Unix Systems Books

I purchase "Upgrading and repairing PCs 11 edition", will the linux edition repeat most of the info, or is it a whole new book?

This is a great book for general computer information, as are all his books. Its low score is based on the linux content, this book is just a quick re-write of the ordinary book, for Linux users, especially new Linux users, it fails to provide enough info. It needs to discuss compatible hardware more and Linux specific setup set out in easy to follow points.
A disapointing effort.

Scott Mueller has been an authority on PC hardware for well over a decade, so it should come as no surprise that this book (like its predecessors) is a fantastic resource on PC hardware. Unfortunately, I bought it to learn more about the server-building side of Linux, and found it lacking. Owners of any relatively current version of Mueller's book (say, 8th Ed. or later) have no real need for this edition... with that book, a few HOW-TO print-outs, scissors, and glue, they could make their own!

Never the less, this book is still a great guide to hardware. The non-Windows perspective makes it an excellent complement to Minasi's or Bigelow's book, and it is fairly current (with coverage of RDRAM, DVDs, and FireWire). The CD comes in handy, too. Bottom line: if it's time to upgrade your copy of Upgrading & Repairing PCs, you might as well dual-boot.

There of course exists an A+ for Windows/Dos. There is an A+ for Macintosh and its' OS. In all fairness and consistent with market forces, ethical treatment, future growth projections, use in PRESENT corporate environments, historical fact and even demographic preponderance; There needs to be an A+ for Linux! Linux breathes new life into old hardware and it is embedded in the Crusoe, ported to Silicon Graphics Servers and runs advanced clustering solutions worldwide. Okay. I will simply make this happen myself!

Little or no new information here. Basically the same good review of hardware. I wanted SMP processor info specific to Linux, or Memory optimization info or maybe RAID card analysis for servers using Linux. But unfortunately what is here is lots of "plug and play" info and a pargraph or two in each chapter with newbie hints. If you own a copy at all, don't bother. The only thing Linux is the penguin on the cover. If you do not own a copy at all...it is a good hardware manual.

Here are a bunch of problems I discovered with this book(I had to omit half of them because of amazon's 1000 word limit for reviews):

1) Links (p.63)
There are some contradictory statements in this section. I found a website that does a good job of explaining hard links v. soft links, and it uses diagrams. Why didn't the authors use diagrams?

2) Deleting Files (p.73)
The authors say the rm command(remove) has a -f option that will remove a file without prompting for confirmation, e.g.

rm -f filename

However, when I use the rm command *without using the -f option*, it removes files without prompting for confirmation anyway. So, I'm left wondering what the -f option does. I have to use rm -i to make rm prompt me for confirmation before removing the file. The authors mention that you can create aliases for commands, which essentially means you can rename a command. So you can do this:

$ alias rm = "rm -i"

Thereafter, when you issue the rm command, unix will interpret rm to mean rm -i, and then the rm command will prompt you for confirmation before removing a file. Did the authors do that on their system? And is that why they say using rm -f is necessary to skip the confirmation message before removing a file? Who knows?

3) apropos (p. 110)
The authors say the command:

apropos keyword

can be used to find files with the specified keyword in their name. That doesn't work for me. I looked around on the internet, and I can't find any UNIX tutorials that say apropos will return file names with the specified keyword in them. In fact, after some more digging, I discovered that the apropos command is equivalent to man -k, and man -k searches the man pages for *descriptions* containing the specified keyword--it does not search filenames for the keyword, so the example in the book won't work.

4) Advanced Tools (chap. 8)
The authors decided to introduce regular expressions, which I know pretty well. Personally, I don't think regular expressions should be included in a beginning text on anything--although they are well worth learning for any computer language. So I was interested to see how the authors would tackle the subject. To my surprise, I found the author's introduction to patterns quite good--except for one little thing. They don't show you how to use the patterns with a unix command. The author's start out the section by telling you to type in an overly long amount of example text into a testfile. Then they say: "The results shown in each case represent output from your testfile if the example search were run on it". However, they don't tell you how to run an example search on the testfile. All they do is show you a pattern and what matches it would produce-- if you ran a search on the testfile. I don't think some(most?) beginners will be able to figure out how to perform a search on the testfile. The authors could have very simply combined all their example patterns with a simple vi search command(vi is a unix text editor). In vi, the '/' plus a specified pattern will search the file for the pattern and move the cursor to the matching word. That way a beginner could actually use one of the example patterns to search the testfile and see for themselves what it does.

5) grep p.160
Nowhere in the description of grep do the authors tell you what the command actually outputs. All they tell you is that grep is one of the most useful commands in UNIX. Great! What does it do? If you consult the man pages, i.e. man grep, you will learn that grep prints *the entire line* in a file if the line contains something that matches the pattern. I lost all respect for the author's ability to teach unix after that omission.

6) find (p.161)
The authors say if you issue the following commmand:

find /etc -name passwd

That command does nothing in Mac OS X. In Mac OS X, there is no ouput and no errors--even though there's a file called passwd in the /etc directory. Back to the man pages. This time the man pages weren't helpful in figuring out how the find command works. This is the worst section of the book so far.

I've only just finished chapter 8, but I feel like I should post this review now, so anyone considering this book will know what to expect.

I think these authors are too long removed from beginner status, and therefore they don't know how to speak to beginners. Unfortunately, this book contains contradictions and incomplete or confusing descriptions, and some things are just plain wrong. In addition, as I read the book I found myself repeatedly saying to myself, "Why didn't the authors simply say it like this?".

I was really excited about this book because I just started using an intel iMac with Mac OS X 10.4.7, and I wanted to learn some basic Unix. This book points out when other versions of Unix may have different commands or effects, and the authors specifically address Mac OS X differences throughout the text. However, nothing in the book explained some of the discrepancies I experienced when I tried some of the commands in Mac OS X. Did the descriptions contain mistakes or did the authors omit something? Or are things just different on Mac OS X? All three--as I found out.

I recently spotted the book Unix Visual QuickStart Guide(3rd edition) on the shelves of my local bookstore, and after reading some random sections, I wish I had purchased that book instead.

Great book for beginners to the Unix/Linux or Mac OS X operating system. The two appendices with the conversion from Mac (both Mac OS X and Mac OS 9) to Unix and Windows to Unix is helpful for those who are used to working with Windows or Mac and want to transfer their knowledge of those operating systems to the Unix/Linux world. These sections identify the fundamentals of the operating systems and how they are similar to Unix/Linux. There is also information on the different programs that are similar between the systems.

The rest of the book assumes the reader has no knowledge of Unix/Linux and progresses from the basics of the operating system to more in-depth topics as the book continues to later chapters. The inclusion of the Knoppix Linux operating system allows the reader to follow the book while using a complete Unix environment (with no changes to the thier installed operating system).

This review first appeared in the AZTCS journal.

When I glanced at this book, my first question was, "Who are these guys on the cover?" Before scanning the contents and index, my usual first step in examining a new book, I searched for the cover credits. I found none.

I use the term Unix as the authors use the term, to designate all Unix based systems including Linux, Solaris, OSX, and the BSDs as well as Unix.

The 400+ page paperback book is divided into 21 chapters. Each chapter ends with exercises; the solutions are found at the end of the book. The book's copyright is 2005 but the fundamentals of the Unix based operating systems don't change much so this book is by no means out of date.

Included is a CD of KNOPPIX 3.7. This is an old version of KNOPPIX but very usable for the authors' purpose of learning Unix. By using the live CD, it is possible to study Unix without installing it.

The book begins with introductory material giving a, thankfully, very brief history of Unix and its evolution. Next "Beginning Unix" explains how the Unix system is set up and what the major components are.

Logging in is covered. Logging out and shutting down the computer, if you have permission, are explained. Logging in and out properly is well detailed.

The book explains files in a very thorough and informative manner. As the whole strategy of Unix is based on files, creating, removing, copying, moving and organizing files are important functions. File permissions and their importance receive thorough and clear discussion. With a thorough understanding of permissions many potentially frustrating problems can be avoided or solved quickly.

Commands are introduced as needed for completing simple to very complex exercises. The functions of the shell are explored. Simple and advanced scripting is explained and several examples are presented. Besides shell scripts, there is a brief introduction to PHP. Piping, using the output of one program as input for another program, is illustrated with several meaningful examples.

There is a chapter on customizing your personal environment. Customizing the prompt, creating aliases, and organizing your work are explained in detail. This is much different than the usual customizing instructions focusing on the desktop.

Full chapters cover securing the system, using log files, understanding and controlling jobs and processes, backing up information, and automating tasks using cron. These chapters are useful in administering your Unix system. Administration on a desktop Unix system is important as the user is usually the administrator.

Network connections are explained, both in theory and by example. As Unix originated as a network environment, there are many tasks to be accomplished over the network. This information is important in connecting to the Internet.

There is a chapter covering installing programs from source code. Although this was necessary in early Linux distributions, the repositories available with most distributions make this interesting but seldom used information for most users. The procedure and potential pitfalls are discussed in detail. Reading this chapter reenforced my feeling "this is something I don't need to do for a while."

Migrating from a Mac or a Windows PC to Unix takes up the last two chapters of the book. These chapters should be very helpful in making the transition. They concentrate on the skills developed in using the Mac or a Windows PC and help transfer them to a Unix system.

Conclusions

There are several things I like about this book. Extensive use of screen shots in combination with the text helps me understand the examples more easily. The examples are clear and concise. The theory included helps improve understanding of the subject but doesn't overload the reader. The flow of the book is logical with examples building on previous exercises.

The complete lack of discussion of KDE, Gnome and other desktops is refreshing as these are explained in several other sources; I see no use for another superficial chapter or two in this book. It is more difficult to find good information on using the command line than using GUIs and this book has much good excellent information.

I am a Linux user with about two years experience so I found much new information in "Beginning Unix". This book answers questions I didn't know I had. There are several examples and techniques presented that will make my use of Linux more efficient, powerful and fun. Many "fuzzy areas" came into focus for me.

I think, at completion of this book, the user will be comfortable and effective at using the command line. After these exercises the user might be tired of the command line but they will not be fearful.

i'me new to unix. when i started reading this book i thought what a waste of money but after completing chapter 2 and reading through chapter 3 i realized that it was a gem in disguise. i still haven't finished reading it because i'me reviewing it about 3 weeks after i got it, but i have been messing around knoppix and now, i installed FreeBsd and currently all the examples in the book work. i feel comfortable. By the way, the examples at the end of the book make it somewhat of a school text and it gives u a little challenge at times but they are not gravely difficult.

This is the third book that I have bought on Unix and by far the best. It not only gives you the UNIX commands, it also goes into a brief and concise background to the commands, which is very practical. I found the explication on cron very clear and thorough which I could not find anywhere else. Keep up the good work and let me know when you finish your next book.

The book is excelent for beginners to intermediate users, but more oriented to the sysadmins. It covers all importante aspects of installing, configuring and maintaining Debian. If it were a little bit more broader it would cover everything needed.
The only disapointing aspect it's the ortographic errors and the mislabeled pictures.

I don't even use debian myself ... but I'm a "collector" of various technical manuals and this one actually impressed me with the last 1/3 of the book actually going into C/C++ Python, Java, and even had a section in the 1st 1/3 on perl ...... not BAD!

Debian GNU/Linux 2.1 Unleashed promised to be the book I was looking for, especially when it had the 2.2 version number in the working title back in the Fall of '99. Debian was undergoing some radical transformations (X, FHS, etc.) and I wanted to know what was going on. As the Debian Team continually pushed the release of 2.2 back, I assume the publisher (determined to include a CD-ROM) eventually decided to just make it "2.1" and call it a day.

Fortunately, this book deals with Debian in such a marginal manner that the version number doesn't matter a hill of beans. This is the typical 1000+ page Linux book plus the word "Debian" on the cover. Chapter after chapter introduces UNIX, X, editors (WordPerfect?! hardly appropriate...), servers, a host of programming languages, and all of the bizarre UNIX commands we know and love, but Debian specific information about these tools is scattershot at best.

This wouldn't be so bad if, after going over a standard UNIX topic, the authors took time to explain how and why Debian implements that topic the way it does. In most situations they don't. Most of this text could've been ripped straight from the "Using Slackware Linux" book I bought in 1995.

A classic example is the woefully inadequate chapter on email. Debian installs Exim as its standard MTA. But "DG/L2.1U" contains 11 pages on sendmail and 8 pages on listar (listar?!). There is one mention of Exim in the book that basically says, Debian will install Exim as your default MTA. I guess it's up to you to figure out how to configure it.

"DG/L2.1U" devotes about 95 of its 1000+ pages to Debian topics, including dpkg, make-kpkg, the Debian bug tracking system, installing Debian, and the Debian Free Software Guidelines. But that's it. Really.

If you know very little about Linux or UNIX and you want to install Debian, you might want to buy this book. Or you might want to buy any other, it won't matter.

Don't let "2.1" influence you; the linux version really doesn't make a difference. This book covers a wide range of topics from scripting to C to Java to python to file sharing to internet services and the like. The strength of this book is the wide range of things it covers. Another strength is that is generally very easy reading and easy to follow for a beginner. You don't have to know what you are doing to learn a lot. The Samba chapter is topnotch with sections on troubleshooting and everything. The shell scripting chapter is nice too.

The downside of this book is that nothing is really done in detail. For instance the chapter on shells lists some differences between C shells and bash shells, which was good. But it has nothing really about commands themselves. In some ways this book can't decide if it's for beginners or more advanced people. The chapters on internet services (httpd, nfs etc) are really simple. But the chapters on stuff like tcl python java are more for advanced people.

I think the book works best for beginners. There is a lot of information clearly written, all in one book. It is a very good book, with limitations.

I came into this as a Unix user, never having administered anything a day in my life. I thought it was an execllent introduction for a new user - one book can't be all things to all people. But the installation guide was great for someone who has never touched a Linux install before. I'll agree with one of the above reviewers... it could stand to be a little more in-depth with core Linux daemons like apache and sendmail. I did think the section on Samba was outstanding, but was a little confused when it came the entire section on networking and BIND. A little less on programming with TCL and Python, and a little more on the common tasks the administrator takes on every day.

Still, I think it's a great primer, and it was certainly enough that I got a box up and running without too much of a headache.

This is an excellent description of LVM, with technical details.

He covers a lot in a short amount of time, and presents the reader with details on problems that you may encounter. He covers JFS (VxFS), OnlineJFS, HFS, Mirroring with LVM, converting to LVM, troubleshooting, and more.

Even with the age of the book, the data that this book covers is still relevant, and still useful with today's HP-UX. However, it should go without saying that the details should be checked against the current system documentation - you don't want to find out something changed the hard way.

In any case, this book is a worthwhile addition to your library, and will give you a familiarity with LVM not otherwise available.

I found this book to be an almost one stop shop for information on HP disk management. My only real complaint is that the book needs updating. It was a quick read and very good review for me. It also pointed out a few things I need to consider more when doing disk configurations. All in all a valuable book for HP-UX admins, it is worth the small investment cost.

I ordered this book 3 years ago (through Amazon) and I still enjoy the fact that I have this book and still it is very useful for me in my daily job with Logical Volumes etc.

Very good step by step commands for people who are not so familiar with LVM. Also very good examples for like Exporting and Importing of Volume Groups for more experienced SysAdmins. This 39 bucks are a really good investment.

I found in this book, information on LVM that I was not able to find elsewhere. The first chapter was fairly basic, but is probably a good introduction for someone not familiar with this flavor of LVM.

The rest of the book dealt with tasks one would typically need to perform on LVM and HP-UX filesystems. Fortunately, no time is wasted with lengthy man page reprints. Each chapter is broken down in to sections, each of which addresses a particular task. A lot of attention is paid to using the command line to optimze the placement of logical volumes, and to specifying the best options depending on what the logical volume is being used for. It provides just enough detail of the inner workings of LVM for someone who needs to build well-planned storage systems.

I would liked to have seen perhaps another chapter dedicated to more philisophical issues, like opinions from HP's LVM experts on best practices, etc.

Still, the best source of LVM information out there.

I wish that I could regain the time I spent reading this book or the money I spent buying it. It looks like it was a superb book back in 1997 when people actually used versions 9.03 and 10, but a lot of the commands in this book aren't even usable on my 10.20 system and it would appear that a lot of the concepts are no longer viable.

I'm giving it two stars because it's probably a good historical reference. Let's see "Version 2" someday.

I've come to expect a lot from O'Reilly guides, and this one didn't let me down. It really helped me past some areas of confusion I had with Eclipse, although I think I may want a larger book eventually that gets into more detail on some of the add-ins.

I found the book to contain several tips and tricks that were new to me and I have been using Eclipse for over two years now. I would highly recommend this book to new Eclipse IDE users to help you get a leg up on learning the Eclipse IDE. I found this book well worth the price and will be looking for more pocket guide books by O'Reilly to add to my bookshelf.

I thought this would be a handy little "tips and tricks" reference. It basically just tells you all the obvious stuff you already figured out on your own. Save your money and just use the doc from the internet.

The most common comment from the people I showed this book to was "I wish I had it when I started using Eclipse".

While this is a very small book, the contents have been selected to give you a best start with the main features of the Eclipse IDE. The topics are short but concise and include scattered tips for the points of interest.

If you're just starting with this IDE, the Eclipse IDE Pocket Guide will give you a great head start and will continue helping you as a lovely reference to refer back to as the features become familiar. Having all of these critical features pointed out earlier will save you a lot of bother in the future, since you'll be annoyed if you only find out about them much later by accident or experimentation!

Experienced users are less likely to get much from it though. The authors made a decision between content and size, and I feel they chose to stick with a smaller, simpler book than I would have expected. There is a final section on places to go for more information, but it just refers to various community sites.

I wish I had this book when I started using Eclipse.

I expected a little more from this book than creating a simple java file and compiling it. This book is for someone who is new to IDEs. This is *NOT* for someone trying for a quick reference to migrate from another IDE to Eclipse - which was my purpose.

I liked it and it is easy to understand.

For a Windows 95 user like myself, Unix looked liked a dark and mysterious night, unpenetrable and unfathomable. This book came like a guiding light and saw me through.

I think this must be one of the best UNIX-manuals ever written. Mr. Hahn shows skills and knows how to teach even a beginner everything from basics to the more advanced. I would highly recommend this book to everybody who would like to learn a bit or eight about Unix- The most interesting and powerful MUOS there is!

Having been using the UNIX system for six years, I'm still referencing from this absolute beginner book from time to time because the language is so non-technical, yet the information contained within is more than enough to get you started on using UNIX operating system and learn to love it.

The author did a very good job particularly in describing and tutoring the reader how to do common tasks such as using email systems, doing text editing, issuing commands from the CLI, etc. Not very in-depth but the point is, it is enough to get you interested to look for MORE, which is the most important thing. There is no point in explaining something in-depth only to discourage the reader to look for more information, and only to leave the subject untouched because it looks "hard". If you are a UNIX veteran/advanced user/system administrator, this book is not for you, as you have probably known way more than what this book contains.

I highly recommend this book as the very first book on UNIX to read on, if you have never even heard of UNIX before, and only experienced in Windows/MacOS environments.

I found this book to be excellent. I feel it teaches you all that you need to be a comfortable UNIX user. This may not be the ideal book if you are looking for a quick reference for commands etc. Great job by the author.

The current version of Caldera OpenLinux is 2.3 (The book includes ver 1.3.) which is freely available for download at their web site. You can also download the Getting Started Guide which tells you how to install ver 2.3 with screen shots. After you install Caldera OpenLinux you will automatically boot into KDE. Which means you can start with Chapter 3 in this book. Most of the information in the book is still true and it can be applied to any Linux distribution. This is still a good introdction to Linux. A revised edition reflecting ver 2.3 would be nice.

I want to know more about redhat linu

A great visual introduction to Linux applications and seems to track my use of StarSuite and other key applications. As stated in an earlier review, if you want the older Linux command-line only "zen approach", this is not the book for you.

If however, you want to see how to move your corporate mission-critical desktop MS Office applications to Linux, this book is a real eye-opener. Most people do not realize you can get just-as-visual AND heavy duty apps in Linux...

If you want Linux to work like Windows, and you are interested in apps, and you are not a C++ code guru, this is a great book for you (and me.) This book goes step by step and made install and configuration a snap! I was up and running in an hour.

The only drawback is that there is not much troubleshooting info. The author assumes everything works right. (I cannot get my PS/2 mouse to work in KDE/XWindows. I had to go online, on a different PC obviously, to usenet to find potential solutions.)

I would definitely recommend this book to "mere mortal" first time Linux users!

This is not a very bad book but it is extremely outdated. Caldera v2.3 is the newest version and as the reviewer below stated...download that version to use.

I find this a nice guide for those of you that would like to try Linux for the first time and are either wanting to get away from Windows products or are even trying out a OS for the first time ever.

It is a visual guide as stated, in color, yet the newer Caldera will allow you to skip all the X terminal and command line prompt garbage in the first few chapters, so you can jump straight to KDE pretty much.

Caldera is not the most popular distro of Linux available, but it is a nice start for the beginner and this book will tell you enough to give you a working knowledge of the GUI functions it has using the KDE interface.

...Even still, this a decent price for a starter kit.

Not that great...but definitely serviceable.

I found this book to be very readable and a good way of getting up to speed on Linux. The book: (i) guides you how to load Fedora onto your computer, (ii) describes how Linux works, and (iii) discusses Linux applications, networking and scripts. The author also touches on the Red Hat Enterprise version of Linux throughout the text. The Linux installation section is well written with plenty of screen shots showing the various screens during installation. The other sections are also very readable. The book comes with a couple of CDs containing Fedora Core1. A reader may wish to download a more recent version (Fedora 4 is available at the time this review was written). This book is a good springboard in getting into the Linux world with Fedora; however I think that a person will want to supplement this book with a reference on Linux (such as Linux in a Nutshell) in order to get a more detailed coverage on topics.

My recommendation is, this is a good book for a Linux novice or someone starting with Fedora for the first time.
Those with experience, will probably want to pass on this book. Its not likely you'll pick up anything new
(I didn't). (For those unfamiliar with what Red Hat has done with the split out of Fedora; think of
Fedora Core 1 as Red Hat Linux 9.1 or 10; if Red Hat had continued the product line.)

This book focuses on the "NEW" Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Fedora Core 1 Linux user. The book is a relatively
easy read. Bill McCarty writes a clear and well organized book. From a novice's perspective, the author gives
you, what you need to get Fedora installed, running and usable. The author does a good job of pointing
the reader at additional information sources on each topic. The book is short, less than 300 pages.
This is nice compared to some of the other 1,000 page plus Linux novice tomes; which try to be a "how to get
started" book and a "general reference" all at they same time; except they don't do either well. Linux should
be friendly, not scary. First timers shouldn't have to read a Encyclopedia to get started in Linux. I agree
with the author's choice of brevity for his book.

One suggestion to the author, would be to include output examples with the CLI (Command Line Interface) examples.
He does it with the GUIs, so why not with the CLIs???

I bought the book because "Red Hat Enterprise" (RHE) was in the title. I was disappointed in the fact there wasn't
more detail about RHE. In retrospect, anyone doing RHE, is probably an experienced Linux person working for a
company, where RHE is deployed and may even have had formal training on RHE. So why would they need this book?

My bona fides; I've been using been using various flavors of Unix for an embarrassing long time, Red Hat Linux
for 8 yrs (from release RH 3.0.3 to 9) and I have been running Fedora Core for about 5 months now.

From the title I would have suspected something about building scalable Linux servers for web applications. Turns out the book is nothing like that. It's a ground up introduction to Linux from the end-user perspective. It starts in Windows with prepping a system for Linux installation, works through the installation (replete with lots of screenshots), then goes into the basics of window managers and Linux Office-style applications. The last few chapters go into some depth on working in the shell and shell scripting, but it's pretty light.

This is a solid introduction to end-user level Linux that should be suitable for anyone who is reasonably technical (no need to be a programmer). The only reason I give it four stars instead of five is because of the reliance on numerous screenshots, which isn't the best way to explain things, and is not the quality that I expect from O'Reilly.

I wanted a book that could help me with fedora in TEXT MODE. This book looked great and obviously, books from Oreilly are always good so I bought it.

This book is absolutely NOT a good book to learn Fedora in TEXT MODE because the book is about graphic mode and it wasn't said somewhere. It's all about GNOME and KDE.

Be sure you use the graphic mode before buying!

In my quest to learn Linux, I've been working through the book Learning Red Hat Enterprise Linux & Fedora by Bill McCarty (O'Reilly). This is exactly what I was looking for in a learning guide.

Chapter list: Why Run Linux?; Preparing to Install Linux; Installing Linux; How Linux Works; Using the GNOME and KDE Desktops; Using Linux Applications; Conquering the bash Shell; Installing Software Using the RPM Package Manager; Configuring and Administering Linux; Connecting to the Internet; Setting Up Network Services; Advanced Shell Usage and Shell Scripts; Linux Directory Tree; Principal Linux Files; Managing the Boot Process; Linux Command Quick Reference; Index

This book concentrates more on the desktop and graphical interface aspect of running Linux, which is exactly what I was looking for. While this book won't tell you everything you need to know about any specific subject (like shell programming or networking), it covers more than enough to get you up and running with a complete Linux setup. Using this volume, I've been able to get a full desktop and server setup going with little effort or trouble. By following the rest of the book, I'll gain a solid base of knowledge of Linux, and then I'll be ready to move on to more detailed learning.

Perfect level of coverage for where I'm at, and enough detail to get me up and running quickly... I like it.

in a word this book is at best confusing. it tries really hard to be a good book that combines the theory behind how everthing works and how to become a competent linux user. unfortunatly, i'm not sure what these guys were smoking when they wrote this ( maybe some ground up windows cd's, since they're so good at linux they didn't need to buy any more windows products) anyways I suspect that the writers are much bettr linux users then they are writers. If you buy this book and it works out for you, thats great but I think the odds are against you.

I have used and taught UNIX and LINUX for over a decade and this is arguably the bext LINUX textbook for entry- and intermediate-level users. The writing style is lucid and examples that work. For a change, this book contains shell scripts that actually work! One of the rare books that elegantly combines operating system concepts with LINUX examples. Simply a first-rate book. I give it two thumbs up and look forward to more books by the author team.

You don't even need to know much about computers. They assume nothing and you never get lost. It is a pleasure to read.
A bonus is that, if you like books, you will appreciate the quality of the printing and the material used.

Author: Computer Science/Math double major at Cameron University. Junior.

After reading four five-star reviews, I think I need to speak up. Our school used this book for a freshman-level Operating System Utilities class and I was not fully pleased. As far as positives go, I will give that this book is extremely comprehensive. Most important commands are explained and the more obscure commands and options are included in the back. Even though I disliked the book, I still keep it as a reference due to its scope. Issues regarding differences between different versions of Linux are not covered well, but that's really too much to cover in one book. Just make sure to get a book specific to your version in addition (or possible exclusion) of this one. I have Red Hat and fortunately most of the code in here is portable to Red Hat. Also Mandrake is included on the disk (at least in my version), which is the version the book is catered to. Maybe it's just bad luck but I found the version of Mandrake included to be quite buggy, but that's a separate rant.
The main reason I didn't like the book is the usual flaw in technical computer books: unclarity. The explanations are not well-written and are short of examples in some areas. Also, the explanations that are given tend to be just as dry and boring as unclear. In addition to the constant vagueness and unreadability, there isn't enough attention given onto the traditional privileges and restrictions of the typical user. The examples and explanations don't give the reader a good feel as to what they can do on a Linux system, unless they happen to have full root access. Given an experienced programmer knows there restrictions and they may vary, but the introductory Linux programmer is not clear on the kind of programming environment they will be working in.

Impressive book, well written, self explaining and covering almost all aspects required by the linux "not-so-expert", as I am. But:
One really important part is missing! Almost no discussion is provided on the user profile definition. How the user is related to the group, how can a user be part of several groups, etc...
Really, is a good book, but the writers suppose that everybody will use "root"? I hope not. To be useful for the IT Professional, a little more has to be spent on this area.

I primarly use *BSD and was hoping to learn about NFS/NIS from this book, more than what I had already gleaned from the man pages. However this book is very heavily geared towards the Solaris OS. It does give exlamples of where the filename(s) or folder structures under a different flavor of Unix would be, but exept for these small tables, the rest of the text uses only the Solaris names/folders.

This book is quite outdated. For example, it predates NFS version 3, NFS over TCP (mostly the default these days), or autofs.

If you are a beginner and are looking for fundamental information this book might be useful if you remain aware of its shortcomings. It covers the fundamentals of NFS V2 over UDP, and NIS quite well, and has a good troubleshooting section, which might help beginners negotiate the interoperability and tuning issues that are common in today's multivendor environments. It covers automounting issues quite well, from an "automount" (SunOS 4) perspective.

Hello, My name is Mike Eisler, and I am one of the
co-authors of Managing NFS and NIS, Second Edition.
I'm writing this note to offer additional information
to potential readers.

At the time I submitted this note, most of the
customer reviews for this book referred to the first edition.
One of the reviews states that the book is focused on NFS
version 2 over UDP and the old style automounter.
Actually, you'll find the second edition of our book
is more modern. New topics in the second edition
include NFS version 3, NFS over TCP, modern autofs-based
automounters, Kerberos V5 authentication for NFS, NFS Access
Control Lists (ACLs), and client side fail over.

Another difference is that first edition of this book
used SunOS 4.x as a reference for examples. The second
edition uses Solaris 8.

The second edition provides information you won't find
in NFS product documentation, such as using tools like ethereal
to debug NFS problems. This book will give you the benefit of
insights from people who probably wrote some of the code for
your clients and servers. You may find (and I hope) that
it will save you the trouble reporting a problem to
your vendor's customer support line.

Thank you for considering our book.

Anyone who has ever administered a network of at least 3-4 servers (if not more) will find individually updating accounts, software and such to be a burden. I found myself in this situation not too long ago, and then I picked up this book, and found the answers I was looking for.

Most Unix admins have heard of NFS and NIS but might not have considered using them together. This book gives a very thorough discussion each topic, how to set it up, how to deal with advanced issues, and how to troubleshoot. Admins will really develop an appreciation for how useful these tools can be, especially when used together.

Though LDAP is gaining prominence, a network utilizing NIS, NFS, and automounter is still a very nice network to administer. Even just learning NFS/automounter is time well spent because it is a service not likely to go away. I really felt this this book was worth the time and money because it really helps the intermediate to advanced admin better gain control of the network (instead of the network controlling him :). Definintely give this book a try. Enjoy!

O'Reilly puts out so many well written books and the quality of the authors is usually the highest, and this book is no exception. Both of these subjects are covered in more than enough detail for anyone need to setup NFS, NIS, or both. It is written in such a way that you son't have to read straight through, but can use it as a reference for the information you need. I would recommend this book for anyone neededing a decent to thorough understanding of this topic.