer in OS X. I use it myself for just this reason. If you run any other *nix system don't be put off by the `Linux' in the title: very little of this book is Linux specific.

This one is well written -- Cameron has a light, informative style that I look for in a tech book. The book is well laid out, he gives good examples, good explanations and screen shots.

Cameron starts out with three introductory chapters on Webmin, its installation and security before launching into forty three chapters on using various Webmin modules, but with no real pattern to the order of most of the chapters. Why, for example, is the NFS module at chapter 4 while the Samba module is discussed in 43? I could list another half dozen examples without raising a sweat.

There is then a chapter on Usermin, the Webmin system for ordinary users. This is followed by three chapters on the server clustering system, a few on Webmin configuration and logging before the volume ends with chapters on building modules and themes.

Some of the chapters on the modules within Webmin border on merely stating the obvious, others are extremely useful. Overall they constitute a good manual to using the system, Webmin users who have not spent a great deal of time administering servers will find them particularly useful. The chapters on clustering, using Webmin on multiple servers to perform the same task at the once on many machines, are a good guide to administering and using this useful facility. I found the chapters on writing your own module more than adequate, I'm well under way to writing my first one after only a short time with the system and book.

One final complaint. Where in this book does it tell you how to start Webmin? I didn't want Webmin running from boot, so I answered No to that question and Webmin then ran. Nowhere did it tell me how to restart Webmin after I rebooted my computer and having the script `start' in the directory specified as the config directory is a little less than intuitive.

In conclusion, this is a good book. With a little work on the structure it would be an excellent book, rising from a rating of six to an eight or nine. the lack of structure makes it unduly hard to find what you are after. I would recommend Webmin, as a tool, to almost everyone running a supported server. If you have no need for the section on clustering and writing your own modules you could buy The Book of Webmin for a few dollars less or browse the same book (even download a PDF version free) at Swelltech, which is less comprehensive but much better structured (and tells you how to restart Webmin). If you want a guide to Webmin that includes notes on writing your own module then this will do until something better comes along, or they release a second edition with greater thought to structure and order.

Webmin is an open-source web application which puts a graphical user interface on the typically command line oriented tasks involved in administrating a Unix-based server. I personally have been using Webmin for many years already, although I initially acquired most of my administration knowledge by getting my hands dirty at the command line level. If administration is not your main job and you don't have all the administration tool syntax memorized or the time to wade through man pages, having a helpful interface like Webmin is a godsend.

The book's author, Jamie Cameron, is also the main developer of Webmin. When you read the book you realize that he is first and foremost a command line administrative guru. However, he wanted to develop something to help novice admins get important jobs done quickly without getting bogged down in learning syntax.

The book has a useful "Contents at a Glance" page at the start which is handy when you want to quickly look up a common administrative task. Then there is the main "Contents" section which contains all of the chapters' subtopics and titles. The end of the book contains a very thorough index. Although the book has 60 chapters, the author did not bother to explicitly divide them up into sections. On my first glance at the book, it seemed as though the chapters were not very logically ordered, but upon further inspection I realized that they follow the general ordering of the modules within the Webmin application. The one exception is that the chapter on configuring Webmin itself is found close to the end of the book although it is the very first module in the actual application. If I had to split the book up into sections, I would do so as follows: Introduction/Installation, System Modules, Networking Modules, Hardware Modules, Miscellaneous Modules, Server Modules, Usermin, Clusters, Webmin Configuration, Custom Module Development, and The API.

The book starts off with a rather short but efficient introduction, installation guide and security suggestions for Webmin. Maybe a few more ideas should have been included in the "Securing Your Webmin Server" chapter. I'm sure security is a topic which many admins would like to see emphasized because of the general mistrust of granting power to a remotely accessible administration system which might easily allow a hacker or ignorant admin to take down a critical server.

Webmin lets you perform many high-level tasks without ever knowing what files on the server are being affected. For myself, as a programmer who sometimes gets involved with administration work, I have configured sendmail services using Webmin many times and I have just let it work its magic without worrying about the file changes being made. This book, in addition to explaining usage of the application, fills in the details of what is going on behind the scenes.

I believe Webmin is a great tool for junior administrators or hobbyists to learn Unix-based administration as long as a book like this one is used so the processes are thoroughly understood. This book probably won't be of much use to a professional administrator with lots of experience and a repertoire of scripts to handle all daily admin tasks. Although, if you are a pro and have grown weary of tedious command line work, this book will help you quickly get up to speed with the Webmin interface.

I found that the book also introduced me to a few concepts I had only heard about but had not really bothered to delve into more, such as Usermin and Clustering. Usermin is basically a trimmed version of Webmin meant for use by the average user on a system. I can see this being used in cases where an administrator wants to give users enough power to control their own email and website settings without giving them shell access. The author devotes three chapters to clustering and explains its usefulness, management and configuration.

At the end of the book you will find a number of useful chapters on creating your own Webmin modules, including explanations of standard module flow structuring, API function descriptions, and a sample dissection of the default theme structure. This section alone may be reason enough for some to purchase this book.

The writing is fairly clear, although as I mentioned before, some of the unusual chapter ordering and missing section divisions are distracting. All in all, this book is a very thorough explanation of the Webmin administration interfaces as well as an introduction to the lower level work being done by the interface, and a short but informative section for those wanting to create their own modules.

Before buying this book, I used Webmin and thought it was pretty easy to use and didn't think I needed a book about it. Was I wrong.

Not only does this book teach you all the things that you can do with Webmin, it is an excellent general Linux tutorial. The author goes into details about each subject (including what command line programs are run or which config files are changed by Webmin) and provides the meaning behind each setting. Along the way, you learn things that you didn't know existed or couldn't figure out how to do. For example, I had no idea I could mount a folder from a Windows machine without using samba or NFS. If you need to set up Raid, LVM, Apache Web server, Samba, the list goes on... this is the book.

If you need to set up Linux in a home or small office with Windows file sharing, internet gateway, web and mail hosting, DHCP server, etc., you should buy this book.

This does a good job of covering the material it is intended to cover.

This book offers the >HIGHLIGHTS< of the GNU programming tools. E.g. Makefiles are covered by this book, but you wouldn't find all details of make in this book.

So, this is a really nice book, to get you started with the GNU Toolchain, but don't expect to see all ins and outs in this book of every topics.

It's a nice started book, but you also need to buy a specialized book of the topics you want to pay special attention.

This book collects all the little tidbits of info concerning compiling, writing make files, debugging and more into a hand reference book. It is good for people who know C/C++, but don't know the Un*x toolset.

What I love about this book is that it covers subjects that you run into all the time in unix but none of my other books say much about. For example the link editor, libraries, c command line options. In particular I like the sections on gdb and gprof. Super useful. The intro has a section on unix and setting up your environmental variables, another neglected topic. The only section that didn't interest me is the section on emacs since I am a vi guy. But, it doesn't hurt to have it either... In sum, if you are a true UNIX guru, you may already know all this stuff, but, if you are an aspiring guru, like myself, this is pure gold.

The book collects the information usually scattered in different places.It covers the following tools: gcc, emacs, gdb, make, rcs, gprof. The explanation is pretty clear, necessary examples are given.

What I don't like in this book: too many words about benefits of free software, probably more technical topics and details would be more useful. E.g. the chapter about 'make' even doesn't mention pattern rules. I'd like also to see a section devoted to CVS. The level of details is good for an introductory course but is not sufficient for a reference book.

RESUME: if you are new to GNU tools and going to use them on a regular basis this book will help you, otherwise skip it.

This book is a great introduction to the topic of SELinux because of the information on its developmental background and lucid description of the objectives, advantages and maintenance of a SELinux system. I would recommend this book to someone who has a firm grasp of basic security concepts and programming principles and is interested in getting exposure to the security enhanced model of Linux.

Really only skimming over the problem, could be more in depth, since most online documentation about SELinux is really skimming over the subject too, or just overly dated.

Selinux is a conscious attempt to fundamentally rework and improve linux security. Previously, or more to the point, in most current linux machines, the security was somewhat of an ad hoc approach. This is mitigated by a formidable array of open source IDS tools like Ethereal and Snort that let a sysadmin often successfully depend her network and machines.

But as the frequency and virulence of malware attacks has increased, the Selinux of this book may be a timely reinforcing of the operating system. As McCarty explains, this book is geared towards a sysadmin, as opposed to a programmer. It discusses the new things you should know. Especially the concepts of role based access model and of domains. The former has shades of DEC's VMS, which had a very mature implementation. Or those of you with mainframe experience may also recognise familiar ideas.

Programmers may find the book a little sparse, as mentioned above. But possibly McCarty is devising a sequel for them.

Personally, I prefer books to focus either concepts or detailed implementation instructions not both. For complex topics like SELinux, you typically cannot fit the conceptual and pragmatic within one book. McCarty's SELINUX is no exception. SELINUX provides an excellent overview of concepts but struggles with policy implementation methods and procedures. I suspect the topic is simply too large for one volume. What implementation advice presented is clear and concise but you will have to search elsewhere for more detailed deployment advice.

Despite these issues, this book is recommended reading for anyone considering implementing SELinux. The conceptual overview is some of the best I've seen since SELinux got its start. Using charts, diagrams and examples, McCarty presents an excellent overview of the nuts and bolts of SELinux. Understanding the principles of Role-Based Access Control, Type Enforcement, and Security Objects is critical to both using SELinux and justifying its use. The latter may be a bigger hurdle than many anticipate. The chapters on these areas will arm you with sufficient understanding to make a clear case of why SELinux can and should be implemented in many Linux-based computing environments.

While there are brief examples throughout, the book's third chapter on SELinux installation presents a well-documented, step-by-step guide to installing SELinux. If you've never installed SELinux, these sections will prove very valuable. With clearly numbered steps and command line examples, you can have SELinux installed and configured with a default policy within an hour.

As a mix between the pragmatic and conceptual, SELINUX is a good start on this topic. Entry level SELinux users will probably not learn too much from this book, but if your are looking for a introduction to SELinux concepts along with some pragmatic advice for getting started, then this book may be for you.

So what makes Selinux more secure than standard Linux? Primarily it is the implementation of role-based access control, sandboxing, and an audit facility that allows the system to log any attempts to exceed specified permissions. It does all this without conflicting with the normal permissions of Linux. If you are able to access a file through normal discretionary access control then the role-based mandatory access control provides additional security to determine if you can run the file or not. The only way to open a file is if both systems agree that you should be able to open it.

The author covers installation, configuration, administering, and setting up a security policy. The presentation of SeLinux is straightforward and the security model is presented in a writing style that makes it clear and understandable to the reader.

SeLinux: NSA's Open Source Security Enhanced Linux is highly recommended as both a Linux security solution and an excellent book on how to utilize all the resources of SeLinux.

This book is very useful to me as I am new to Solaris / Unix / Linux and
many issues that were glossed over in other books are explained in detail.

Sun Microsystems is good about documenting and sharing information so anyone who wants to learn abt Unix or Linux can use Solaris and this book as an educational tool.

I cannot say I am very impressed with this book. Granted, maybe the title 'Boot Camp' should have been a give away, but you just don't walk away from this book knowing even enough to be dangerous. Maybe peel potatoes.

My reading of the book progressed something like this: I would work my way through the chapter, following the author every step of the way as best I could (given system differences), the procedure would not work, I would look up the correct way to do things on the internet, and the problem would be solved. And the information on the internet is FREE.

Where the book really fails is it does not cover topics in a way that would allow you to extrapolate from the situation covered in the book to another, similar situation that you may be having. Back to the internet.

The author also breaks a cardinal rule of system administration: he makes multiple changes at the same time. This leaves you, the reader, having to re-trace multiple steps to identify the problem when the procedure covered in the text fails on your particular system. Back to the internet.

The book does have a nice feature: it lists all the man pages and files you will be using at the beginning of the chapter. Not to say this helped me resolve many of the problems I had, but it is still a nice feature.

This leaves me to suggest you purchase another book on Solaris and you use the internet where you would have used this text.

There are lots of Solaris books on the market, most of which are horrible. This book is the only book that I've seen that covers the OS very completely in a very small page count. Subjects like RBAC, NIS, NFS, ACL's, and other topics that are typically confusing and lengthy reads are presented in this book in only a few short paragraphs but with absolute clarity. Other books talk about something, this book teaches you how it works and how to do it without all the pointless chatter.

Everything presented in this book applies to Solaris 10 as well, it simply lacks coverage of the wide range of new features such as SMF, Zones, DTrace, etc. But don't let that stop you from buying this book!

While the book might seem like a beginners only book, I find it invaluable as a Sr SA. Its extremely embarousing when someone asks you to do something with Solaris that you haven't done for a long time. A common example is working with Sendmail on Solaris... if you spend a lot of time using Postfix or other mail systems it can be a real pain to remember where Sun puts things and how to interact with the stock Sendmail in Solaris. This book has saved me from reading piles of man pages and pulling out full length O'Rielly books to simply remember some simple topic that I just haven't dealt with in a while.

Beginner or Expert, this the best Solaris book to have at arms reach. Period.

At last a book that is worth every cent!
A must have book for any Solaris Administrator, novice or expert.
You will not be dissapointed..

I don't understand why the rating of this book is so good. To me it is not realistic. This is an avarage book. The book is missing details. There are lots of mistakes. It is not complete. I understand that to write the book on Solaris(Unix) and explain all the details of it, the book should be over 1000 pages. If the authors don't have such a patience and dedication they should not write the books. The should leave students to read documentation from Sun website or man pages. I don't have any book to recomend. The book is still good comparing to other books on Unix, which are terrible. But chapters are not finished.

Brown did a great job of encapsulating a lot of entry-level and intermediate knowledge into this book. Each chapter stands along but furthers along the whole, which seeks to educate the reader about the various systems in SUSE Linux. Unlike many computer books, this book will age well because the information is specific but not tied to any one particular version. So what was relevant for 10.1 is equally relevant for 10.3 and beyond.

I read this book from cover to cover and learned a lot in the process. It is approachable and well written. It is technical but good at explaining and teaching.

Chris Brown is a talented writer, able to take a complex subject and both simplify and clarify it for everyone. Chris walks the reader through SUSE Linux step-by-step, explaining virtually everything you want to do with your system with ease and speed. If you're wanting to get up and running with SUSE Linux and enjoying your system and files, then this book even in the Summer of 2007 is well worth the money. I look forward to his next title.

'SUSE Linux' by Chris Brown is a perfect companion manual for any and all Linux enthusiasts looking to install, administer, configure and play with this distribution of Linux. Jam packed with 400+ pages of goodness, this is a must buy for anyone that isn't a SUSE Linux guru. Even for gurus out there, this book will no doubt improve your Linux abilities and get you up and running and/or super configuring your Linux box here and now!!

If you are looking to work with SUSE Linux now or in the future, pick up this book, you'll be glad you did!!

***** RECOMMENDED

I was (am) a complete noob to Suse and linux in general. I'm very experienced when it comes to OS-level stuff and computers, but I needed a good overall book to get my suse install going. Well, this wasn't the book to get. If everything works perfectly on your install, you're good to go - and you wouldn't need this book anyway! If, however, your install hiccups, then this book won't help.
Like the install section, the rest of the book is basics only. Not much in the way of troubleshooting, either.
I'm not saying it's not a good book. It may be perfect for the transition user, someone going from Win to linux and primarily interested in using desktop applications and doing simple admin tasks. Perhaps for that user segment, this is a five-star book. I wanted a bit more and for that, it doesn't deliver.
An example is during the install section. There's no info on dual-booting a machine. I don't want to speak for others, but I imagine that's a common install of linux. It's certainly what I wanted to do. No info was contained on how to do it, however. The install that is done in the book offers little in explanation of 'why' you would do things - just do them. Again, perhaps only a fault if you want something other than a vanilla single-boot machine installation.
Lastly, the book references version 10.1 and shipping version is 10.2. Some things have changed although not enough to say the book needs updating.

Ever since Novell purchased SUSE Linux there has been a whirlwind of activity, press releases, and articles everywhere about what they intend to do with it and where SUSE will go from here. In this book the author guides the reader through the details of the community distribution. The focus is on the desktop user who wants to migrate to SUSE but doesn't know much about Linux. Only minimal computer literacy is assumed and the author walks you through everything from the installation through setting up email, printers, network cards, users, and anything else you might want to configure on your desktop. The section on administration is well done and explains how to do things both from the command line and graphical interfaces. Other areas covered include graphics, audio, video, burning CDs and DVDs, installing and configuring on your laptop, package management, and network services including sharing files, remote access, configuring a web server, name resolution and everything else you would need to install and configure a small business server. SUSE Linux is highly recommended to those who want to learn the basics of this system as a desktop operating system. The server portion is useful for a small business server but for a high-demand server the proprietary version is preferred and not covered in this text.

This book is full of comprehensive useful information. If the reader is interesting in knowing a wide range of information and make it applicable you should buy this book. If you are going to critisize a book you should learn how to spell so that everyone is sure you know how to read in the first place.

Any one or two of these books would cost more than this six-pack. And the CD-ROM is good for cut and past operations. The nice thing about this set is that as things progress and you diversify into other subjects, as perl you never lose the core skills that are displayed on this CD. The vi editor is always present and more powerful than the passing fads like emacs, which will be, replace in due time. And yes I thing each shell has its strength; however after the Borurne shell, The Korn shell is the most prolific. Now for those that think the tcsh and bash shells are in now are already behind as most shells regardless of what you type are based on the POSIX.2 standard. Even thought I have a gazillion reference books, this is nice because it is on line.

I've purchased this book for its search capability. Since I was using a proxy server, the search function didn't work for my PC. I've contacted O'Reilly by e-mail and they responded back promptly. Tech support person told me to set my Netscape Communicator proxy exception to include localhost and it made search work on my PC. I think O'Reilly is including this instructions for their new CDs. I am happy to have 6 books for a cheap price topping it off with this search capability. This is a great deal!

I pop in the CD while I work on some Unix stuff. It saves time and hassle. I get more ideas and learn new things in a unique way.

But it is a different kind of learning -- so be patient and enjoy!

Although single user pack, this CD from O'Reilly is unbeatable. The Unix Power Tools alone worth a lot more $s than the CD itself. The Cross-refs. are great, the search engine didn't work well on my PC, but it works great on a Unix platform (so 4 +stars). Please O'Reilly make it multi-user set and fix the PC related bug then you are a superstar.