Customer Reviews

The No B.S. Guide to Linux: With CD-ROM

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
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I picked up the book when I was still flailing around with Red Hat 5.2 and its user's manual, having little idea of the basic concepts involved with Linux. It was a veritable lifesaver. Not only is it accessible to a vast majority of readers in its writing style, it provides all the basic concepts needed to become familiar with Linux in relatively short order. One great example is its introduction of the tar command...when I went to newsgroups for help, I always got the 'man tar' response, i.e., no response at all. The tar manpage is a good example of too much information, and all I wanted to do was unpack a file! The book gave a few examples of the most commonly-used options for tar, and good combinations for each. It got me up on my feet and running in less than 4 days. One of the disadvantages to the book is that it comes with a distribution called "LinuxPro." The default kernel they use is 1.3.10, I think...youch! The other packages are similarly older. However, the documentation gives a decent "tab-A-into-slot-B" coverage for compiling a new kernel; it even includes the sources for 2.0.27. That was my first kernel compile. Overall, this book is the best choice for a beginning Linux user, providing a thorough introduction without all the "fluff," exactly as advertised. I hope to be able to review his new "No-BS guide to Red Hat 6" soon as well.

This book is one of the best Linux books I have read. Everything is written for the beginner. I have been using Linux for 14 months and I wish I had this book when I started out. If there is anything bad about this book, it is that it comes with Linux Pro 4.1. I recomend you go to linuxmall.com or linux.org and buy a copy of Mandrake Linux 5.3 or Red Hat Linux 5.2. Overall, A GREAT FIRST LINUX BOOK!!!!!!

I have lots of books on Unix and Bob's guide to Linux is one of the few that I turn to frequently. Recommended for people considering to move to the best free Unix on the planet!

It's a great manual for installing Linux Pro 4.1a that comes with the book; however, I installed Linux Pro 5.4 which is updated on mounting the CD, etc. so the installation guide for version 5.4 was more useful. Beyond that, The No B.S. Guide has been very helpful as reference, it has very good introductions to shell programming, and extremely useful tidbits for making scripts executable, etc. for compilers that. I highly recommend this book as a resource book, and intro to Linux.

An extremely useful book with a practical slant which I find invaluable. Suitable for those coming to LINUX from a UNIX background and also for those coming from a DOS/WINDOWS background.

I wish I'd had this book when I first set up a LINUX system.

When they say "No B.S.", they really mean it. I bought this book and read it in two days. I can now do anything from install Linux, setup Linux, read my mail, navigate the system, compress files, and do just about anything else I may need to do. Although I recommend getting another book to go with it, this book really taught me the basics "without the fluff".

The book was very good. It told Linux in plain English no computer talk! I loved this book!