Customer Reviews

Red Hat® LINUX® Secrets®

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

 

 

I orginally bought Red Hat Linux Unleashed. It's a much bigger book than this one but contains much less usefull info than this does. I am a beginning Linux user and this book has had an answer to every question I've had to ask so far, especially when it came to installing a second NIC. After reading a couple of other books and searching online this book was the only one able to take me step by step through the process of adding a second NIC, the other books assumed I knew more than I did. It's easy to read and well organized and I would highly recommend it for the novice Linux user. The book also has the info to take me to the next level of Linux expertise. After you have the basics down, the more advanced sections still utilize the step by step method of the basic sections never assuming I already know some aspects of whatever subject is being discussed, like the other literature did.

I went to the bookstore looking for a good reference on RedHat Linux System Administration. I was skeptical when I started skimming this book. I mean, I've read quite a bit of bad RedHat Linux documentation in my day. However, I was surprised. Although it was not the "complete reference" that I was hoping for, I was impressed by the clear and comprehensive explanations of the topics that it did cover.

A great book for beginner to intermediate Linux users. Waiting for the RedHat 6.0 edition is a good idea though. For instance, my laptop won't run the older XFree86 versions that come with RedHat 5.x.

Linux works from "many eyes" giving feedback to the authors and developers of the system. This IDG book does not list any email address for the author, nor does it have an errata web page. IDG: Get a clue!

This book is quite good. It is good enough as a beginner book. However the term beginner in Linux means you have to at least be computer literate and at least have a good inkling of how software works. It discusses lot of topics, but you need to read the books in conjuction with the Howto and FAQ's of Linux. Overall a good book

An excellent book, I am fortunate to have pruchased it. Dr. Barkakati COMPLETELY covers the installation of the Slackware(3.0) CD-ROM. There should be no surprises for a beginner here. Excellent coverage of PC hardware and interfaces. Very good coverage of software development tools (gcc/g++, bash, perl, RCS, Tcl/Tk) and several editors (Emacs, vi), included with most LINUX distributions. Somewhat dated now, I look forward to the 2nd edition.

Naba Barkakati produced yet another valuable system administration resource. He provides you eveything you need to create an industrial-strength workstation, Intranet/Internet server, or software development platform, if you already have some UNIX or LINUX experience. Unfortunately, in the move from Slackware to Red Hat, this book ended up with inconsistencies that made it closer to edition number 1.8 than 2. I think edition 3 will be the definitive resource on LINUX, if improvements are made to Red Hat's druid installation utility and Naba's documentation of installation process and graphical applications and system configuration tools. Suspiciously lacking at this stage of LINUX evolution, and hindering its capabilities as a ubiquitous desktop operating system, are: a simple, robust, flexible, fault-tolerant installation process; a word processor (NOT a text editor... I stopped using edlin a LONG time ago!); error-free default configurations (X Window menu options, Netscape, kernel, modem); OEM or VAR driver support for standard hardware; flexibility to seamlessly integrate LINUX with other operating systems residing on the PC; automated or intuitive process for enabling sound card support; simple process for dial-up (PPP) networking and Internet access; and lastly, reliance on "green screen" command line functionality for basic system utilities, information, and configuration (complain all you want about Bill's market influence and control, but he gave us exactly what we want and need: an easy-to-use GUI that is multimedia-capable and Internet-aware, with an operating system and application installation paradigm that we can all live with). For less experienced users, I recommend this product in conjunction with a more straightforward resource such as SAMS' Teach Yourself LINUX in 24 Hours, by Billy Ball. This will allow users to progress from basic installation and familiarity with LINUX, to more advanced functions and capabilities.

I bought this book thinking it would be a good general reference for configuring different services on my linux machines. However, more often than not I find that the things I'm interested are either not addressed at all in this book or they are glossed over and don't really help much. I think this would be a good book for new linux users but for an experienced UNIX (but not linux!) sysadmin like me I need a lot more technical details.

In addition, I feel that they probably could've packed the same amount of information in a book a fraction as large. It's misleading when you pick a book off the shelf that's 400 pages and you think, "Hm, this must have lots of info in it". Then you start reading it and you find that they do things like devote 25 pages to listing all the options displayed when you recompile the kernel -- which is totally useless since: a) all the options are clearly listed when you do the compilation yourself b) they don't explain the options very well; they're explained much better by the help files in the actual compile program c) the options change for every new release of the linux kernel (of which there are TONS) so the information is quickly outdated.

Overall, I haven't been very impressed at all with this book -- it's gathering a lot of dust on my shelf and every time I pull it off to give it another chance I'm disappointed.

An excellent reference, clear, concise and to the point. However, if you are looking for something to get you over the DOS/Doze hurdles this book may not be for you. It misses on some of the finer points of the mundane every day experienced user type stuff though. Like maybe, links and symlinks, inserting some of the architecture specific modules etc. But if you want an excellent reference on the basics, for say, an intermedisate user, this is a great book. The index alone is well worth it. If you want help with networking, look elsewhere. This is based on Red Hat 5.1 the current version is 6.1. lots has changed, and more added. There is NO One book that can cover ALL of the wonderful fascets of this spectacular, scaleable OS. Look to spend money on at least 3 or 4 books if you are going to have more than a simple work station.

As with most Secrets books, this one gets into some of the finer detail and assumes a working knowledge of the OS. That is not to say that it is not useful to the novice, it is, but you had better know computers, or have a VERY Linux compatible system because it does not go very far into troubleshooting the problems that can arise with a new install on equipment that is even a little less than normal. Naba Barkakati has done well with this volume, and it serves as an excellent reference, even with RH 6.1, but you are expected to be computer literate, and able to understand what many of the concepts are before they are discussed in the book.

As reading material goes, I can think of many things I would rather read, but as a reference for your average soon to be geek all I can say is: Well Done.

this book has a lot of information on using linux however the examples are all for the version of linux that originally shipped with the first edition - somewhat confusing. also if you are buying it in part for the operating system and are using any new hardware you will want red hat ver 5.2 so that even if you get it set up you will have a lot of downloading to do just to support your hardware.

The '96 Linux Secrets is probably one of the best Linux books on my bookshelf. The coverage is complete and addresses many issues that are not covered by other texts. Definitely looking forward to the '98 edition.