29 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good Overview, Too Many Distributions, May 14, 2005
I really only have one complaint about this book. Other than that, it's excellect. The book is intended for the almost newbie. That is someone who knows how to turn the machine on, knows that a mouse is a plastic thing with buttons instead of a furry thing in the pantry, and so forth.
The book is divided into eight major subsections, or as the book says, 8 mini books. These are intended to be self standing so that if you want to set up an internet server you really only to read that particular book (but you may want to read a couple of others like the ones on administration and security).
Like a lot of Linux books, this one comes with a DVD disk, filled with lots of software (the DVD can hold a lot more data than a conventional CD). Or for $11 you can order a set of CD's that contain the Fedorea 3 Core distribution.
One point about the book I liked, he tells you how to make a partition to dual boot Windows and Linux. But he also comments that you might want to set up your experimental Linux system on a separate freestanding machine. This is clearly the way to go. I bought a computer at a thrift shop recently - 1 GHZ AMD Athlon - certainly not the hottest iron on the market, but it was only $75, including a 17" monitor. I've seen too many people screw up an installation and wipe out a hard drive to suggest that the newbie do a dual boot.
The problem I have with the book. He includes five flavors of Linux on the disk. In the first part of the book he goes a bit into the various distributions, but he never makes a solid recommendation. (There is a hint that this was the editors recommendation to get one book that would please the fans of any distribution.) If the newbie knows enough to say that he wants Debian or SUSE or Fedora, he probably doesn't need a For Dummies book. And the author does not say the advantages of the particular distributions, merely that they are here and here's how you install them.
By default the DVD loads Fedora, and that's fine. But in the installation section the author has to jump around a lot talking about the way the other distributions do things and it gets confusing. When you read the installation chapter, feel free to ignore what you aren't using.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
GREAT BOOK!!!, July 15, 2011
I purchased this book primarily as a review of Linux terminal commands as I have switched back to Linux for the first time in nearly eight years.
I love Linux it is my favorite OS. I currently use Ubuntu, but I have used two different distrobutions of Red Hat and two Different distrobutions of Mandrake (Back when it was Mandrake) and also Knoppix Live CD linux which I used on PC's where I could not install Linux.
This book contains a lot of basic information, but also some that is a little more advanced. It comes with some Linux distrobutions which are helpful if you wish to install Linux, but don't have the internet.
Linux is a great OS to learn C or C++ programming on. All the way back in 1973 Dennis Ritchie(Inventor of C) and Ken Thompson(Developer of UNIX in DEC PDP-7 assembly, and the inventor of the B language) together rewrote UNIX in C on (I believe) a DEC PDP 11 - Making UNIX portable to many other systems which had a C compiler available.
Linux as well as many other OSs and System software are also written primarilly in C.
"C all-in-one desk reference for Dummies" by Dan Gookin is good for learning C, but if you need more help with C consider "C for Dummies" by Dan Gookin.
I learned C with C all-inOne Desk Reference for Dummies and various reference books and man pages. There is a little errata mainly typos in the C all in One Desk Reference book but they are all well documented on the authors website and its easy to scribble them in the book.
NOTE TO PEOPLE NEW TO LINUX:
If you are new to Linux and want to keep Windows with no risk of loosing any files I recomend buying a one or two yearold computer - maybee used and then installing Linux as the only OS on that computer. Laptops that are a year or so old work good usually.
Then when you get used to Linux you can, if you wish, do a full install or set up a dual boot computer.
I used to juggle Windows 98 and Redhat on a 4GB hard drive, and to less success Windows 98 and Mandrake (Required to much RAM).
Linux is becoming easier to install than ever before. I remember having to configure my printer and soundcard from the terminal. Now most, if not all, of the devices are configured automatically.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is the introduction to Linux I was looking for, August 15, 2011
I was looking for an easy intro to Linux to see if I wanted to get deeper into the OS and this fit the bill. The included DVD was very helpful for getting a hands-on feel for the different distributions. Worth the price.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
