Customer Reviews

Red Hat Linux 7 Bible, Unlimited Edition

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I bought RedHat Linux 5.2 when it first came out a couple of years ago. All it had was a 96 page installation guide. Anyway, it wasn't a very good experience. I did something wrong and lost everything on my hard drive. *Gasp!* I've stayed away from Linux ever since then...

But now not anymore! I wanted to give Linux another try and I shopped around for a good basic guide to Red Hat Linux. From the fair and honest reviews that this book, Red Hat Linux Bible, received on this page, I thought that this would be the best book to help me install the operating system and be able to configure and work with it.

Installation was much easier this time around. I think it was due more to my previous experience and being super cautious, but Mr. Negus' explanations and advice on what to expect during installation and the various types of installations helped out a bit.

But what is the most helpful feature of Red Hat Linux Bible is that it's an extremely good reference. There are so many features in Linux and the amount of programs included as part of the Red Hat Linux distribution, that I'm quite amazed that the author was able to cover as much as he did! The layout of the book is quite easy on the eyes. He gave good descriptions to many of the programs and features of Linux, and provided some of the most useful commands for each program or feature to get the beginner started. Of course, if he went on into an indepth treatise on *each* and *every* program or feature, the book would no longer be a "bible", but more like an encyclopedia, so he points the reader to the corresponding man pages (Linux' manual or information system) or web sites (so far I haven't found any dead links!) for more information on a particular package and for downloading newer versions.

I have to admit, though, that sometimes it IS a bit hard to find the information that you're looking for. But if you persist in your research, you WILL find it. It IS there! For example, I had a hard time finding out how to change the resolution of my monitor. I find the index at the back of the book quite helpful for the most part, but didn't find that particular topic there. As it turns out, Xconfigurator is the program you need to execute to change your resolution anytime after installation, but I found this information hidden away in Appendix A, which is the section on the programs (RPM packages) that come on the CD.

But other than that, I think Red Hat Linux Bible is a wonderful reference! I'm no longer intimidated by the technicalities associated with Linux and this book freed me to try out many of the packages that came on the CD without fear of messing up my computer.

Right now, I'm downloading Red Hat Linux 6.2 free and can't wait to install it! The book is worth buying!

I loved this book. The step-by-step instructions are great. I used this book to set-up my first Linux server - an old 486dx100 machine. It runs the network in my house - 3 machines - all connected to a cable modem. My computer, my girlfriend's, my kid's. All thru the Red Hat/Apache server. Great book, and the software is included. Free! This is a no brainer. $80 for Red Hat direct OR . . . $40 for a good manual AND Red Hat - DUH! Buy it.

I have some experience with UNIX, largely from my early-1990's college discovery of the Internet, but I did not make the switch to Linux until a few months ago (primarily because a friend who works for Microsoft kept telling me that Windows "can't do that"). Upon following the instructions of a co-worker and installing Red Hat 6.2 on my PC, I found that my knowledge of Linux was more limited than I had thought - I could not, for example, figure out how to configure my sound card. That's when I bought the "bible."

This book will walk you through installation, configuration, and the use of various system utilities. It includes chapters that explain how to set up an Apache web server and install downloaded software like Xemacs. It is very thorough and the tone is geared toward folks like me who have some experience, but are not experts.

However, the information is not always presented in a logical fashion. Often, I find myself scrutinizing the index repeatedly while looking for information on a particular topic. Further, the author assumes that you are using Gnome or KDE, and there are few examples for true command-line geeks.

I still recommend this book to anybody who is making the switch from Windows to Red Hat (did I mention that the book *includes* Red Hat 6.1?). The introductory chapters will get you up and running, and by then, you'll have a good reference book at your disposal.

I have been administering Red Hat Linux servers for about 3-years. Up until version 6 we used Linux exclusively as a web server. Version 6 brought a lot more power to Linux and we started using it for mail and many other things. When I found out about version 7.0, I was excited and ran out to buy it and any book I could find. I bought the Red Hat Linux 7 Bible and couldn't have been more disappointed. In fact, it was confusing to say the least. It appears to me that the author rushed out to get a new book in print and failed to do his homework. The basics of this book are good, but it doesn't cover all of the major changes that happened in 7.0. For example, many of the file locations have been moved and this book does not always get it right, the services such as inetd have been updated to xinetd and this book referrers to the old way of doing things, and the book doesn't adequately cover security, samba, open SSH and many other important features. This book, and most of the others that I have found, do not adequately cover the changes in Red Hat Version 7.

Red Hat Linux 7 Bible is fine for beginners, or if you don't have any other Linux books in your library. However, if you are looking for a good how-to book, skip this one. FYI, the best book I have found on Linux so far is Red Hat Linux 6 Server by Mohammed J. Kabir. Of course, this book only covers version 6+, but it is far better and more comprehensive than the Red Hat Linux 7 Bible.

I am not a 20-year Unix veteran, I've just been working with Linux and Solaris for about 4 years. I was Webmaster for a site that was hacked via an FTP misconfiguration. And I just got a dedicated RH Linux server, and wanted to secure it. I have a Unix Bible, and a few O'Reilly books on Unix stuff, but all of them skimped on security in general and FTP in particular.

So when I found the RH Linux Bible, with a full chapter on FTP servers, with info on limiting anonymous access and guest access and so on, I was pleased. And the information worked, my FTP access is now very restricted. Also useful for security is the Understanding System Administration chapter, and the Computer Security Issues chapter -- which not only told me how to disable certain services in the inetd.conf file, but told me which ones in particular were probably not needed (I've always known how to comment out daemons in inetd.conf, but never knew which ones were safe to disable).

This is not primarily a security book, though, so it offers more information. The early chapters (4-9) are primarily about X-windows desktop stuff, such as installing a word processor, playing Doom, setting up a CD player app and a Web browser, and so on. I mostly skipped that stuff, although chapter 9 has lots of talk about rsh, rlogin, and rcp (which can be a security hazard, so I read about it).

Chapters 15 and 16, about home networking and the Internet, I thought were pretty good. It walked me through setting up a Linux box as a router, proxy, firewall, and talked about star topologies, all the stuff a beginner needs to know.

The only drawback I have to this book is the typos. For instance, on page 406 a chart says that typing "at now + 2 minutes" at a prompt will schedule the job to run "15 minutes from the current time." I don't know about you, but my thought was, hey, I didn't know the at command has a 15 minute minimum for scheduling jobs. Turns out it doesn't. It's a bad typo. Also, in the section on linuxconf, the book refers to it as "linixconf" a couple times. Any beginner typing "linixconf" will get no results and be confused. And I found other typos, and ended up marking them with a highlighter so I wouldn't get tripped up. I take one star off for that, leaving this book with a four-star rating.

This book is a great starter book for those learning Linux and those of us that know enough to be dangerous. The book is easy to understand. The best part is it continues to be written! With access to the book online, you will find the whole book with additional chapters and articles. This makes it easy to look up information when you are away from the book. I can leave the book at home, and look up info from work. There are several subjects that could be expanded upon or are not mentioned, but who knows, it may become available online.

I have been mucking about with linux on and off for about two years now. I started with RH5.2 dual booting with Win95 on my laptop but 5.2 wouldn't run the pcmcia modem on my laptop, so I upgraded to 6.something after a short while. My laptop/modem ran fine for well over a year and I played around familiarizing myself with some linux commands whenever I had the opportunity/inclination. But, the linux learning curve is very steep and the learning went slowly with the books I had bought. I figured that was just the nature of Linux. Recently, the Windows partition on my HD went belly up, so I had to repartition and reload. My 6.whatever CD wouldn't complete the install (damaged disk) and so I was faced with going back to 5.2 (not an option) or an upgrade to RH7.0. CompUSA was selling the boxed set with a thin installation guide and manual for 29.99. This 870 page book and the 3 accompanying CD's were also 29.99, so I ended up with this book as an, at first, little thought about bonus manual.

I looked at the install section of the book to see if anything had changed. There were a lot more packages available than in the previous releases, but the basic install was the same, and went without a hitch from the bootable CD accompanying the book.

Upon closer reading, I wished I had stumbled across this book two years ago. Just about everything that I had laboriously gleaned from 4 other Linux/Unix books, including "RH Linux Unleashed" was contained in the first 180 pages or so of this book. In my opinion, this is a great 'kickstart' type of book. It doesn't cover everything, or cover anything in deep detail, however, it sure puts you on the fast track to getting familiar with linux.

The information is presented in a logical, step by step manner, that takes one comfortably through the installation, through the explanation of the where and the why of the RH filesystem structure, and the use of practical commands. The book got me through the ppp configuration files and isp dialup, (which has changed from 6.whatever), and the sound card configuration, (which never did work under 6.whatever), and my printer setup. (which also never worked under 6.whatever)

The book gives practical instruction on navigating the Gnome and KDE desktops and what applications are available and the click by click instructions on where to find them and brief descriptions of what they will do for you. (The bulk of the book is definitely Xwindows oriented as opposed to command line text oriented. That may or may not be an issue to some folks)

It also covers setting up a LAN, Multimedia,(including digital cameras -- my Nikon now downloads under Linux), Servers, System Administration and Security issues.

So far, everything that I have tried to do as mentioned in the book has worked, but, admittedly, I haven't tried everything yet.

All in all, well organized, clearly written and explained, and a very pleasant find.

I found the book an excellent guide.

The CDs are provided without source code, which makes it impossible to compile hardware drivers (a LAN card in my case) without buying the "optional" source disk.

No mention is made anywhere on the cover that the kernel code is not included.

The conditions to obtain the "optional" source CD violate the GPL License even as printed on the page with the order form.

To obtain the "optional" CD, you must provide an original of the cash register receipt (Amozon has none) and the original form torn from the book.

Neither of these restrictions appear in the GPL License, which says (as I understand it) that source code MUST BE provided on request, subject only to a reasonable duplication fee.

I bought this book with great anticipation, however as I started the install it went to frustration. I know nothing of Linux when I started this, and it became a disapointment. The information in the book generaly does not line up with the Linux I installed from the CD that came with it. Also the comands that he talkes about wer not present when I tried them. allot of the setup comands you have to install manualy, I had to do allot of trial and error. His book is also badly organized I find, I found my self fliping to differant sections of the book for the same item. Some of the instructions for setup at the install are in the middle of the book. This may be a good book for when you know what you are doing, but I dont recomend it for the beginner.

If you're familiar with DOS and Windows, but not UNIX, this book will lead you throught the Linux installation process. It also has extensive beginner-level explanations of basic tools for Linux; experienced users will not find much new here, however. The CD that accompanies the book has Linux, GNOME, KDE, the GIMP, Gnumeric and a host of other useful items.