Hands-On Linux: Featuring Caldera Openlinux Lite, Netscape Navigator Gold, and Netscape Fasttrack Server on Two Cds [Paperback]

Mark G. Sobell (Author), Caldera Inc. (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1998

Linux, a UNIX "RM" clone for the PC, is gaining considerable popularity given the increasingly robust versions of Linux being released and the growing support and applications available. This book has been written by a best selling UNIX author, Mark Sobell, who provides a comprehensive guide to Linux for anyone wanting a customizable and easy to configure operating system. Combined with this book is a custom version of the highly rated Caldera, Inc. OpenLinux operating system. Together this book/CD package offers significantly unique advantages to those new to Linux. The book begins with an extensive tutorial on Linux basics and then progresses to in-depth coverage of the details. Part two of the book is a comprehensive reference.

The CD contains all you need to get started with Linux and several powerful tools not found in other Linux book/software packages including, the Caldera OpenLinux version of Linux, Caldera's Windows and Netscape Navigator for Linux.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The Linux operating system has grown out of a free Unix-compatible kernel written by Linus Torvalds. Free means the user is free to run, copy, distribute, study, change, sell, and improve the software as long as the source code is always included in the next release, which means that those who follow are able to do the same. Since Linux is multitasking and processing, it supports multiple users doing multiple actions. And because Linux is designed for running on cheap, slightly out-of-date hardware, Linux has proven valuable to libraries of all sizes who can not afford constant, costly upgrade fees for new software. If you are interested in exploring Linux, these three books serve as a great combined-use package. The Sobell book is voluminous?it includes his original book from last year, A Practical Guide to Linux (LJ 9/1/97), along with a copy of Caldera OpenLinux Lite and much more on the CD-ROMs. The IDG books will be invaluable late-night resources in those magical moments when things go wrong. For a really nice introduction to Linux in libraries, check out On the Cheap: Linux at and consider subscribing to linux4lib, a majordomo discussion list at .
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 1013 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley (C) (January 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201325691
• ISBN-13: 978-0201325690
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,337,634 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Book Title should be HANDS ON UNIX. No LINUX content., October 17, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (London, Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hands-On Linux: Featuring Caldera Openlinux Lite, Netscape Navigator Gold, and Netscape Fasttrack Server on Two Cds (Paperback)

This book is well written. I rely on it, and refer to it constantly.

If you are new to any form of UNIX, you will need to develop a good working knowledge of the UNIX tool set. You should learn about the shells (bash,ksh,etc), the editors (emacs, vi, joe) other common unix tools (make, awk, pine), and the X-Windows system. For learning about these things, this book is very good.

What I don't like is that the book really should be called "HANDS ON UNIX". Only an occasional remark in the text reminds you that this is a LINUX book. The book seems titled by the publisher to cash in on the LINUX buzz, rather than according to it's content. Less than 1% of the content is LINUX specific. There is a 7 page appendix on the emulators available for LINUX, and about ten pages of Linux specific content int he first hundred pages.

Chapter two just blithely states that "This book does not discuss hardware selection nor the installation of Linux" and then jumps right to logging into a UNIX command shell.

To this day I'm still looking for decent coverage of buying a Linux compatible system, system installation, hard disk setup, network and sound card setup, dial up networking setup, and other hardware and installation manuals.

There is nothing on recompiling the kernel. The only tweaking section that I found useful was the XFree86 section. The tips on window managers and setting up your X configuration is pretty good.

If you are an at-home Linux user, you ARE the network administrator, and system administrator. If you're looking for a one-volume omnibus, this is not it.

The content in this book will probably never become dated. It's timeless unix stuff.

Warren Postma

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good addition to any LINUX library, January 30, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Hands-On Linux: Featuring Caldera Openlinux Lite, Netscape Navigator Gold, and Netscape Fasttrack Server on Two Cds (Paperback)

It's probably not possible to write "complete" book on Linux, because the OS is still new and rapidly evolving, both technically and as a commodity in the computing market. Sobell's book doesn't cover everything, but the topics he does cover are well presented, clearly written and often cross-referenced in the text itself, which save a lot of frantic paging around to find a forgotten detail.

Sobell focuses on basic Linux programming and development, rather than installation, setup, hardware, etc., so his book makes a good companion volume to the "sysadmin" handbooks on the market, which often come up short on details about the OS language and utilities.

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent for intermediate and beginners, November 24, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Hands-On Linux: Featuring Caldera Openlinux Lite, Netscape Navigator Gold, and Netscape Fasttrack Server on Two Cds (Paperback)

This is an excellent book. It really helped me once i had Linux installed. Of course if you are still struggling with getting Linux installed then look elsewhere. Overall an Excellent buy. Yet the software bundle is a little lacking. The software bundled doesnt really demonstrate the free software capabilities of Linux considering most of it is on a 90 day evaulation period.