Unix Systems Books

Red Hat Linux can be something of a mystery when first starting out, and I found this book in my predecessor's office when I took the plunge. There are some computer books out there that really nail a topic and make all other books superfluous in the process. This is not such a book, but Red Hat Linux 9 Unleashed does provide helpful knowledge when using the distribution. I would first read the official documentation and the man pages before considering purchase. Some of the content is a verbatim copy of the official Red Hat documentation.

The layout and design of the book is very clean and easy on the eyes. I read this book when I didn't know much of anything about Linux, and the installation walkthrough was very helpful. The explanation of user accounts, permissions, and groups was also well done. I occasionally reference this book when I have a question about shell scripting, the file structure, or the general workings of Linux. This book is very broad and generalized, which is good enough to partially answer any question.

The only real criticism I have for Red Hat Linux 9 Unleashed stems from that generality. There are some Linux topics that deserve and require a really thorough study - like the IP Tables firewall. Several hundred pages have been dedicated to that service, so if security is a factor for your Linux machine, expect to look for other resources. Perhaps sensing the need for this sort of thing, the text lists some helpful links at the end of each section. Services like Apache and Samba are highlighted here, but I would choose a book dedicated soley to the service in question over a jack of all trades text.

When I had purchased Red Hat Linux 9 Unleashed I had already dived head first into Linux, so I knew some things about the subject. This book is still really good reference when I get stuck trying to do something Red Hat, the sections on the kernel is very well written, but this book isn't a good tutorial on Linux in general. A book I would recommed to the novice and also the power user is "Linux: Rute User's Tutorial and Exposition -- by Paul Sheer" its old, but its a classic.

Alright, this book has some strong points and some weak points. The weak points are: There are only general guidlines to troubleshooting but nothing else. The reference links work, but some are expired. The coverage is "hasty" and kind of sloppy, but in a book like this that is to be expected.
The strong points are: It virtually covers all the areas. It gives you a solid idea on how Linux works and lets you take it from there. It offers enough support to specialized issues such as networking, scripting, and kernel managing. (Again don't expect any in depth troubleshooting, if any at all).

The message is clear: If you want a most general introduction to ALL areas of Linux, buy this book.
If you want the newbie's guide to Linux, this is not it! Chances are that you'll get stuck booting for the first time with weird messages appearing on your screen and this book will not care less! Stay clear in that case and buy someting more limited to its scope but more embracing to troubleshooting.

On the other hand if you are not experienced yet and you want a thick book on your shelf as a guick reference to kernel compilation let's say, then buy this book. As your experience grows your references to this book will diminish.

Book seems to be a usable introduction to Linux, but don't buy it to get the software. The second CD seems to have a production problem. Both the original and the replacement sent to me hang up the install process and result in an unbootable PC.

I have been using Linux for over 3 years, so I cannot honestly review Red Hat 9 Linux Unleashed from the standpoint of a complete beginner.

However, this book is the first reference I consult when I have a question. There is so much software available for Linux that no book can cover every topic in depth.

On the other hand, Red Hat Linux 9 Unleashed seems to explain more material than the other "thick" Linux books in the same class. There's a good list of references, in the form of web addresses, at the end of each chapter so you can research topics in even greater detail.

I used Ball & Duff's earlier book, Red Hat Linux 8 Unleashed when I ran Red Hat Linux 8 and thought highly of it. Their later RH9 book is even better.

Regarding one reviewer's complaint about the book failing to tell how to configure the almost impenetrable sendmail command, I followed Ball & Duff's advice (pg. 634) to use Donncha O Caoimh's free install-sendmail script, which worked great.

The book has a good introduction to some the software with RedHat, but its pretty obsolete if you want to learn the latest such as grub, different filesystem types, CUPS, etc. If you need more specific details on options and all, look elsewhere, this book just skims it on the surface...

From a long time "Cisco guy" this book spells it all out. Thorough and well written. What can I say? I'm now addicted to Linux. Later...

This is only a really great book if you want to set up your computer exactly the same way the author did. As a newbie (with some Unix experience), I was dissapointed to find the info is not very in depth after the installation & setup chapters. The installation process walk-through is not only dated, but at several points the author says there are other options, but I'll just assume you're going to do this my way.

It was fairly helpful while I was installing the OS, but I don't think I've touched it since.

I have used this book more times than any other book that I own about Linux (about 8 books total) and I must say this is the most clear and concise book of all! Not to mention the most space saving and less bulky of them. If you just started with Linux BUY THIS BOOK! Unless you think bigger is better. :-)

I found this book to be a very useful reference for me on the job. If you are new to Linux this book is perfect for getting you started and familiar with the Linux system. The writing style is straight to the point which makes it very easy to look up information on the fly. I use it every day.

Sean M Burke has written the RTF Pocket Guide, The RTF Cookbook and other technical materials on the Rich Text Format (RTF). These writings are worthwhile, and should be mandatory reading for anyone attempting to program RTF readers or writers.
In my case, I needed to produce neat, printable reports from an Excel application written in Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). (It is not commonly known that many Visual Basic features are not supported in VBA, including the ones I required for my output.) After some research, I concluded that adding an RTF writer to my application would produce a quality product with limited additional programming.

Microsoft's RTF Specification version 1.9 is NOT the place to learn RTF. It is very complete, but anything but a text book. Sean M Burke's writings brought me from the stage of RTF novice to an adequate programmer of complicated financial tables in short order. Thank you, Sean.
Robert J Lambird

This book saved me A LOT of time. I had to use PHP to write an RTF document with style definitions to be used in Word and Adobe InDesign. I spent a ton of time searching the web for tutorials or tips, but they were all complicated and incomplete. I also tried going through the source code of MS Word documents trying to figure out how it was written. After a lot of frustration, I found this book. It's short and easy to read and understand. It gives you the basics on how to construct an RTF file with code that is clean, easy to read, and easy to debug. It was just what I needed. I can't beleive there isn't any tutorial like this available on the web. I did still have to look at the MS Word code to fix a couple of things, and I also used an online reference to figure out some of the more obscure codes, but overall this book was very helpful. I recommend it.

I would have to agree with the reviewers that stated that this book is more of an introduction to RTF than a reference guide. While certain parts of the book such as part on Tables were helpful, there were some glaring deficiencies.
For example, regarding Sections the author states: "Sections are not discussed elsewhere in this book, because they only come up in certain formatting features that are beyond the scope of this condensed guide. The only notable exceptions are page header settings and newspaper columns." (pgs. 54, 55)
I believe this is a miopic view of Sections. Sections are used anywhere you need to create a physical or logical break in the documentation. Headers, footers, and newspaper columns are only a few of the potential uses for Sections. We are currently using continuous Sections to hide/show selected text blocks to customize our documentation based upon user selections. In fact, I bought this book specifically to learn more about Sections, but have since returned to digesting the RTF 1.5 spec. on the subject.

There was more introductory and expository material in the book than I would have expected for a pocket guide weighing in it only a scant 150 pages. In addition, the reference I would have expected, which would allow me to navigate an RTF exported from Word, I did not find.

I recommend this to anyone who has some experience working with RTF and who wants to try to actually understand it. For those looking for an RTF decoder ring, you won't find it here.

RTF Pocket Guide is an extremely useful guide to RTF and makes for much better and faster reading than Microsoft's RTF specs. As the book itself points out, it is an introductory guide and does not discuss parsing RTF documents as well as it does creating them. It gave me the information I needed to create programs to write database data out as RTF and certainly does a great job of explaining syntax and constructs.

As mentioned in other reviews, however, the editing for the July 2003 first edition is simply awful. A number of obvious errors exist in the initial sections. The overall content is so good that these errors are all the more glaring: How could an editor read the text and not catch them? If you treat these errors as opportunities to test your own growing knowledge of RTF syntax, they are actually kind of fun to find... but not what you would expect in a reference text. I have not found any obtuse errors; most are obvious as soon as you read them.

Overall: well worth the money, but also an imperfect tool at best.

This book is the sequel to the excellent' Beginning Linux Programming'. It isn't a book for kernel hackers, and it doesn't pretend to be. (There is a book being written by kernel developers called' Professional Linux Kernel Programming' - make sure that you order the correct one!). Instead, this heavyweight book is a very useful guide for those wishing to develop real world applications. It covers the tools used for developing serious web applications, such as the databases MySQL and PostgreSQL, and the excellent PHP language. When it comes to desktop and client server you are spoilt for choice - just about everything is covered. It is especially nice to see Python content - one of the areas missing from their first book as Python is very easy to learn and both powerful and flexible. If anything else was covered I'm not sure how the publishers would bind it! The level of detail is such that the reader will be able to achieve useful results based on the book alone, and any further detail is usually available as part of the documentation supplied when installing the software tools. Single subject books often just duplicate this, and quickly become dated. Where there are references to other books, it is nice to see that it is not just Wrox books which are recommended. The book is written in a style which is both readable and serves as a useful reference work, spending more time next to my computer than it does collecting dust on a shelf. I'd have no hesitation recommending this book to anyone wishing to develop Linux solutions for today and for the future - throw away those VB books now!

If you are looking for information on hacking the Linux Kernel then this book is not for you. Also it shows a total bias towards GTK/GNOME and PostgreSQL. There are places in the text which shows a complete lack of understanding of the subject under discussion. Information concerning MySQL is at best inaccurate and totally misleading. The treatment of KDE and Qt is very scant. Overall this book falls very short of expectations. It trys to be all things to men but ends up being nothing. Very disappointing indeed

The biggest problem I have with this book is its weight. It's just too big and clunky to hold up to read. Splitting into two bindings would have been nice. But it does cover a lot and it needs to be large to do so.

This book is a follow-up to Beginning Linux Programming, but with a wider range of authors. The book is a series of chapters on various tools and applications, all of them Open Source, based mainly round things that application developers might use, though there is a single chapter on device drivers.

Most topics only get a single chapter, so there isn't as much depth as you would find in a dedicated book on each topic, but there is a very wide range of material all covered in enough depth to get the more experienced programmer started with a new topic. There are one or two weaker areas, but overall a good choice of material succinctly presented for the more experienced application developer. I've given it 5 stars as it was exactly what I was looking for - a single reference to help me create a Linux-based web database application, your mileage may vary. I recommend you at least consider it.

I bought the Beginners Guide to Linux Programming and I really liked that book. This book is a very good follow-up, but it doesn't give the reader more programming tips.
It covers many topics which makes this book a great reference for anyone who deals with Linux and even other flavors of Unix on a day to day basic. Buy this book if you are looking for a reference book on developing software on Linux that covers advanced topics.

Very general like most of the Dummies books I have read. This covers the topics that are in most of the Linux books on the market, but doesn't go into the depth you need. If you buy this be aware it won't be the last Linux admin book that you will spend money on.

Linux Administration for Dummies is a good primer for those that are new to linux. I found the book very informative while at the same time being fun to read. There are a few things that are dated such as the chapter on Y2K but overall it is a good read. If you want to learn the basics of linux fast this is the book.

Most of the "for Dummies" franchise books are designed for the neophyte, and so one has certain expectations. But this book is not written for someone who wants to begin administrating linux from scratch as, say, a pilot project to determine the value of the operating system. It may have some value for someone snatched out of the typing pool (do they still have those?) and chosen to administer an existing Linux network, but, in my situation, that is difficult to determine.

First, it doesn't explain how to do anything, really that would seem to have practical value today. As an example, once one has bought a book from a different source, and learned how to install Linux, what would be the first thing to do? Install the web server, perhaps? Or get it started? This book ignores that subject. It discusses the Netscape communicator and a fairly substantial piece of the book is dedicated to this, and discussing what a url is, and how to surf the www...all topics likely experienced by most of their readers, but nothing about setting up a web server. Then, to underline the significance of learning about servers to the reader, the author devotes several pages, including a chapter, to setting up NNTP clients and servers. Yep, that's right, it discusses in detail how to get 1980's technology today.

Save your money...

For an administrator you can hold the GUI. To replace NT File/Print servers, I needed the basics on the superior Linux OS. I looked through dozens of "quick Linux" types. They all focussed on installation, GUI or StarOffice -- useless to an admin.

This book got right to the basics of what I really needed. No it doesn't give you GNOME or KDE. That's not what the title or preview implies.

Although this is a "For Dummies" and I'm a supposedly high and mighty MCSE, I'm keeping it in my cubicle even after I finish the last page.

The power of Linux is in the command line interface. Linux Administrators need to know this stuff. Bellomo's book is clearly written with excellent use of various fonts. The topics seem to leap from the pages in concise language. This is NOT a good book for advanced Linux or Unix users, but it's a great reference for those who want to quickly master the subject and have computer savy.

The index is listed in parts and chapters. A list of the major parts is listed below.

1. Linux at a Glance

2. Taking Charge or Your World

3. Administering Network Comunications

4. Administering Office Networks

5. Network File and Machine Sharing

6. Electronic Mail, News and Web Browsing

7. Nework Security

8. Linux Disaters and recover Techniques

9. The Part of Tens (10 utilites, 10 applications, and 10 web sites you should know)

10. Appendixes:

A. vi editor

B. CD ROM:

Software Included: Tripwire (network security), ACUA (alternate Interface), Diskcheck, Logwatch (mointors system logs), Mon (monitors systems performance), Linuxconf (helps configure linux box), WebMin (Webmaster utility to run a web server)

I found this book to be a good introduction and a "getting started" type of book, yet I found it to be somewhat incomplete and not very detailed in the steps to creating a simple cluster. Fortunately I had purchased some other books on Linux clusters that filled in the gaps for me. The book is also old and talks magically about the "new" 2.4 kernel that was out at the time. I would pass on this book, but since I got it used for $5, it was worth the price.

I would recommend the following two GREAT books on building your own cluster:

-Building Clustered Linux Systems (HP Professional Series) by Robert W. Lucke.

-Linux Enterprise Cluster: Build a Highly Available Cluster with Commodity Hardware and Free Software by Karl Kopper

Contains much useful advice about the environmental needs of a cluster. Especially power and cooling. Plus it describes ancillary equipment like racks and switches. The latter are important, because without fast communication between the nodes in the cluster, performance will rapidly degrade.

Bookman discusses the installation of linux on the nodes. Often, these will be Intel or AMD chips. A major point about having a linux cluster is minimising the cost of hardware, as well as using a free operating system. Hence the choice of the above CPUs.

Note that the book does not really go into the programming of the cluster in any detail. That is, what type of code can you write that takes advantage of the computational power in the nodes and in their distributed nature? You'll need another text for this.

I'm the author.

Are you looking for a book on cluster processor communication? Are you looking for message passing benchmarks? If so, this is not the book for you.

Clustering is not difficult. Those that try to pull the wool over your eyes and make clusters seem like rocket science are only charlatans wanting to waste your infrastructure budget.

I wrote this book for those people that aren't familiar with clustering, and want to get up to speed quickly and easily with Linux. I also included some reference material that I thought would save you time looking this information up on the web.

No, this is not the best book ever written. I'm a system administrator, not a English major. I've also got a sense of humor, and I've also tried to incorporate this into the book. I think it's a good read.

So all in all, if you're looking for fancy charts and complicated math formulas, then I suggest you stay away. If you'd like a cluster up with the least amount of fuss and the lack of stoicism, then yes, try my book.

The book is divided into eleven chapters, unevenly distributed among three sections: an overview of clustering for Linux, building clusters, and maintaining clusters. Four appendices provide brief information about online clustering resources, options for RedHat's "Kickstart," options for DHCP, and information on "Condor ClassAd Machine Attributes."

Bookman provides a central piece of wisdom that no system administrator should ignore: redundancy. In the case of high availability clusters, parts redundancy is the name of the game, but one should not forget the human component; no administrator should be caught with only a cell phone-keep a pager just in case. However, in a post-modern turn that might seem brilliant if it were applied in a work of fiction rather than a technical book, the author seems to apply the concept of redundancy to the text itself.

That the book began not as a book but rather as a collection of talks or presentations, or some other smaller format, is evidenced by the repetition of information between chapters and sections. Such nearly poetic repetitions also occur within sentences and paragraphs (e.g. "nightly backups each night" on page 25).

An editor never looked at Linux Clustering; the book had two "technical reviewers" but their contributions didn't include fixing mangled syntax and strained "style." On page 14 in the second paragraph a large segment of a sentence from the previous page is pasted into another sentence, resulting in a nonsensical block of text. The number of hyphenation, syntax, word choice, and subject-verb agreement errors is atrocious and makes the book difficult to read.

Some of the misinformation in the text appears to be unintentional (but ignorance is no excuse for a UNIX systems administrator); some is due to the fact that the author deals only with old (2.2) kernels, old versions of journeling filesystems, and old distributions; and yet other misinformation is the result of misplaced attempts at humor (such as stating that GNU stands for the Gateway Naming Utility; one can only hope that this was intended to be funny). Other jokes often misfire, but do point to the intended audience (consider, for example, the section heading "Space: The Final Frontier").

In the Introduction the author indicates that the book should be read by "Linux enthusiasts and users who want to get a Linux cluster up and running with the least amount of fuss." The organization of the book will not, however, aid this enterprise, for there is little "how to" information provided, but rather a great deal of background information on compiling kernels, various types of journeling file systems, and RedHat's Kickstart (perhaps inappropriate considering that the book specifically states that basic information will not be covered). Another section or two deal with basic networking and security. Various types of clusters are discussed, as are a few of the types of clustering software (e.g. Condor and Mosix) available.

The book, however, is clearly intended for administrators of clustering systems; a special emphasis is high availability and load balancing clusters. Parallel computing and the types of applications end users would wish to run receive far too little discussion.

Almost all technical books regurgitate the contents of freely available FAQs and HOWTOs to some degree, yet the good ones summarize the relevant points, make dry documentation more accessible, and give the reader some new insights. Because Bookman's Linux Clustering suffers from heinous spelling, grammar, and style errors; deals primarily with outdated software; contributes little new to the discussion; and doesn't speak to non-admins, I can only recommend that those interested in Linux clustering stick to online FAQs and HOWTOs; O'Reilly's offering on the topic was no more respectable.

This book provides background information on system administration, clustering, and distributed computing. Only 3 or 4 of the 11 chapters are directly related to clusters and distributed computing networks. The majority of the book covers system administration tasks that are relevant in any setting. The clustering chapters do not provide adequate detail to evaluate the options available.

As an introduction to system administration the book is acceptable, but the overview of clustering is too cursory to justify the title. The book is also poorly copy-edited, with some of the acronymns expanded (sometimes amusingly) incorrectly.

So far! So good!

But a little bit hard to find the information. It is a textbook rather than a reference book.

The book is really for those wishing to delve into Linux and is looking for a reference that is understandable. Someone who has a working knowledge of other OS like MS Windows. The title is quite misleading because it claims to be complete but is NNNOOOTTT.

And most of all it contains a lot of errors or incomplete discussions like the four sets of 3-digit numbers in an IP address that consists of the first three sets being the network address and the last the host address. Although true on some networks, this is not true for all networks. I could name a lot of others but this should be enough to ward off possible buyers of this book who already have experience using Linux and need a good reference. If you are new into Linux, this book simplifies a lot of the new things that you have to learn but on the other had if that it your intent go ahead. The two stars is for this reason otherwise only one star would be given.

The discussion on file systems should have included disk quotas but was missing. The chapter on network administration alone could be the subject of another book but was treated quite lamely and contained less pages than the discussion on file systems. And there was no discussion on the three major groupings on file/device accessors - root/system, user, others.

I bought this book for an introductory UNIX course even though the second edition was recommended. I thought the third edition would be more detailed and up to date. I was wrong. Much of the detail on shell scripting and programming was lost with the new edition. Too much of the text in either edition is dedicated to installing Linux rather than administering it, a task better handled in a smaller user's manual than a textbook. The CD's are awful. There are only a few slightly useful applications included on them. If you want to install Linux on your PC, buy a complete commercial version off the shelf, along with a better book. Most commercial versions of Linux come with many useful applications for a reasonable price. If you must buy "Linux: TCR", buy the second edition, otherwise, O'Reilly's "Running Linux", although also heavy on installation detail, is a much better option. If you're looking for a Linux admin guide, try Steve Shah's "Linux Administration: A Beginner's Guide."

Much of what I know about Linux today I got from this book. I have read other books about Linux but none of them were so "complete". It is an excellent reference.

I was however a bit disappointed that SAMBA was not covered in more detail. Even if it was only just to help me set up a simple "peer to peer" network between a "linux-windows" box and a "linux-linux" box. Networking is covered in great detail and connecting to the Internet is one of the first things discussed in this book.(didn't we all want to get on the internet the first time we installed Linux? :-> )

This book is an absolute goldmine if you are looking to master al those Linux commands.

All in all I think that this book should be rated as one of the best Linux books(for it's scope) and should be on every Linux user's desk.

Get It...NOW

I feel that the author spent too much time and space on GUI interface to Linux at the expense of some other material, like SENDMAIL and SAMBA -- to which only fleeting refernces are made. GUI discussion detracts from a deeper understanding of the O/S. If you understand what's going on at the shell level, the GUIs are easy and should have been treated summarily in an appendix. I was disappointed that, for SENDMAIL, readers were simply referred to the O'REILLY book. For a 900+ page book that calls itself complete, I would have expected more. I understand that many topics in Linux require books in themselves for complete treatment, but a complete treatment of LINUX requires at least a basic overview of some of its main features, like SENDMAIL and SAMBA. I know you can't treat every application that runs on LINUX, but some biggies have been omitted or just skimmed over. Cut out the GUI stuff and add more discussion of these important services -- and get deeper into the heart of LINUX itself, the nuts and bolts, and not the superficial GUI interfaces. Most people who get into LINUX are trying precisely to get away from the undue overhead of GUI. Many shell commands find only superficial treatment with a perfunctory "See the man pages for more info." I don't like the man pages -- that's why I bought this book.

Bought this book because it had a high content (1000+ pgs), practice exams, and a test CD. Halfway through the book and I am already purchasing another Linux+ study guide because this one is flawed. Several practice exam questions do not match the given answers, there are *many* typos, alot of focus on general knowledge and not enough in depth review on probable exam topics per chapter.

I went with this book because it was the latest Linux+ study guide published, however I am going to purchase the Linux+ Study guide from Sybex as I had previously with my A+/Network+/Inet+ exams.

Do not let the large volume of this book fool you, alot of it is composed of basic knowledge which prepares you for the exam content. This book seems to be more orientated to the Beginner level user, one who has never touched Linux. If you are a intermediate-experienced Linux user, this book is not for you. If you are a beginner, I would definitely recommend getting a supplementary study guide to this book.

I've gone through 3 chapters of this book, and will be switching to a different one. There are enough errors both in the text and in the practice questions that I find it hard to trust what I read.

Robb Tracy does an excellent -- and up-to-date -- job of covering lots of Linux real estate. Whether you're a beginner or someone with experience, this book is worth the money. Between its extensive exercises, lab tests, drills, and self-tests, you will know this subject! Tracy also makes each chapter digestible, i.e., there are no endless chapters that wander. Those who failed their tests did so because they made the rookie mistake of relying on one resource. Jeez, read a second book dudes!

The book is very good and I like the postage packaging. Delivery was quick I appreciate it very much. I have no problem with the item.

That's good business.

This book is a fairly good introduction to the principles of Linux system administration. Someone with little or no Linux experience should be able to use this book and learn quite a lot on the subject. There are numerous examples, and the practical labs included are good as well.

However, here are two serious caveats:

1. This book did not prepare me adequately for the actual CompTIA Linux+ certification exam. When I took the exam, I found questions on the exam covering concepts that were either not covered in this book, or were covered very briefly. The test is much more detailed and in-depth than this book goes, so I do not recommend that someone taking the Linux+ test rely solely on this book as a study aid for the test.

2. The book is filled with errors. They are mainly typographical errors, but there are a few errors where the author has simply misstated some of the information. I sent a 3-page errata sheet to the publisher. Hopefully they will publish an errata page for this book -- if so, it will be on the following Web page: http://www.mhprofessional.com/?page=/mhp/categories/computing/content/errata.html. You should check the site from time to time to see if they have published an errata sheet for this volume. Absent the errata sheet, keep your eyes open for numerous errors (file names spelled wrong, commands misprinted, etc.), especially in the self-test sections.

Overall, it is a book worth reading to learn about Linux, but due to the errors and due to the fact that it does not adequately meet its stated purpose as a Linux+ certification test prep guide, I gave it only 3 stars.

This review refers to the second edition. The book tries to do too much: installation and maintenance, standard applications and the internet, shells and programming. Organization of the book is weak: some basic subjects are handled twice while slightly more advanced topics are ignored. Caldera's OpenLinux stinks; they try to force you into using their (value-added) products rather than allowing one to use GNU-licensed products.

This review refers to the Second Edition. I've bought this book mainly for the Caldera Open Linux. Thought Caldera OpenLinux isn't shiny, and the release is pretty old (8 Jan. 1998) its a way to start. The book itself is organized in a satisfactory fashion and contains some good information about most of the casual stuff any Linux user may have to go through. If you want to get more in depth of specific topics about Linux, look elsewhere. This book does not include any information of value for the more knowledgeable Linux user/pro

This review refers to the Second Edition. I love linux and this book is a good starter for the want-to-be Linux Network proffesonial, and Linux Developer. It is a great book and I suggest getting it just for the fact that it is something else besides Windows. It will expose you to something new. Maybe sparks some ideas into some young IS/IT proffesoinals

This review refers to the Second Edition. This book solved many problems I have had that others (including Running Linux) could not solve. It is very well written, there are very few errors, and it covers many topics from configuring X windows to networking to programming tools to TeX. I like this book much better than Matt Welsh's Running Linux. As far as others comments on the Caldera CD-ROM, did you really buy this book for the free Linux distribution on the CD? You can always download everything on that CD or buy it for $1.99 from several sources

This review refers to the Second Edition. This title sets the beginner off to a good basic understanding of how to set-up and use Linux. It gets you familiar with basic commands and functions, and discusses most of the programs available on the enclosed CD-ROM (Redhat version).

If you just want to get familiar with Linux, run some of the programs, games and edit some files, this book will suit you fine. Just make sure that your hardware is supported (printing, sound, etc) especially printers. For a more technical discussion, check out "Running Linux" by Matt Welsh. "Running Linux" is actually an excellent compliment to this title. It discusses important issues, such as directory and file locations, mounting filesystems, rebuilding the boot manager, rebuilding the kernel, and some relevent system administration issues.

If you should still feel the need to delve further into Linux. Some of O'Reilly's other Linux related titles are definitly worth a look, each addresses a specific area of Linux

I have the seond edition of Learning Perl and find that this book is not only far more accessible, but covers things that are useful for beginners that Learning Perl does not. The DBI for instance.

At the price this title is going for used it is a bargain.

good: very simple treatment of the perl language. you can learn to program some relatively simple stuff if you haven't done any programming in 15 years (like me).

bad: the book is ATROCIOUSLY edited. i find at least one significantly confusing typo every few pages. if you look on the bright side, you can use these mistakes to hone your skills on finding scripting errors, but in general, it seems to reflect a lack of care in putting the book together.

ugly: this is for an absolute beginner who's willing to work through all of the typos. you will have to shell out additional $$ to begin to use perl in any productive manner.

For Perl beginners, this book is significantly more readable than the O'Reilly texts -- I would like to have seen even more exercises throughout, though.

Overall, a good springboard to a more in-depth text, such as the Wrox title "Beginning Perl". I deducted one point for a few minor (but annoying) typographical errors - this book needed one more pass by the technical editor. C programmers will quickly recognize the typos, but these could confuse some beginners.

Also, this book covers the Perl DBI using the PostgreSQL database. Installing PostgreSQL is awkward on Windows, yet many beginning Perl developers probably use Windows. The Wrox book "Beginning Perl" makes the more logical choice of using the MySQL database, which is simpler to install and use on Windows (and also runs on most Linux/Unix platforms).

This is the best book to learn basics of Perl programming. It makes really easy to learn everything you need to be able to write the simple programs or to have the good basis for the more advanced books.

I am always on the lookout for Perl books from sources other than O'Reilly & Associates. Since Larry Wall works for them, they are The Authorities on the language, no question. But I've often felt that they know the language perhaps too well; they are so familiar with its subtleties that they don't do as good a job of explaining the basics as they might.

I consider myself to be beyond the novice stage in Perl programming, but far from an expert, so I was very interested in what Perl: A Beginner's Guide had to say.

It is a maddening book. I really would like to say something positive about it, but it is so full of typos, and so haphazardly put together, that I just can't.

The slipshod feeling shows right from the beginning. After explaining how to run the traditional "Hello, World" program, the authors explain the chomp() function, which removes a newline character from the end of an input line. We're then given a Note, with a box around it, to clear up a key point:

"Perl also has a function called chomp(), which removes the last character of a string. Unlike chomp(), chomp() removes any character, no matter what it is, whereas chomp() only remove the character if it's a newline character. When you only need to remove a trailing newline character, you should always use chomp(), because it's safer."

Got that?

Sure, you know that they're talking about chop() versus chomp(), and this is only a typo. But how long will it take the beginner who's reading this book to figure that out?

On page 59 the authors introduce Perl's comparison operators, including the = = operator inherited from C, and the source of much confusion among novices and experts alike. Twenty-three pages later we finally get an example of one of these operators, and it's wrong:

$a = 20;
if( $a = 15){
print "a is equal to 15\n";
}
else....

This example, of course, will print "a is equal to 15" until the cows come home. Or until the reader throws the book aside in disgust.

I could go on, but you get the point. The problem is not only that the book is full of small errors like the ones I've cited; the problem is that their presence makes you mistrust everything the book says, even when it's correct.

A more subtle issue, and one that's harder to get a handle on, is the fact that the book's examples are, for the most part, trivial. You get the feeling that the authors, faced with the need to come up with an example to illustrate the feature of the language they were discussing at the moment, just wrote down whatever popped into their heads. The examples illustrate the point, but they don't take on the more important job of helping the reader to begin to think like a Perl programmer.

For example, in the section on regular expressions, there are a series of examples that use this syntax:

if ($result = $string1 =~ /Hello/){

This example is used over and over, and yes, it works. But, since we never make use of $result anywhere else, a Perl programmer would simplify this to:

if ($string1 =~ /Hello/){

Moreover, in the real world, you'd be more likely to see something like:

if (/Hello/){

-- which makes use of the implied $_ variable. Although an awareness and understanding of the many $x variables are key to understanding Perl's often-cryptic syntax, references to them are sprinkled haphazardly throughout the book; nowhere are they laid out in a logical, orderly fashion.

As I said at the beginning, I really would like to like this book. The authors obviously have gone out of their way to try to write a manual that makes Perl approachable for beginners. What they've got here is a good first draft; but it's not ready for publication.