Customer Reviews

Red Hat Linux 7.1 Secrets

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Unless you are completely beginner in Linux world, this book is the best book for configuring and administering Linux RedHat 7.1 This book makes upgrade from previous version of RedHat Linux simple and easy. It provides straight to the point explanation and procedures of real-life how-tos.

Many pages but for the most part, this book seems devoted to getting you up and running. It then spends quite some time going over the various programs that come with Red Hat. However, lets say you want to install a program that is not an RPM file, and make it available to all users. A scant 5.3 pages of this 1000 page tome are available to assist you with very few examples and not enough information. With or without this book, you will end up going through help files online to figure it out. Unless you want a ... doorstop, and remember, phonebooks are free, skip this one.

Many errors in book. Reviews applications and does not give good examples for setting up a server. Most of the information presented is self explained if you just use the app. yourself.
Most of the errors were related to file locations for 6.2. Before you cut and paste, you need to check what you paste. Author needs to spend more time with 7.1 if he is going to write a book about 7.1.

I bought this book to help me install Linux 7.1. I found the installation manual that comes with Linux to be "minimum". The book covers more than what you need to know to install Linux. It goes into detail of how Linux and its components work. I found it to be great for trouble-shooting or trying to resolve compatibility problems, or just to narrow down what your computer system's problem may be in terms of hardware or software. The book covers networking topics including internet setup, web, mail, news, and FTP server, DNS and NIS, Samba and NFS. Redhat Linux basics, GNU utilities, GUI desktop, Linux applications and utilities are covered as well. It explains how to develop application programs in Linux using C, C++, shell, Perl, and Tcl/Tk. The book and the appendix do a good job of explaning and documenting the Linux commands. There are 3 CDs included which gives you the full 2-CD install for Redhat Linux 7.1 plus misc. games, etc. This in itself is almost worth the cost of the book. There are 30 chapters in the book that will provide you with the details you need to be successful.

I bought this book to see if I could use it to help me set up some of the newer services in the version is says it was writtem for. Red Hat 7.1 Don't buy it if this is your need. In fact, only buy this book for a detailed review of the install. Other then this, there is no help what-so-ever. Any of the information discussed in the book will be known already by a seasoned Unix of Linux Admin, and any help for a Linux newbie is WAY TO TECHNICAL FOR ANY OF THEM TO UNDERSTAND!!! A great example is Firewall help. Red Het 7.1 transitions to IPTables from IPchains, yet you can only find information about ipchains in the index. When was this book written? Around Red Hat 6? There is a new GUI to assist with IPTables. It isn't mentioned, pictured, nor is it reviewed in any way. Many other new 7.1 tools were also just ignored, explained in their previos OS versions, or written as if you, the reader, wrote the Linux OS yourself!

The Good: This book lives up to its title, as it is very insightfull with the commands and functionality of Linux, that may be neglected to be mentioned in another book. What secrets does is not only give the user a book to use as a reference, but within that reference, one can find hints tips and 'secrets' that the user would have PERHAPS stumbled accross while learning on their own the long hard way. So summing it up, for the intermediate to advanced user this book can be much helpfull. THis book as the author mentions clearly is not a practical guide for begginers. However, i am a begginer, and i followed along quite well. There is tons of information in the book that can help the beginner to advanced user. Personally at times i just couldnt put the book down because of all the cool stuff in it. Further more, where there is more information for those who would need it, there are references to online websites for details on any information. Which is always a good thing.

The book is quite thorough... but, I'm not sure if it should be considered intermediate to advanced. This is all relative, but when 25% of the book involves showing you how to INSTALL Linux, it is obviously a good choice for the beginner. (You should be fairly adept and competant as a beginner, not a raw beginner who's barely touched a computer.)

I think this book could deserve 5 stars, but I'm loathe to give a rating that high, since it was still impossible to get FULL functionality out of my laptop with USB ZIP drive. That may not be the book's fault... laptops are such wickedly proprietary beasts. There are other little nitpicky things, too, but that's personal taste. I have another Linux book that's primarily SHELL commands, which compliments this quite well.

It's worth $..., especially if you have no other Linux books. It touches on a lot of advanced topics and will fuel your thirst for more Red Hat knowledge.