Linux Books

the book is good for newbies. contents are presented in a good manner but most of the time user gets confused and cannot get help. moreover cd-roms available with this book are not burnt properly.so the book is of no use if you cannot install linux ...

This book will definetely help you install Red Hat if you are a newbie BUT you won't learn anything from it... the book is not good as a reference not to learn... Look for something else

I recently bought this book to manage a linux server. I liked the book for the following reasons:

-- for the most part the tone is serious. The book does not unnecessarily praise linux or takes cheap shots at microsoft. It also does not have many lame jokes that you find in many computer books.

-- A reviewer criticized the book as superficial. I think that is a virtue. Many unix manuals are loaded with information (have you seen the gnu-make manual lately!). Things do not have to be so complex. If I have to parse out two hundred command line arguments to (say) compress a file, there is something wrong in there. For many tasks this book first gives a quick-start method and then goes into reasonable details. Can't beat that.

-- This book has benefited me so many times that I almost owed this review to the author and publisher. My only regret is that I work with RH9.0 and the book is for RH8.0.

-- With software being as dynamic as it is, it is indeed hard to write a book and keep it up-to-date. I appreciate this effort.

-- I used another book from the same publishers (weblogic bible).
I can say essentially the same thing about that book. Absolutely the right attitude! I must not have to read a 1000 page tome to use a simple command.

If you are planning to work on linux, use this book.

If you are a patient new or intermediate user this book is for you. If you are an advanced user you don't need an overview text of Red Hat and if you aren't patient get a good book on bowling.

This book covers an amazing amount of material in a format that is very newbie friendly. The author assumes that you know nothing about Linux that wasn't stated somewhere in a previous chapter - something hard to find in any computer book.

From install to configuring various servers in one book - quite a task. The only negative I could see in this book was the author's coverage leaned towards the graphical applications and utilities and so was a little light on coverage of command line environment.

I found some of the more critical reviews unfair. Some bashed the book for being too basic while others claimed it was over their heads. This book is not for everyone. Seasoned users will find this material too shallow in its coverage - this book is not for them. Many new users will find Linux frustrating - THAT'S JUST THE NATURE OF LINUX! - this OS is not for everyone.

I found the Red Hat manuals online were also a good backup reference to this book. At some point users will outgrow this book and have to look elsewhere for more indepth coverage kinda like when you finally took the training wheels off your bicycle.

This book struck me as very superficial. The author attempts to cover a very wide spectrum and, as a result, detail is sorely lacking. One example will suffice. The author describes the purpose of kudzu, ending with "[I]f you like, you can also start kudzu while Red Hat Linux is running" --- and fails to tell you how to start kudzu. Excuse me, but what's the point of failing to provide basic information?

The index is also very weak

On the whole, I think one can do much better than this book.

Jerry

There are way too many computer book authors who simply do not know how to write. Bill McCarty is not one of these. He has written an erxcellet book that eplains debian on a very basic level. This is a good book because it delivers exactly what it promises to deliver. It is an introduction to linux and it encourages new users to "have fun" and "be patient." It is outdated, though. For Linux, a good book needs to be more recent that 2000 to be relevant. This book is older than that. The effective birthday of Debian was in 1993. Highly recommended book!

For an absolute beginner this is ok. However too much reliance is given to the How-to's and internet for problem solving, a PS2 mouse works with /dev/psaux which wasn't easy to find out. The installation guide is pretty good, you will appreciate it the first time you install linux, but if you enjoy playing and try different distro's you won't need it very quickly. The introduction to sysadmin is equally useful at a basic level for a home machine. So if you haven't tried linux this is as good a start as any I have read, but you only need one beginner's book, then i believe the Rute Manual which has now been printed is the way to go.

I used the book to install debian linux. I must say that this book does help a lot in making the installation easy. The only thing that one must do extra work is when installing the linux on newer machines (especially with the Windows Me already running). I just wish that Bill McCarty does a little more elaboration on /dev files and troubleshooting. Anyway it is a good book.

This book is aimed for the very novice Linux user, who comes for
the first time to the world of Unix. From that perspective this book
could deserve one start more, but not more. The starting chapers covers
the installation process with screen prints from the debian installer and
they can't get clearer than that. But, In my opinion they do not add
any value to the book, because the Debian installation dialogs are
almost self explanatory and you don't need a book to show the
pictures.

The part of the installation could have better server on concentrating
on setting up multi-boot system with various Win32 (Win9x,NT,2000)
combinations. THAT would have certaily deserved a star.

Setting up the X server is not "piece of cake", and the book
should definitely have devoted much more pages on it. You can almost
bet that you can't get X server working properly from Debian
installation with all those varoous video/3D cards and different
monitors (just count how many combinations are there). This chaper
is ESSENTIAL for any new Linux user that wants to see Graphical GUI.
Well, therte is not much information what to do if X fails to start.
(Btw, GNOME window manager is presented, not KDE)

Other Chapters in the book are average, medicode tratment of the
topics wich are by no means specific to Debian system: Use
administration, system services, learnign to use the basic shell
commands.

The Networking part may be appropriate in the US market, where
Modem (PPP) connections are in majority, but for European users,
the ISDN, LAN, WAN, Cable Modem are more for hte present. The book
only coves PPP and LAN. Authors should have covered ISDN as well,
because that's much harder than modem PPP.

In short, This is 2 start book. You're better served with something
more in depth book that a) you can refer all the time to get
problems solved b) or goes more deeper on the details of the specific
Linux distribution.

This book does not give you very good overview what is so special
with "debian".

You're much more better served with Michael Kofler's "Linux" book,
which gives in depth discussion and comparision of various Linux
system. It's one of the best Linux books around.
You can use it with Debian as well.

While it's nice to have a book cover the Debian specific installation procedure, too much space was wasted on repeating instructions like "with the arrow key, highlight 'Ok' and hit the Enter key". Too much space in this book is taken up with these trivial instructions, over and over again, it becomes tedius to read. If we didn't have to read about hitting the arrow and Enter keys with every little step, this book otherwise has some useful Debian specific information in it. Too bad the book couldn't have been packed with more useful info and fewer instructions on how to highlight a menu item.

This is a good book to have if you are new to Linux programming. I found it a handy reference when needing to write basic Linux test applications.

this book collects all informations about Linux, that surely exist yet singularly, but all together it's better for your understanding.

Those familiar with Linux know how obtuse its documentation can be. Anyone who has tried to compile Linux software will appreciate the additional information about what is going that is provided in this excellent text. You are bound to be inspired to try some highly educational examples. For those who want to try programming, this is an indespensible aide.

Unfortunately, I found some errors that are hard to spot. You may be luckier.

It is rather sad to see a good book like this one get beaten-up because of the "non existant" CD ROM that the author refers in the text. As mentioned in other reviews, the code can be DOWNLOADED!

The writing is lucid and easy for newbies to grasp. The author takes you from a "novice" level to an intermediate+ level with good coverage of topics like System programming and IPC.

I must admit though, I havent read the other books suggested by the other reviewers - so am not in a position to compare them. But this book suit me fine, and I didnt have to go to look elsewhere.

Definately a MUST BUY!

As I was going to my grand mother's home with a friend of mine, preparing myself to pass one week without having much to do (Yes, I am one of those geeks), my friend given me this book to overcome the tedium I was about to face. I've read most of this book continuously in 3 days, I've skipped all the parts of the book concerning X-windows development as I don't use it and I sure will not going to use it unless demanded. I found the book very interesting; the author has a very involving writing style. The book covers mostly C programming and has some chapter(s) on Java and shell scripting. There was sub-chapters which weren't needed and chapters which were needed and weren't there. For example, the book explains you how to use ioctl and set flags equal to those done by chattr(1), but it's only one example on the ioctl interface, I was actually interested in this set of ioctl but, it seemed to me needless to be covered as an example of ioctl()s. On the other hand, I found a lot of explanations lacking on the sockets part of the book. For example, I don't remember reading about the poll() interface, which is far better than select() system call explained in chapter. 11. There was also one chapter completely devoted on writing documentation and the general licenses which I found off-topic for a programming book, but nevertheless interesting to read. The introduction to the GNU tools are a must read, and I recommend this book for anyone starting a career or with just plain interest in programming for this operating system. I must say that when I've read the book, I knew a great part of what I was about to read and that I wasn't completely clueless to what I was reading. (Sorry for any incoherencies in my review, English ISN'T my native language).

I don't think this is a good book. I have compared this book with other shell programming books and and found this book is not good at all. So when I need to refer a shell script book I would not use this one. Besieds, the author is really careless, this book contains a lot of errors.
when I wrote this review, I found there are altogether 14 reviews already. Seems some of the reviewers had the same feeling toward this book as me.

I own no less than ten books on shell programming and this one has helped me more than the rest combined. The author has the talent for condescending to my level to explain concepts that I have had a great deal of trouble understanding. I was able to write a menu driven script to simplify the loading and unloading of a tape library after reading just two chapters from the middle of the book. I even created my first shell function in the process. Yes there are a few typos. I'm not sure why some of the more sophisticated reviewers had a problem with this. I still found the book very useful and was able to catch the intended meaning in spite of the typos. If you are a genius this book may not be for you. If you are trying to learn how to write scripts quickly I highly recommend it. I would have traded all my other scripting books for this one had I known how useful it is.

Well. I normally don't review books.

But this one is a constant on my bookshelf when I do any shell programming and I find it very useful.

It has lots of examples, is well organised and Mr. Tansley's way of putting things make it a pleasant read.

I highly recommend this book.

Like many other reviewers, I have found numerous typos, oddly worded sentences, saying one thing in prose and then writing the opposite in code, and other unprofessional, but understandable errors in the text.

What I can't forgive are the conceptual errors which really begin appearing in the sections on shell programming. For instance, to demonstrate an until loop, he presents the following script (paraphrased here:)

IS_ROOT=`who | grep root`
until [ $IS_ROOT ]
do
sleep 5
done
echo "ROOT IS LOGGED ON"

which is supposed to, once run, check every 5 seconds if user 'root' is logged on. But there is a real error here - the command in backquotes is only evaluated once, when the line is evaluated. From that point on, $IS_ROOT will always have the same value (empty, if root is not logged on when the script is run), and the until loop will either run forever, or never run at all.

That same conceptual error is repeated more than once, and other similar errors appear in the section on flow control (which is where I decided to stop reading).

My background is fairly advanced - I've been using bash for over a decade, but have always turned to python or perl for any of my scripting needs. However, I know that is often much faster to write one-off shell scripts than python scripts, so I decided to read up on it. With my experience, I was able to detect and mentally correct a lot of the errors (which may confuse or mislead novices) and still get something out of the first part book. But I'm not willing to read a programming book - even if it's just shell programming - where the author is making such fundamental conceptual errors. Also, it seems like he has not tested his code, which is a necessity for any book on programming.

I do think this book could be very useful if it were corrected, tested, and the programs rethought - it has a nice mix of topics and fairly readable prose (in most places). But as it stands, it can not be recommended, especially to novices who may not be able to recognize the errors.

First, it's clear that often a reviewer will give a good book a bad rating because they don't understand the material of the book and are frustrated. I want to assure you that I am NOT one of those people. I am frustrated for far different reasons.

I bought this book because it seemed to cover many topics which are just obscure enough that other shell programming books for beginners leave them out. I'm not a beginniner, but I'm not an expert, and simply want to read about some commands I'm not already familiar with to broaden my horizons.

However, I do have enough experience to soon realize that the book had far too many errors to be useful. These aren't just typos either. For example, on page 66 the author states, "To run a list of commands in the current shell, seperate each command with a command seperator, and enclose the list with round brackets." and then goes on to give an example:

$ comet month_end || (echo "Hello, guess what! Comet did not work"|mail dave; exit)

Well, if one didn't know better, one might actually believe this was correct. Of course, he also states that, "To run...in the subshell...use {} instead of ()." and then I quote:

The general format is:
{command1; command2;..)

(Yes, that is his unmatched parenthesis, not mine.) The typo is rather harmless, but giving the exact opposite meaning to something, than it actually has is not. I quickly lost my confidence in the accuracy of the book, which makes it virtually useless as a reference manual. It may still be useful to get the general idea of a command, but I wouldn't dare copy the examples in the book without reading the man pages first to make sure they are correct.

There seems to be a typo on every page, often two or three, the index is also awful, and some of the examples are dirt-dumb. Here is an example from the section on the null statement (:):

if [ "`ls -A $DIRECTORY`" = "" ]
then
echo "$DIRECTORY is indeed empty"
else : # do nothing
fi

I'm sure this is a very useful, non-trivial example of the null statement...the profoundness just hasn't sunken in yet.

In sum, I believe that the editor position at Addison-Wesley is just a figurehead job, and that those 1000 monkeys trying to type Hamlet produced this as one of their early drafts.

If you're looking for a guide to Linux and a distribution that will work on an older computer with very little hard drive space, and only need to play around with it and not do anything terribly useful, then this may be the book for you. Otherwise, I suggest you look elsewhere.

While this may have been a helpful book at one time, this distribution is now very out of date. As the book focuses on the Slackware distribution included, it may or may not pertain to newer Slackware distributions or other distributions. The book includes the Slackware 3.3 distribution on a single CD.

I purchased this book as it was recommeneded as one of the few ways to get Linux on an old 486 laptop. I had no previous experience with Linux, but with this book and some helpful websites I was able to install it to the laptop. The laptop only had a floppy drive, requiring a floppy installation (about 2.5 hours). While I did learn much about Linux in this process, I didn't really make the computer much more useful than when it had Windows 3.1 installed (for my limited needs). I'm giving two stars because it did assist me in installing Linux.

Summary: The book and distribution are now out of date. The book does not necessarily stand on its own in guiding installation. Not recommended as an introduction to Linux as there MUST be better books out there now.

This book covers exactly what its name says it does. It is an in-depth tutorial and discussion of configuration and installation concerns with regard to the Slackware Linux operating system. Period. It doesn't cover commands or the X Window system to any great extent, but then again, it never claims to do so. It does provide a thorough examination of Linux installation. After reading this book (OK, after reading the first couple of chapters), I was able to install Linux with no problems on my home PC. I am still looking for a good command reference manual so that I'll be able to become proficient with this operating system. All in all, this is a great book as far as it goes.

At first I found this book very daunting, technically oriented, and not very newbie friendly. However, I found that if I re-read the chapters on installation and config before I touched my computer, it started to make more and more sense. This is an excellent book for those with a bit of computer experience (I would not recommend this to those who are quite new to computers and OSes). Following installation it is gives a quick overview of Linux functions and programs which should get the average person up and running.

I read this book from cover to cover and am still using it as a guide for building my new linux friendly computer. The depth it goes into on setting up Xfree86 and the touching on shell programming is awesome. The cd's were also a lifesaver and a resource to get software without searching all over the net. Id reccommend this book to any linux newbie.

I never even heard of linux and then I bought this book and it was pretty good in installing. I did hear though that Slackware 3.3 has some security flaws so i downloaded 3.6. I had to do alot of guesswork, so this book is for intermediate to expert computer users. I found many of the applications in both the cd's to be very helpful.

I didn't use this for the test, but it was still a good overview of topics in Linux. It's a good way to find the holes in your knowledge, and get an idea of different ways to do things. It's definitely not as good as the more popular system administration classics.

This book does not count for toffee. But if you want to fail in the exam, rely on it and buy it.

The General Linux I Exam Cram (Exam 101) is one of the best Linux books on the market. There is something odd with the reviews posted here, though. As I look at the page numbers listed by some reviewers as containing errors, they don't match with the book I hold in my hand. In fact, they don't even cover the same topics. My assumption, therefore, is that reviews for more than one book are being posted here - explaining why some reviewers are rating it well and others poorly. If you are reading the reviews because you are interested in the General Linux I Exam Cram (ISBN 1-57610-923-2), then you won't find a better title anywhere. On the other hand, if this review is - through some Amazon fluke - posted for any other book, then I have no idea about that title, and I don't know who Chris Hare or any other authors mentioned in some of the reviews are (the book I hold in my hand is written only by Emmett Dulaney).

I just completed my Linux Professional Institute Certification Exam. I passed by a wide margin. I do have extensive experience in UNIX but only a little in Linux. I used the Exam Cram books as my exclusive preparation for the test. I felt that the "LPI General Linux I" did a good job of preparing me for the LPI 101 test. This is not a book that someone with limited experience in Linux and/or UNIX should use but for a more experienced person it provides a good course of study.

There are some minor problems with the book; the occasional inaccuracy and an unfortunate choice for the font which made it impossible to differentiate between certain letters; but over all I was happy with the book and felt well prepared for the test.

This book will get through the exam (Level I, 101), but barely, even if you memorise and understand everything verbatim. Excellent as a portable revision tool, but only after you have gone through a more thorough reading of a more comprehensive book on Linux. For more indepth stuff, I would hertily recommend "LPIC in a Nutshell". Costs the same and covers both Level I exams (101 AND 102) with double the material and pages.

Overall, LPI General Linux I Exam Cram: Exam 101 is very readable and can serve as a good intro to the world of Linux for those Linux gurus wannabes.

As this book titled RedHat Linux 7 Unleashed (RH7U), it is covered with many in-depth explanations on what RH70 offered.

My expectation is also fulfilled, as I want to know all about Linux Basic and tend to get certified with RHCE and Linux Sair/GNU. I read this book companied with RHCE Study Guide and about to take the course on May 2002.

Currently, as I write this review, I see the RH72 Unleashed and have some thoughts to buy that as well as this RH7U provide a good structured explanation. This book is just like the Manual book that RH Corp. should provide.

I give 4 stars, as there is no book contains an all-in-one-solution to get your Linux running for production phase. This book offers a horizontal explanation on how you could get Linux started with minimal configuration. Linux means huge knowledge, that's why you need special book to read if you would like to have your Linux in specific job like firewalls, routing, DNS, SAMBA, etc.

Finally, this book is the best book I have to explain Linux!

The book I received does not match the sample pages that are displayed.

If you are looking for a good book on Linux/Unix I strongly suggest you DON'T BUY this book. I bought this book mainly because it has the RH7 3 cd set but was also hoping it would be useful in the future since at the time I really didn't know much about Unix. The author can't explain many topics at all. He just assumes that you already know all the stuff and that you are reading the book as a novel. ...

This book gives simple, clear answers to the simple questions.
However, for more complex Linux code, go elsewhere. I find the chapters Shell Scripting and Automating Tasks give poor examples and the explanations are unclear. For someone new to Linux, this book is a good starting point but for someone looking for a little more technical info than your average Linux manual, this book fails. Two reasons I purchased this book was to learn cron and introduction to shell scripting. Both chapters regarding these topics are hard to read and examples given are futile. For something regarding bash shell scripting, O'Reilly's Learning The Bash Shell by far outweighs the merits of this book, in that particular area, mind you.

However the syntax for simpler items regarding Linux is clear and common-sense oriented. But there are so many Linux books covering these fields, it would be nice to see a manual put forth covering detailed code in the manner this book explains simpler terms.

This book was my first foray into the world of Linux and I found too many errors for this to be a good start for a newbie. Case in point is Chapter 20 on ipchains. The sample firewall script is inclomplete (missing a definition of $ME in the constants section) and contains basic errors (such as showing an option as "-I" when it should be "-i"). Most galling is the publisher's website. There is no section on errata to undo some of the mistakes that made it into print. Moreover, unless your web browser supports vbscript the web site will not load. It requires dissecting the start page source to find a way into the site.

Buy the book for the disks, but expect to spend some time extricting yourself from the mistakes in it if you follow all the author's examples.

I was expecting a lot more from this book.

The book consists of a slew of sales literature on the various distributions, a practice exam of questionable quality, and a list of definitions that can be found in at least 100 places along with some VERY BASIC Linux tasks. Nothing is covered in depth.

The redeeming parts of this book (thus two stars) are the sections on PC architechure, video modes, and troubleshooting.

At best, it's over-priced ...

I am at a new job and my employment is conditional upon LCA certification. As a new Linux user and with a concurrent formal training I was not prepared for the exam. At the end of the book is a prcatice exam consisting of 104 questions, I was able to get 82 questions correct on the first try and thought that I was adequately prepared. However I only found two questions on the exam that I got correct due to studying this exam guide.

Best of luck to us all in achieving our certifications.

If you have taken the official Sair Linux & GNU Certification Install and Config course, then the contents of this book will seem eerily familiar -- it is taken practically word for word from the courseware manuals.

If you are looking for new information, therefore, you will be disappointed. One feature this book has that is not found in the official manuals, however, is an excellent set of test prep questions. Considering the paucity of "brain dumps" and test-prep software for Sair, the questions alone are reason enough for the prospective test-taker to buy.

Frankly, Mr. Maginnis' writing style is less than engaging, which is why I gave it four stars instead of five. It covers a lot of material, however, and I give it a lot of credit for being able to pass the exam. Don't use it alone, however. I strongly recommend "Running Linux", by Welsh et al, as well as "General Linux I Exam Prep," by Dee-Ann LeBlanc and "Guide to Linux Installation and Administration" by Nicholas Wells. Use Maginnis' text to get a good overview of what you need to know, and smooth out the rough spots with the other three books, which are written in a much more friendly style.

Once you have the concepts down, use the dozens of test questions provided in the book to sharpen your test-taking skills and get a feel for where you need further study. Before you know it, you'll be ready for the exam!

This book does a good job covering topics the SAIR Installation and Configuration knowledge matrix. It is by no means your only source for information,though. You need some experience with Linux AND have other sources of reference, like linuxdoc.org to pass the 3x101 exam. If you're new to linux don't expect one book to bring you up to speed. Read as many books as you can and USE LINUX!

I purchased this book to prep for the Installation and Config Exam. Bad idea. At least half the questions on the test were not even remotely covered in the book. As stated in the title you must use other study materials or you WILL fail.

Once again, I'm guilty of judging a book by its title. I expected a somewhat comprehensive treatment of DB2 in this one, instead this book focuses on the differences (improvements) over previous versions of DB2. So, if what you're interested in are the new features, you'll find a survey treatment of those here. Of course, Version 9 is the hot thing now, so the "new" features of 8 aren't so new anymore. Hype just doesn't make for a classic book. Not a great book; but it is okay.

When I first started with DB2, this book was recommended to me by someone who read the v7.2 book by the same authors. This was the most confusing techie book I have ever read. Amongst all the typos, my biggest gripe is the index. You may as well rip the index out of the book because it is useless. There hasn't been one time where I wanted to look something up, referring to the index, and found what I was looking for. Its like a 900 page book with a 7 page index... useless.

Realmente estoy muy complacido con este libro, el cual me ha servido para prepararme y poder certificarme, lo recomiendo ampliamente.
I'm relly satisfied with this book, it has been a big help to get ready and get my own db2 certified, i'd highly recommend it.

So it claims that Chapter 1-8 covers the objectives for Exam 700. It should have said - and MORE, SO MUCH MORE. Which borders on garbage.

Please focus only on the exam objectives. The topic on MDC perhaps should have covered over 30 pages in a book titled "DB2 New Features" instead of this one?

I passed 700 and 701 thanks to FREE IBM Exam Prep Tutorials and the Supplementals. These 2 are ALL one needs.

I boought and read a couple of other IBM press books looking for this one. If you are a DBA or a wanna be BDA then this is the book that you want to read. I found the writting smooth and usefull. I did read a paragraph that was lifted almost directly from the IBM db2 administration guide. I have not made use of the cd yet nor have I taken the certification test so I can not comment on the works usefullness in those two areas.

I recomend this book to the DBA or the developer. I would not recommend this book to the nontechnical reader.

Havoc covers the 1.x line of gtk+ here. It will give you a good idea what is required to develop robust cross-locale gtk+ apps, but it will not teach you how to use the most recent library. For this information, please see more recent books on this subject.

This book is almost unuseable. Most of its pages seem to be fragments from various GTK+/Gnome header files with only rudimentary explanations. It does not answer most GTK+/Gnome beginners questions, even if they are experienced programmers.

For example I wanted to call a file selection dialog. The index has one reference to GtkFileSelection, which consists of a screen shot and another reference to the corresponding #include file for this widget. That's it. The #include file contains several functions, none of them are explained or even mentioned in the book (at least I could not find them in the index).

I'm afraid I have to buy another book to get my job done.

I suppose this is another example of why the people who actually write a piece of software shouldn't handle its documentation. This is a somewhat haphazard reference to GTK+; it doesn't have nearly enough information to act as a tutorial, even to an experienced C programmer, and yet it's not complete enough to act as a reference guide either. Like most hacker's documentation, this is far from clear and complete; it seems geared towards people who are willing to fill in the blanks in the text themselves through reading source code or online docs. Of course, if you need to do that, why bother purchasing the book in the first place? Just read the online docs. I wish I could suggest this book, as it is an "open source" manual, but there's better material out there.

Please be advised when you order this that it was published in 1999. It uses GTK 1.x series and really isn't very helpful since 2.x is the current standard.

I bought this book hoping it would dilute the muck about linux GUI programming... Unfortunately, I found this to be very topical with a lot of the base of GTK. I can see this as more of a desktop reference rather than a intro/guide. I don't suggest buying this book if you don't already know a lot of GTK basics.