Customer Reviews

Red Hat Linux 7.2 Unleashed

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

 

 

When I bought this book, I was using a previous edition (Red Hat Linux 7 Unleashed) to help me configure Red Hat Linux 7.2, which I had downloaded and installed. I bought it because I realized that there were some important changes in version 7.2 which were not addressed in the older book. I have been quite disappointed with the new book, compared to previous editions. Overall, the book tends to skimp over important subjects. For example, the treatment of networking issues and concepts (subnets, masks, etc) is desultory compared to previous editions. The treatment of DNS is only marginally better. The book is next to useless in configuring sendmail; I had to resort to the older text to get any valuable information. The book is similarly lacking in other topics. Indeed, it seems that the authors basically updated their previous edition and then rushed to press. In the process, they left out a great deal of useful information (going by previous editions) and also left in information that is irrelevant to version 7.2. To give but one example, the book talks about the linuxconf tool, but fails to mention that this is deprecated in version 7.2. All told, the impression one gets is that the authors didn't really study version 7.2. The result is a partial (and not very well done) job. The length of the book might actually be an indicator of its overall shortcoming: it is fully 253 pages shorter than the previous version I'm referring to. I feel somewhat short-changed.

I very seldom make reviews, and God knows that I've read hundreds of computer books, but this book takes the cake. As a newcomer to the Linux environment, I bought this book to help me get Red Hat Linux installed, configured, and run MySQL or ProsgreSQL for a database project. Well, if you don't have friends that know Linux well enough to interpretate the book's acronym-loaded jargon, and to fill the 'between the lines' that the book omits everywhere, this book is useless. It reads like if you already knew everything, why would I buy a book if I already knew it all? It talks about too many things, but none are useable in real world. I needed to reinstall Red Hat 6 times, for it to come on. The answers did not come from the book, they came from the supplied CDs installation help. Once in the KDE environment, I could not get to MySQL nor ProsgreSQL no matter what I tried from the book's individual programs (MySQL, postgreSQL) initializing process. The only reason that I give it one star, is for the Red Hat Linux CDs included, otherwise I'd say that the package is totally useless. If you are new to Linux or Unix, even if you are very knowledgeable in other OS, this book leaves you at ground zero and makes you feel as if Linux was unpenetrable.

This book skims over topics. Nothing I've needed so far has been discussed in any depth. Not a single question I've had has been answered by this book - you're better off using Red Hat's online help than purchasing this monster. This book's helpful hints consist of telling you that yes, you have 2 options in this part of the install. NO explanation, no elaboration. Time to buy another Linux 7.2 book.

This book is fat, but oh so thin on good information. The first tip off about its inadequacies came in the section on disk partioning. It mentions that 6 partitions are recommended, but gives no indication about what the sizes should be. Gee, thanks for the help. ;-) Now I have to reinstall Linux to get the sizes right. The author spreads himself too thin.

In my opinion this book is nearly worthless. I am a computer savy hobbiest learning how to create a personal web site. The books I used for PHP and MySQL are generally geared towards using those programs under Linux. I picked up this book to try to learn and install Linux. It has been a complete waste of money. The book covers many topics but NONE of them in depth. It repeatedly tells you to look at the man pages and other online sources for info, offering no explanations. It also tells you to ask your 'system administrator' to install or configure components. Hello! That's me. I've found much more helpful info online. Don't waste your money on this one!

As a newbie, I find this book extremely useful (especially for helping me do well in my Unix class). The author makes this somewhat scary topic much easier to digest, without going into unnecessary detail. I learned everything I need to know.

i have no idea what other negative reviews are talking about (perhaps naive Windows users?), but this book got me going on a couple tough problems and has been a good reference...

I like it very much but i would not give it 5 start because the book dont talk about the ftp server gui and other thing like telnet, or the book talk very little about it.