Fedora Linux: A Complete Guide to Red Hat's Community Distribution [Paperback]

Chris Tyler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 27, 2006 | ISBN-10: 0596526822 | ISBN-13: 978-0596526825 | Edition: 1

"Neither a "Starting Linux" book nor a dry reference manual, this book has a lot to offer to those coming to Fedora from other operating systems or distros."

-- Behdad Esfahbod, Fedora developer

This book will get you up to speed quickly on Fedora Linux, a securely-designed Linux distribution that includes a massive selection of free software packages. Fedora is hardened out-of-the-box, it's easy to install, and extensively customizable - and this book shows you how to make Fedora work for you.

Fedora Linux: A Complete Guide to Red Hat's Community Distribution will take you deep into essential Fedora tasks and activities by presenting them in easy-to-learn modules. From installation and configuration through advanced topics such as administration, security, and virtualization, this book captures the important details of how Fedora Core works--without the fluff that bogs down other books and help/how-to web sites. Instead, you can learn from a concise task-based approach to using Fedora as both a desktop and server operating system.

In this book, you'll learn how to:

• Install Fedora and perform basic administrative tasks
• Configure the KDE and GNOME desktops
• Get power management working on your notebook computer and hop on a wired or wireless network
• Find, install, and update any of the thousands of packages available for Fedora
• Perform backups, increase reliability with RAID, and manage your disks with logical volumes
• Set up a server with file sharing, DNS, DHCP, email, a Web server, and more
• Work with Fedora's security features including SELinux, PAM, and Access Control Lists (ACLs)

Whether you are running the stable version of Fedora Core or bleeding-edge Rawhide releases, this book has something for every level of user. The modular, lab-based approach not only shows you how things work-but also explains why--and provides you with the answers you need to get up and running with Fedora Linux.

Chris Tyler is a computer consultant and a professor of computer studies at Seneca College in Toronto, Canada where he teaches courses on Linux and X Window System Administration. He has worked on systems ranging from embedded data converters to Multics mainframes.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Chris Tyler is a programmer and Linux network administrator with a focus on the X Window System and LAMP. He has programmed in two dozen different languages over the past 20 years, and now teaches at Seneca College, Toronto.

Product Details

• Paperback: 656 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 1 edition (October 27, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596526822
• ISBN-13: 978-0596526825
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #470,608 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #11 in Books > Computers & Technology > Web Development > Web Servers

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Fedora Book!, November 18, 2006

By 

Rob Wehrli (Melbourne) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fedora Linux: A Complete Guide to Red Hat's Community Distribution (Paperback)

Chris' writing style is easy to read and flows as smoothly and conversationally as chatting with your best friend. The book is not an "overview," as it does drill down into many of the most difficult issues surrounding using and administering a Fedora-based Linux system.

I've been a Linux user since 1992 and I learned a LOT from reading this book. There are literally 100s of nifty tidbits of useful information packed away inside these pages. I don't know if I can give 5 stars to a "secular" Linux book, but it probably deserves them!

In the usual O'Reilly tradition, the book is exceptionally well-edited and the content practically overflows the pages.

There is an interesting presentation "feature" to the book that constantly poses questions and provides the answers to them that is compelling, unique and very practical. While not every question is one that I've asked myself, each answer is useful information to which I often didn't know the exact answer.

I highly commend Chris' work. If you are using or plan to use a Fedora-based Linux system, this is a "must have" book!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent for Fedora Core 5/6, January 26, 2007

By 

Paul Tibbitts (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Fedora Linux: A Complete Guide to Red Hat's Community Distribution (Paperback)

Despite having used linux for many years, and fedora since its release, I found lots of very specific how-to information in this book that would take a long time to find in other documentation. The term "lab-based approach" in the book's description basically translates into the book having very detailed and accurate step-by-step instructions for performing common (and some not-so-common) Fedora tasks. Although the book is focused on Fedora system administration tasks, there is also lots of material that any Fedora desktop or laptop user would want/need to know.

I hope the author is able to continue to revise the book as new Fedora releases are produced. The book is very current as of Core 5/6 but Linux changes so fast that any book has to be revised frequently to keep up.

One thing I especially like about this book is that there isn't the "padding" so common in Linux books. This book includes helpful URL references, but doesn't pad its page count with their contents. All the original content in this book makes it an extremely good value and I strongly recommend it to anyone working with a relevant Fedora release.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars VERY VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!, May 20, 2007

By 

John R. Vacca "Tech Write Independent Reviewer" (Pomeroy, Ohio) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fedora Linux: A Complete Guide to Red Hat's Community Distribution (Paperback)

Are you an experienced computer user with some Linux experience? If you are, then this book is for you. Author Chris Tyler, has done an outstanding job of writing a book that covers both desktop and server configurations, and is ideally suited to an administrator or power user migrating to Fedora Linux from another environment, such as Windows, Mac OS X, or Unix.

Tyler, begins by covering the installation of Fedora Core. Then, the author introduces the use of Fedora on the desktop. Next, he deals with the issues specific to using Fedora on a notebook computer. The author also covers basic system management tasks. He continues by discussing package management--adding, removing and updating software. Then, the author deals with storage administration, using logical volume management and RAID arrays. Next, he covers the Samba file server; as well as, DHCP, DNS, web, email, and print services. The author then deals with security using Fedora's security facilities including SELinux, PAM, and ACLs. He continues by discussing the Fedora community and how you can become involved. Finally, the author deals with advanced installation options.

This most excellent book is targeted at Fedora Core 6, but is also useful to users of Fedora Core 5 and 7. Perhaps more importantly, this book is designed to give you the most critical information in an accessible format, and shows you how the packages work within the context of Fedora.