Customer Reviews

Fedora Linux Toolbox: 1000+ Commands for Fedora, CentOS and Red Hat Power Users

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Hey folks... I've been an RHCE since 2000, training RHCEs since 2003, and "doing Linux" since 1996.

What I like:
The three big things that I like about Linux Toolbox are:
1) It concisely shows you how to use the Linux command line to solve many of the most common personal and administrative tasks.
2) It uses the proven "learn by doing" method to show the reader how to just "get stuff done" from the Linux command line.
3) What really sets this book apart from other "next level" type books is its well thought layout and how they organized the content in a quickly accessible way. Negus & Caen split the content out by Shell stuff, Working w/Files, Text Manipulation, Multimedia, Administration, Backups, Networking, etc.. . Well thought out and quickly useful as an on-hand reference.

So who should buy this book?
I see it being a "best fit" for two groups of people:
1) Technical users and admins who want to become more competent on the command line and be able to do ten times more work thought automation (scripting).
2) Windows power users who want to become more savvy on the Linux side (Linux power user wannabes). Especially those who need to get Linux CLI/shell proficient quickly (such as Windows sys-admins who have had Linux forced on them)

Old Timers Too:
The cool thing is that even if you've been using Linux for years (as I have), there are still useful "Oooo.. cool!" moments peppered throughout the book. Do you know how to properly (and quickly) get the most out of classic power tools like find, sed, awk, case, and tr? Are you armed with experience in all the newer über tools such as screen, dmidecode, growisofs? Do you know how to do software RAID from the command line (mdadm) or know how to build & control LVM via its command line tools? If you answered "no" to any of these.. you should check check out Linux Toolbox.

Negus and Caen have a winner here. Good job guys.

Tweeks

This book is a very good desk side companion. This is not your typical "power users" book that is just a raw dump of a ton of esoteric commands that go in one eye and out the other. It is actually useful commands put into an understandable context, organized by classes of activity. I've been using Linux for many many years yet I'm learning, and using, new things from this book. I would highly recommend it.

If you're looking for a gift for your beloved Fedora/Red Hat geek, this is it. You'll be thanked when the gift is opened, and you'll be thanked each time as the book is used over and over.

--
Jesse Keating
Fedora Release Engineer

This book is practically "perfect" (sorry if sounds exaggerated) for the following reasons:

1 In less than 260 pages (340 considering appendixes) quickly covers a wide and useful selection of topics
2 The text is updated to the latest improvements in EVERY subject
3 Very easy to read and follow with or without a computer at hand
4 Command line oriented

Let me explain:

1 From the Table of Contents you may see the book covers practically everything most users will need when using a Linux as Server or Desktop; that selection of subjects was really well calculated and provides with a mix that is rarelly found. Also, the "depth" for the provided information was carefully calibrated in order to show the most useful situations (by the way avoiding being boring with nerdy configurations)

The authors provide with a minimal and informal introducion to every subject, and next use a good selection of samples for illustration.

2 Surprisingly, all chapters were written taking into account a lot of "modern" improvements in distro/commands/kernel. Every old-Linux user may appreciate here the giant advances made by Linux to the point that practically every subject is now simple to manage (or at least not esoteric.)

3 As I have several years using Linux, most of the material presented was familiar (with a lot of "modern" surprises), but the organization and style did let me follow all the text without needing to test the examples or configurations in order to understand anything. At least for me, it is a big bonus.

4 99% of the recipes and examples apply to the command line (with some mentions to the graphical front-ends). This may be sad for new users, but very important for administrators or users that look for "maximum flexibility", or "task automation" or work in "server environments" where the GUI is not allowed or discouraged.

I just got this book and I started using its advices in Linux. I recently had contact with centOS servers and Fedora and this book has guided me through the way of correct administration via command line.

This book is a fantastic way to take your tinkering to the realm of true Linux mastery. Christopher Negus has written some of the best comprehensive Linux guides on the market, but here he has slimmed down the advice into tried and true command line tips that -- once you've learned a few of them -- will have your boss singing your praises, and friends calling you for advice. [...]

Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of this slim, portable, and power-packed book. You won't regret it!

Although the copyright inside my cover reads 2008, the examples inside are about two years old from Fedora 6 and 7. For example, much of chapter 2 is outdated. However, that doesn't detract from the rest of the info inside, which is a goldmine. Get this book!

i am somewhat new to linux and i am finding this book useful. It is well organized and has most of the commands I am looking for in RHEL 5. Any other books for starters folks would recommend?

For any Linux user looking to expand their understanding of how to use Linux in practical situations, this book is a must have.
This book is organized in a very clear and concise manner broken out by definitive categories of Linux operations (admin, security, file operations, editing, etc)
I would HIGHLY recommend this to any Linux command line user wanting to expand their grasp of this powerful (albeit daunting)operating system.
The authors really separate the wheat from the chaff and get to the heart of common uses for everyday Linux commands.

This book has all the commands that a linux user would need. I use this book at work for those who use RHEL for programming.

This could probably be an excellent Kindle book if the many tables were displayed like the rest of the book, in a font that is large enough to read and searchable. Unfortunately, the critical tables are in a form that is too small to read, even with perfect eyesight. Additionally, any text within those tables is not found by the Kindle search engine. The tables are probably graphics, not text.

Until this book is properly rendered for the Kindle, it should be removed from Kindle availability. Amazon customer service told me to contact Wiley. I contacted Wiley (the publisher), technical support, to bring the unreadability issue to their attention. The rep told me that he believes Wiley books are rendered by Amazon for the Kindle. He agreed that if all the content cannot be read, and if all the content cannot be searched, any book of this type should not be issued for the Kindle.

I'm now waiting for my hard copy to be delivered. Amazon, please act to re-render the book for the Kindle so all of it is readable and searchable. I will buy that version.