If you're new to Linux, it can be a real challenge to find the right Linux book: they either cover the wrong distribution, or are too technical, or conversely, too superficial. The Linux Book offers the perfect balance: all the information you need to install, configure, maintain, and network a Linux system without having your intelligence insulted or wading through thousands of pages of unnecessary technical gibberish. Leading Linux expert David Elboth starts with a practical introduction to Linux concepts and installation, then helps you master every key concept and task associated with running Linux. You'll find coverage of Linux files, directories, and file systems; passwords and user access; running the X Window system; Linux processes; printing; tools; integrating DOS, Windows, and Macintosh systems; shell scripting; system commands, backup and restore, kernels, network communications, and more. The book also offers a chapter-length cost-benefit analysis for organizations considering Linux. For every beginning-to-intermediate-level Linux user or system administrator seeking a complete guide to Linux setup, installation, configuration, and administration.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From the Back Cover
- Practical guidance for every beginning- to intermediate-level Linux user and sysadmin
- User management, file systems, backup/restore, printing, and much more
- Linux networking and integration for Windows, Mac, and DOS systems
The complete, vendor-neutral guide to installing, configuring, and running Linux!
How do you find the right Linux book? They're either too technical, too superficial, or they cover the wrong distribution. Finally, there's a book that offers the perfect balance: The Linux Book. It'll never insult your intelligence, nor will it make you wade through 1,000 pages of technical gibberish! You'll find the information you really need to install, configure, and maintain any current version of Linux (and integrate it seamlessly with your existing computers. If you don't need it, it's not here. If you do need it, it is. It's that simple!
- Step-by-step installation and configuration
- Linux files, directories, and file systems
- System administration, from boot-up to backup
- Managing passwords and user access
- Running the X Window system
- Networking and integrating Windows, DOS, and Macintosh systems
- File and print sharing with Network File System (NFS) and Samba (smb)
- Shell scripting, system commands, kernel management, and much more
- Cost/benefit analysis connected to choosing Linux versus Windows
The Linux Book even presents a chapter-length cost-benefit analysis for any organization considering Linux. Whether you plan to run your desktop or your entire network with Linux, you won't find a more useful, practical guide!
About the Author
DAVID ELBOTH leads the Open Source Linux department at Ecsoft in Norway, and is Editor-in-Chief for the Norwegian Open Source Linux magazine. He has authored two previous books on Linux and three books on UNIX.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not what it could be,
By
This review is from: The Linux Book (Paperback)
Since buying this book i have discovered some truly excellent FREE books on linux available for download under the GNU Public License from the many linux resource sites. I would reccomend some of the online stuff in preference to this book.The author has gone a good part of the way towards writing a decent book. When he writes longer sections of prose the style is fairly readable and informative. The chapter subjects seem to be on areas that would help a new user like me get used to the OS. However, in the end the book falls down badly, and needs the eyes and input of a second author. (I imagine it would be very hard to write a good technical book without a second writer.) Here are the problems: 1. Bad structure within the chapters: This book departs from the golden rule of "Explain what you are going to say, say it, and then explain what you've said." Instead it feels very easy to get lost within each chapter. Often the topics either bleed into one another or are broken up illogically. The result is that you can never be sure when you have moved on to a new concept or when you are looking at another instance on the same theme. Although the end of chapter questionnaires are helpful, they cannot compensate for these other failings. 2. Text layout is unhelpful: It is sometimes hard to tell which comments go with which code snippets. Also, the tables did not work for me somehow. 3. Patchy treatment of user skill level: In some places the author painstakingly explains the bleeding obvious (like how to navigate the linux GUIs' equivalent of a "start" menu) yet in other places he will string together paragraphs full of acronyms and technical terms that seem important ... but are a mystery if you don't know them. Or, the author will explain which button to click on a GUI control panel (usually obvious) but does not seem to mention how the control panel was called up by the user! 4. Logic "forks": In some of his more brief explanations, the author uses gramatically ambiguous phrases. You end up with explanations that can have two, three or four completely different meanings, all of them perfectly sensible and gramatically valid but only one of them correct... The author is not the worst offender i have encountered by any means but nevertheless this is sloppy, unneccesary and entirely inappropirate for a book that is supposed to inform the reader. 5. Used a command term or technically meaningful term as an example string or user defined variable name, etc: Ok, so this is just one of my pet hates with techncial writers; when they use a meaningful word or term (like "CLICK HERE to scroll to my other Amazon book reviews") in a context where its meaning is not relevant but where the reader subconscoiously expects it to be relevant. It really interrups the flow of reading. e.g. there is a page in the book where he tells you how to find the word "data" by searching some text. You have to pay close attention when writers do things like this to you, otherwise you end up thinking that you are searching for Some Data not the word "data". I found some chapters useful and other readers may like this book more than i did. Eventually I just had to find another book on linux. In the end the best learning resources i have found as a linux beginner were online. (...) Until someone like Amazon starts selling printed copies of these online books under the GPL (which could still be cheaper than printing your own at home), the best bet is to download and print your own documentation until you know exactly what you want from a linux text book.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good Book,
This review is from: The Linux Book (Paperback)
An excellent book, but it is not precisely for user advanced but for those that are begun in Linux. Contain information on the installation, what is essential on configuration and maintenance of the operative system. Has information on the X ++Window. Wimple topics of integration with other platforms as Windows and Macintosh. A good price also if is considered that brings the CD of installation Red Hat 7.0 but something bad for these since serious dates good to have 7.1. But in end for the beginners I recommend this book.
2.0 out of 5 stars
No Longer Relevant,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Linux Book (Paperback)
This book looked great -- and maybe a few years ago it was a great resource. But Linux has moved with leaps and bounds during the years and many Linux releases are now beyond the tekkie status of earlier releases and the typical person interested in Linux is probably leaning toward one of the major distributions such as Ubuntu or Mandriva. I purchased the book with enthusiasm (recently) and donated it to a thrift book store within a week. It is not a bad book, but just not (in my opinion) useful in today's Linux world.
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