Customer Reviews

Introduction to Unix and Linux

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Our students use this text because it carefully teaches them how to do everything they need in UNIX and Linux. Each skill is examined with specific laboratory exercises that demonstrate how it works and how to best use it. Figures are clear and save the teaching staff a lot of time because the figures focus in on the hard parts of the system. The student reviews, chapter summaries, assignments, and expanded explanations of more complex topics make this the text we use with our community college students. The teacher's pack provides us with power point slides, handouts, question bank, tests and added materials.
For our more advanced, faster paced classes, we use this book's big brother, UNIX Made Easy 3rd Ed. Both have been very carefully developed and students use them with few errors or problems. This book does not have the shell programming that is in UNIX Made Easy. Instead, Introduction to UNIX and Linux has Red Hat Linux CD's, a chapter on installation and chapters on administration of a system, plus additional GUI information and exercises.

If you are a person who likes to understand the reasoning behind certain command line executions - because it helps with your rentention - then this is the book for you. This book is what my local College uses and I can see why. The class is an "online" class and this book is all I need to understand. The book gives you the basics of why things work the way they do. What it is NOT is a reference book. It is a book on how to learn (and understand) Linux and what the commands are and why they are in a particular order. If you already know a little about Linux, this will help to connect the dots. If you are a Linux pro, don't bother. But I just wanted to learn the OS for the fun of it and I am learning much with this book.
Also, this book is very "hands on" so the CD that comes with it will reinforce what you're reading. I love this about the book. You actually DO what your learn. And visa versa. :o)
One other comment. You will find as you read that the author has a sneaky (and sometimes not-so-sneaky) way of restating the material that he just stated. It helps you to learn although you might say to yourself "you pretty much just said that...". But I understand the reasoning and it works. :o)

Don't bother with this book...It is a condensed version of the Unix made easy (3rd edition) book by the same author...The author basically took out some programming in shell chapters and used the rest of the Unix made easy book verbatim...

Save your money as this "newer" book is twice as expensive as the Unix made easy (3rd edition) and has less information...If you want a book that gives a good solid introduction to Unix and Linux use the author's other book, which I would give 4 stars.

Reference books do not provide the teaching that new people to the UNIX or Linux world need to quickly come up to speed. This text has saved me a lot of time by taking students through detailed exercises that work and explaining to them what is going on as they proceed. The mix of lab, explanation, review, and problems to solve matches the needs of our students. Each command is clearly identified, the type is large enough to read while at the terminal and students do not get lost or frustrated.

Instead of teaching how to accomplish the basics in class, I can help the students explore more advanced questions. They master the skills interacting with the system guided by this text. Students who were afraid of computer science are succeeding with this guide and are returning for more. Advanced students quickly master a thorough foundation.

Instructor pack is all illustrations, a way to create quizes on or off line, and support materials. Great jump start for new teachers.

I first used UNIX back in the 90's when I was using AIX on a dumb terminal. Now that I am taking night class to become a UNIX system admin, this was my first class, and this book showed me a few new things I never knew about. The best way to learn UNIX is to get your hands dirty and try things that work and that produce errors.

This book is excellent, especially for beginners. It comes with 2 CDs so Linux can be loaded on a computer and the lessons practiced on a computer as they're presented. It takes you step by step through using a Linux system and each step builds on the previous ones.

The instructions are clear and easily understood, though, like with most things related to computers, you still have to pay attention to the details. Fortunately if a step is missed you can go back and do it without having to redo everything in between.

I would highly recommend this book for someone interested in learning Linux.

This book has been absolutely amazing and I've only utilized it for 4 weeks! It's easy to understand and has plenty of relevant examples to help the reader actually learn the commands and features of linux/unix. Although I love this book and will probably tape it together when it falls apart, it's biggest down fall is its binding; after 4 weeks it feels as if it may fall apart.

For the those wanting a thorough introduction to learn the Linux command line environment, this is the best book to buy. It has many self-test exercises that reinforce what you are learning and help you develop command line skills.

This book is a great introduction for students who plan to start a course on UNIX or those that plan to start a new career using UNIX/LINUX. It gives the reader a good foundation by giving simple and concise explanations of UNIX utilities and how the operating system works behind the scenes. It is easy to read, easy to learn and is written to teach it's readers rather than show how complicated UNIX/LINUX is. I would recommend this book to everyone that i know. It is truly a good place to start from and is an absolute joy to read.

This text guides students carefully and thoroughly. My job is now to help them learn, facilitate. The book does the teaching of the needed skills so I only review them and integrate concepts in class. The level of accomplishment has gone up more than I expected. The book covers the needed content but is not too intimidating or bulky. The bonus for us was the Instructor's Pack which provides all the illustrations, power point slides, answers, teaching notes, and a quiz/ exam generating program. I spend my time teaching not re-inventing materials. I hope someone follows this approach and gives us texts on shell programming, C programming, and system administration, soon.