Learning Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Fedora [Paperback]

Bill McCarty (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 059600589X | ISBN-13: 978-0596005894 | Publication Date: April 1, 2004 | Edition: 4th

The GNU/Linux® success story is well known. Firmly established as a high-performance operating system, its worldwide installations are increasing at phenomenal rates. Much of this success has been on the server side, but more and more PC users are turning to Linux on the desktop, as well.

For those grounded in Microsoft Windows® or Apple Macintosh® graphical interfaces, the first look at a powerful Unix-style operating system can be daunting. This book provides a clear, no-nonsense introduction to the popular Red Hat® distribution of Linux. It takes you through installation and shows you the key parts of the system, always with an eye toward what can go wrong and what you need to know to get over the humps.

Linux is known as a secure environment and a good platform to run a web server. These topics are among the many covered in this book. But did you know you can also burn CDs, sync a PalmPilot™, and edit slideshow presentations with powerful tools on Linux? Those topics are covered here, too.

Red Hat currently provides two distributions, both documented in this book. The first is their commercial, subscription-based product, called Red Hat Enterprise Linux and also available through retail channels as Red Hat Professional Workstation. The second is the freely distributed Fedora distribution. The Publisher's Edition of Fedora is included in this book on two disks.

New in this edition are installation instructions for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Fedora, package updating for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Fedora, information on the GRUB bootloader, and the CUPS printer system.

Learning Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Fedora tells you how to:

• Prepare your system for installing Linux
• Install and configure Linux and the two popular desktop environments, GNOME and KDE.
• Run the most popular productivity tools on Linux: mailers, web browsers, OpenOffice, and Evolution.
• Obtain and set up software through the Red Hat Package Manager (RPM)
• Set up a Linux system for networking, either on your local area network (LAN), or via a dialup connection to the Internet.
• Use the system-administration tools included with Red Hat, GNOME, and KDE, including such valuable utilities as Samba file-sharing and the Apache web server.
• Understand and write shell scripts so you can peek under the hood and extend the power of Linux.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Bill McCarty is associate professor of management information systems in the School of Business and Management of Azusa Pacific University, Azusa, California, and was previously associate professor of computer science, in which capacity he taught for ten years in Azusa Pacific's Master of Applied Computer Science program. Bill holds a Ph.D. in the management of information systems from the Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, California, and worked for 15 years as a software developer and manager.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 4th edition (April 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 059600589X
• ISBN-13: 978-0596005894
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #611,485 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #27 in Books > Computers & Technology > Operating Systems > Unix > Shell

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

75 of 76 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Heavy Handed But Better Than Redhdat Documentation, November 27, 1999

By 

Stephen Szyszkiewicz (Delran, NJ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Learning Red Hat LINUX: Guide to Red Hat LINUX for New Users (Paperback)

Unless you need Redhat tech support, buying this book to get you started with Linux isn't a bad idea. The author has titled the book "Learning" so if you are not experienced in Unix/Linux then this book will get you started. The fact that the author goes through the trouble of explaining a Redhat install from beginning to end was very useful. Unless you have some odd hardware (i.e. a 3d video card) you should have X runnng as well.

You will immediately want to know more however, and this book will leave you wanting more. That is you will have to purchase another book in the near future. The Unleashed (i.e. Redhat 6.0 Unleashed etc...) are typically pretty good, and they also include a Redhat distribution.

There are some mistakes/misprints however. Using the instructions as given you cannot get Quake2 running for example. Also there is nothing in the book about how to keep your installation up to date...a must for Linux users as the OS is constantly changing.

The one thing though that really irked me was the authors insistence that Gnome was "the most popular desktop environment in the US". Even after updating Gnome on my Linux box with the most recent stable releaes I find Gnome to be unstable and somewhat puzzling. The author spends alot of time talkng about the basics of getting around Gnome, but ignores the other popular desktop for Linux....KDE.Alot of this has to do with an almost religious war within the Linux community regarding what software qualifies as "free software" and what doesn't. The author is obviously a free software zealot and therefore leans towards Gnome. You as a user don't have to worry about this war ...you only have to be concerned about how to use the software on your pc. I think the book is lacking severely becuase it didn't cover KDE as it should have and worse yet, took a slap at KDE. Gnome is unstable. KDE is not. KDE is "free" as far as the user is concerned. In defense of the author though, Gnome is the preferred desktop at Redhat and the book is entitled Learning Redhat Linux, and thats is the desktop you get unless you take other steps on your own.

I am happy to report that I am typing this from KDE using Netscape as my browser. A testament to the fact that I got Linux working, and I used this book to get me started.

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Introduction to Linux, November 1, 1999

By 

Tico J. Punk (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Learning Red Hat LINUX: Guide to Red Hat LINUX for New Users (Paperback)

My only mistake about buying this book is it wasn't my first one. I really think it does an awesome job of taking you thru most of the questions you'd have as a new user of Red Hat Linux, and explains things fully enough for now. When you're finished with this, getting O'Reilly's Running Linux is definitely a good follow-up purchase. It seems every question i went crazy trying to figure out with all of my advanced books, was right here in Learning Red Hat Linux. If you're new to the game, get this book.

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Buy this book if dont even know what "Linux" is!, December 27, 1999

By 

Faisal Sultan "faisal" (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Learning Red Hat LINUX: Guide to Red Hat LINUX for New Users (Paperback)

Its great for a user that is new to the wonderful world of open-source operating systems. If until now your experience with operating eyetems has been limited to Windows, then get this book!

The author does a great job of explaining the often-tedious process of installation in plain easy-to-understand english!

This book will get you started and have you running Linux in your machine in no time. Although if you want details and want to go into more depth, a book like Running Linux by the same publication will come in handy.