Customer Reviews

Debian GNU/Linux 3.1 Bible

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Debian GNU/Linux 3.1 Bible (DGL3B) is a good book if your expectations match its content. This can be difficult when the cover bears this somewhat misleading quote by Debian founder Ian Murdock: "This book contains everything you need to know to get the most out of Debian, from installing it to tapping into its vast repositories of software." That quote should have been applied to Martin Krafft's book "The Debian System," which I read right after DGL3B. Those new to Linux will like DGL3B, but those experienced in Linux but new to Debian should read Krafft's book instead.

Why is DGL3B a Linux beginner's book? Consider the installation recommendation given on p 25 that says "all files in one partition is the best choice." This is really not the "best choice" for anyone in my opinion. If you're new to Linux and you just want to get an operational system, then following this recommendation is acceptable. I found the installation instructions in chapter 2 to be weak. It spent far too little time on the peculiarities of Debian installation, which is very different from the slicker GUIs seen in Red Hat or other distributions.

Beyond the installation chapter, DGL3B covers all of the topics one would expect to see in a book for new Linux or Unix users. Ch 3 describes using a command line shell and the Linux filesystem. Ch 4 covers software management. Ch 5 discusses basic system administration while ch 6 gives advice on performing backups. I thought the explanation of std in, std out, and std err on p 67 was helpful. The backup section introduced me to rdiff-backup, which I now use on FreeBSD. With the conclusion of Part I, readers will not see truly Debian-centric material again until Part V.

Ch 7 begins Part II, with 6 chapters on Linux as a desktop. Topics include graphics, sound, desktop environments, Web browsers, mail clients, publishing software, multimedia apps, and games. Almost all of this material could have appeared in any Linux or Unix book. Since I don't run Linux or fancy desktops, I learned of a few apps that had passed under my radar like Epiphany, Boa, and Vsftpd.

Ch 13 begins Part III, with 6 chapters in Linux as a server. Topics include security, email/Web/FTP/DNS servers, and remote access. The discussion of SSH forwarding taught me a trick about reverse tunnels.

Ch 19 started Part IV, with 6 chapters on Intranet services. Again, these could be applied to any Linux environment. DHCP, NFS, Samba, OpenLDAP, IMAP, POP, CUPS, PostgreSQL, and MySQL make appearances.

Part V finishes the book, with 3 chapters on the Debian community, building packages, and the Debian archives. I welcomed this material as it was more Debian-centric than the previous 18 chapters.

Your opinion of DGL3B depends heavily on what you want to learn from reading the book. If you're new to Linux and want more of an overview of doing common tasks on a non-Windows platform like Debian, then DGL3B is for you. If you're an experienced Linux or Unix user who wants to learn deeper insights into Debian, I recommend Krafft's book.

I had already installed Debian 3.1 on my home PC's, and had several years background using Linux / Debian, at a medium user/administrator level. However, all my knowledge from Linux came from scattered on-line manual and pieces. Thus, I purchased this book to have a printed, consistent reference, specially for Debian Sarge (3.1).

The pros:

- The book gives you a general overview of what you can do with Debian 3.1.
- The most useful chapters for the newcomer are at the beginning of the book (bash, debian package system).
- It is not hard to read (I am a Spanish speaking user).

The cons:

- I expected a deeper insight into the Debian/GNU Linux system itself: there is no reference to runlevels, treatment of processes and process management is almost missing, and the same about other common themes such as filesystem handling (mount, fstab), and other important Linux commands. Of course, no mention about installing Windows and Debian on the same computer (e.g. using GRUB loader).
- I found the book is sometimes more a catalog of Debian's bundled applications than a coherent description of Debian for the beginner user. Many times it ends redirecting the reader to the corresponding application's documentation if you want to use that application.
- According to previous points, the explanation about some applications/tools - e.g. Apache web server - tries to cover the essential aspects but is too weak...
- On the other hand, it curiously assumes sometimes you have a background about the subject discussed (in contrast to the beginner approach in other parts of the book).

My opinion:

You must have a minimal background on computers, and a bit on Linux. It is neither a "manual-for-dumb-beginners" book nor a reference for intermediate users. I think the authors could have dropped many chapters about setting up things as DNS servers, Apache or things like that (if you want to include that, do it more complete).

They could have provided more solid foundation about the core of the Debian System, so after reading the book you had become an intermediate user for your daily tasks. In fact, if you want to seriously set up database or web servers you will have to buy/download the specific books/manuals - you want it or not.

Anyway, you can buy it. One more piece of information you will get on Debian.

From reading the first five chapters, I have mixed opinions of the book. On the "good" part, a Debian book that gives a high level overview of everything is welcome, because the documentation sometimes loses the forest for the trees. A Debian book is also a good investment because of the system's stability. if Woody is any indication, this book should be current for the next quarter of a decade.

On the "could have been better" side, this book suffers from a certain lack of focus -- is it aimed towards the rank beginner in Linux (in some chapters, it is assumed that the reader is a rank beginner). Or is it aimed towards an intermediate reader? (witness the more complex discussions of APT). While the discussions of apt were involved, they were not IMHO as good as the freely available APT-HOWTO. Any discussion of APT should have been _preceded_ by a discussion of the structure of a Debian repository.

The main author himself admits that he came into the book at a late stage to pick up the pieces and put it together. He has explicitly admitted what is implicitly recognizable -- the book has been put together by multiple people at different points in time.

Finally there are two CDs in the back of the book -- one a minimal Sarge install, and the other a Knoppix CD. The reader would have been better served by one DVD of a full Sarge install. After all, Knoppix is not really based on Sarge, which is the topic of this book.

A better strategy for Linux authors will be to separate their Linux writing into two separate kinds of books -- one kind of book discusses only distribution-specific detail (such as apt and friends). Another kind of book discusses only general Linux programs that are common across distributions (e.g. using ls, vi, etc).

I liked this book, it is easy to look up what you want, and it is nicely divided to setup a desktop PC, a Internet server and a intranet server. It puts you on the right track and will get you started. It is however a starter book, and I would not call it a bible. Maybe a beginners bible...? The book comes with Knoppix to let you play without installing and the Debian 3.1 CD. I installed from the CD and it downloaded nicely the other packages I needed through the internet. The book was a good place to setup most things and I believe this is the only book many users will need. If you want to start using Linux and are curious, Debian is great, and I am certain these people will enjoy this book to go with it.
Good book, easy to read but lacks depth for more advanced users.

This book is definitly not intended for professionals, and definition of "bible" is questionable when book deals with big things such as Debian. Of course this book can't solve every possible problem or show you everything. In order to achieve that, it should have few thousands pages :) However, it will serve you well if you wish a complete guidance in installing debian on common pc platforms and configuring it. It will give you good practical understanding of all linux and debian specific things needed for fast start and will cover most of things you might want to do. Some things You can no expect from this book: this book won't teach you for instance how to build stealth internet server and cover detailed configuration of every aspect of it, it won't teach you how to become supreme administrator etc.

But it will give you ability to set up system(desktop, internet server, intranet server), set up desktop, set up samba and connect your server with windows machines, set up dhcp the way most of people need, set up mail system and tell you most things you need to know about it, set up apache and lot more... If you prefer theory, it can also be found in the book.

To summarize, it will cover almost every aspect of system that normal beginner/intermediate user will need to set up whether you need to set up desktop system or server. And most of all, it will give you a solid base for solving any additional problem by consulting other resources such as internet, newsgroups etc. It is written in plain, understandable English so anyone could read it and start using this fabulous os.

A new user of Linux, especially Debian (which doesn't necessarily cater to the needs of new users), might easily feel swamped by the enormous amount of information one is faced with. I was skeptical about the book, having had bad experiences with other titles that promised to be "bibles," but I was pleasantly surprised. The chapters are logically arranged, and the writing is very clear. The reader has to do his/her part, of course, and go beyond the examples provided and start doing things alone. The book does a great job of giving the reader "the idea" about how things should be done. Quite a large number of topics are covered in the 600+ pages, but I've seen tomes well over 1000 pages that could have been reduced to less than half as much, and would have benefitted in clarity as a result.

For an overview of how and why Debian is different from other distributions, The Debian System: Concepts and Techniques by Martin Krafft explains it all. For those wanting to learn more about development (programming) after reading Debian GNU/Linux 3.1 Bible, then I would also recommend Linux Programming by Example (by Arnold Robbins).

I think a book costing this much money should provide in-depth coverage of the topics. This looks like a rush job to me and very sophomoric. How do books like this make it through production?

I'm starting to wonder if the publisher, No Starch Press, has a preference for bad grammar, poorly written material and goofy authors. I wouldn't have so much of a problem with it if I hadn't purchased it. But I did.

I did see some value in this book. The authors organized the subjects well. I also found a few tidbits like how to connect to X remotely over ssh. The configuration of DHCP was nice.

Here's the but. To cover the topics appropriately, the publisher should have broken this into a series of books. It's not a Bible, it's not a chapter in a Bible, it's an excuse for a book.

I'm starting to get a feel for this publisher and I don't like what I see. You have to see it for yourself.

I needed this book mostly for reference with the new Debian Operating System I installed. It's written for 3.1 and I installed 5.0 but it still is very valid. I would recommend this to users new to Debian. Helps a lot.

It basically introduces you to a lot of the topics, gives you an example, but does not cover much details. For instance, it tells you what LDAP is and how to get/install it. It gives you a simple example of how LDAP works but does not cover much of anything else.

DEFINITELY NOT FOR ADMINISTRATORS.

If you need a reference to linux commands this book cover a lot. Most of the topics are related to Command line interface and scripting and there is not so much about GUI based systems.