Linux A-Z [Paperback]

Phil Cornes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1997

Transform your PC into a state-of-the-art workstation with this comprehensive guide to Linux."
"The A-Z of Linux" shows you how to supercharge your PC with a workstation-class operating system--all at little or no cost. You'll learn how to make the most of Linux, the powerful, freely-available UNIX variant that's skyrocketing in popularity."
This end-to-end guide is the only book you need if . . ."

You want the power of an industrial-strength operating system without the expense."
You've wanted to learn UNIX, but never had the opportunity."
You're a computer science student--at any level."
You're a software developer who wants a personal UNIX platform."

"The A-Z of Linux" begins with the basics: introducing Linux to users without any UNIX experience. You'll learn where to get Linux at little or no cost. Next, you'll walk through all the fundamentals of installing Linux, configuring it to work with your system and peripherals, and administering your Linux system."
If you're already running Linux, think of this book as the friendly, complete manual you've always wanted. Three detailed case studies show you how to extend and customize your system by writing C programs that utilize the powerful Linux call interface. There's detailed coverage of Linux device drivers, including a complete sample. You'll even be introduced to Linux internals and other advanced topics."
From beginning to end, "The A-Z of Linux" delivers crystal-clear, worked examples that make Linux easy to learn, use, and program with. It's all you need to leverage all the power hidden in your PC."

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Transform your PC into a state-of-the-art workstation with this comprehensive guide to Linux.
The A-Z of Linux shows you how to supercharge your PC with a workstation-class operating system—all at little or no cost. You'll learn how to make the most of Linux, the powerful, freely-available UNIX variant that's skyrocketing in popularity.
This end-to-end guide is the only book you need if . . .


*You want the power of an industrial-strength operating system without the expense.

*You've wanted to learn UNIX, but never had the opportunity.

*You're a computer science student—at any level.

*You're a software developer who wants a personal UNIX platform.

The A-Z of Linux begins with the basics: introducing Linux to users without any UNIX experience. You'll learn where to get Linux at little or no cost. Next, you'll walk through all the fundamentals of installing Linux, configuring it to work with your system and peripherals, and administering your Linux system.
If you're already running Linux, think of this book as the friendly, complete manual you've always wanted. Three detailed case studies show you how to extend and customize your system by writing C programs that utilize the powerful Linux call interface. There's detailed coverage of Linux device drivers, including a complete sample. You'll even be introduced to Linux internals and other advanced topics.
From beginning to end, The A-Z of Linux delivers crystal-clear, worked examples that make Linux easy to learn, use, and program with. It's all you need to leverage all the power hidden in your PC.

About the Author

PHILIP CORNES is a Professor at Staffordshire University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 531 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall Ptr (January 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0137428677
• ISBN-13: 978-0137428670
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.8 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,331,361 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars useful tips and interesting examples, but glaring omissions, January 6, 1999

By 

Bill McConnaughey ([e-mail]) (St. Louis, MO, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Linux A-Z (Paperback)

Cornes begins with very basic material on commands and system administration. There are useful hints here; as a beginner, I got a lot of help from it. The sections on piping and IPC helped me in understanding how the whole system works, and in using it more effectively. There are interesting programming examples, but no discussion of how to compile and debug a program; in fact, the words "compile", "gcc" and "gdb" are not in the index. I was puzzled by the section on kernel modules and device drivers because it gives instructions on inserting your code into the kernel sources and building a new kernel, which I don't think is the best approach for beginners or for trying out little programming exercises. If I had not previously read Rubini's book on this topic, this would have given me the impression that device driver development under Linux is much more difficult than it needs to be, and that running a program with my own modules on another machine would require first rebuilding that machine's kernel.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good Introduction to Linux for the Computer Literate, July 10, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Linux A-Z (Paperback)

I read the first 2/3 of this book on an airplane to learn more about Linux. If you've never worked with Linux (or unix in general) the introduction may be too terse, but was just right for me. It provided me with a good refresher of standard Unix command line commands with examples of how to use them as well as covering topics I never bothered to learn (like using VI). There are sections on installation, using peripherals, system administration, and XWindows, but they seemed a bit brief to me and are certainly not comprehensive step-by-step instructions to all the intricacies of the topics. More like overviews with specific examples to the most common tasks you might encounter (e.g. setting up a user account manually in the sys admin section). The installation section seemed a bit out of date with its references to floppies and 504mb HDs, but served its purposes. About 1/3 of the book is about programming in C in the Linux environment which I admit I didn't read.

The preface to the book says something about its intended purpose which is geared as a kind of university CS introductory textbook to Linux. If you take it as that kind of book it's pretty good, but I wouldn't recommend it to computer novices or someone with no prior experience with a unix environment.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good for a Linux beginner, February 28, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Linux A-Z (Paperback)

I would recommend this book for Linux or Unix beginner because they can learn some basic commands and system programming like signal handling, sockets and etc. One drawback is you must know C language in order to read some chapters of this book.