LINUX, Second Edition: Installation, Configuration, and Use [Paperback]

Michael Kofler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 18, 1999 | ISBN-10: 0201596288 | ISBN-13: 978-0201596281 | Edition: 2nd

If you are looking for one book to teach you all the basics of Linux, from installation and usage to simple programming, then this new edition of Linux: Installation, Configuration and Use is the book for you. It has been fully updated and revised to be compliant with Linux 2.2 and it will get you up and running with Linux quickly and will effectively eliminate time-consuming installation problems and searches for on-line documentation.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The second edition of Linux: Installation, Configuration, and Use covers the Red Hat 6, Debian GNU/Linux 2.1, and SuSE 6.1 distributions of the Linux Kernel 2.2. Linux has made great strides in the last two years, especially in the area of installation. No matter how easy installation has become, you are almost certain to run into difficulties during some part of the process. As with the first edition, this book provides the hearty details that simplify the installation and configuration process using native Linux commands and facilities.

Beyond getting Linux up and running, chapters on the windows system (XFree86, an X Windows clone), EMACS (the granddaddy of word processors), and GIMP (a graphics tool similar to Photoshop) enable you to become productive quickly. The Linux command reference chapter, the file system explanation, the system administration details, and the use of various utilities such as file managers and graphic viewers will make this book an often-used reference.

Linux: Installation, Configuration, and Use remains the book of choice for getting Linux set up on your system. While those new to computing may be intimidated by Linux, experienced PC users armed with this book will be using Linux with XFree86 faster and with fewer hassles than ever before. The two accompanying CD-ROMs contain Red Hat Linux 6 and many of the applications described in the book. --Rob Frankland

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: German --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 800 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley (C); 2nd edition (August 18, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201596288
• ISBN-13: 978-0201596281
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 7 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,094,509 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars right to the point - no fat, October 8, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: LINUX: Installation, Configuration, Use (Paperback)

Very similiar in style to "Running Linux" by O'reilly (3rd edition) - In fact, these two books are complementary. I recommend buying both (I did). Many topics in one are not in the other. Together the make a very good and complete set.

They both share the same writing style - they cut right to the point, tell you exactly what you need to know and cover a lot of topics at a good level of expertise. If you know computers then these books are fine - you won't be wasting your time on general issues (like what a mouse does). If you want to configure SAMBA - Boom, done. If you want to set up lilo, boom, done. If you aren't a reasonable computer user, then you shouldn't be starting with linux.

If you know NT or a little linux, then these two books will cover almost everything just fine. The only thing they don't do is give specific references to each and every shell command or utility. You get a good overview of the important ones, and the man pages will be fine after that, but you could always buy a shell/programming reference.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent for getting started with Linux, February 29, 2000

By 

David Olszewski - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: LINUX, Second Edition: Installation, Configuration, and Use (Paperback)

This book was an invaluable resource as I installed and set up Linux on my 7 year old PC. Despite my older hardware, the book seemed to anticipate each difficulty and quirk I encountered and provided me with the answers I needed.

The book does a good job of providing succinct but relatively complete explanations of common installation and configuration tasks. I have some experience with Unix, although previously had none with Linux. What I greatly appreciated about this book is the degree of description provided. I've generally found many beginner books (such as the "For Dummies" series) tend to be overly wordy and simplistic. Slightly more advanced texts often end up being more complete but often are dry and short on providing a general overview of key ideas. I think this book does an excellent job of holding the middle ground. I was able to both sit down and read entire sections of the book for better understanding of key concepts or use it as a basic resource to answer quick questions that I had.

I highly recommend this book if you're looking for something to guide you through installation and configuration of Linux, especially if you already have some degree of familiarity with Unix or Linux.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very good., November 29, 1999

By 

Kieran Healy - See all my reviews

This review is from: LINUX, Second Edition: Installation, Configuration, and Use (Paperback)

I suppose I'm an "intermediate beginner" on Linux: I know a good deal about Windows and have used Unix systems at work. I bought this book to help me set up Caldera OpenLinux 2.3 on my home machine. (Caldera isn't explicitly covered by this book, but I haven't found this to be a problem yet.) The book is well written, internally cross-referneced in an intelligent way, and very informative. I went and got it because I had two problems --- one with Internet access, the other with mounting a hard drive. I browsed the books at the local B&N store for a solution. This was the only one that answered both questions right away, so I got it.