Customer Reviews

Sams Teach Yourself Red Hat Linux 9 in 24 Hours

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

 

 

  This book was published in 2003, but it still has a lot of relevant information for people using (or wanting to use) Red Hat Linux 9.  Red Hat has since come out with the Fedora Core project, but I still have Red Hat Linux 9 on my older and less powerful laptop - and it works just fine for me.  Although this book is aimed at the beginner, I found it both enjoyable and informative.  So even though I have been using Red Hat Linux for over three years, I found myself learning many new and useful concepts. 
 
The Good:  1) It covers basic tasks very well.  For example - the installation.  It gives you enough detail and information to allow you to make educated choices about what you want to install.  When I installed my first Linux distro several years ago, I found it very difficult and confusing.  This book would have been very useful for me!
2) The wide scope of this book covers several useful topics and applications.  Some of the topics include: installing Red Hat Linux 9, using the Linux console, working without a mouse, networking without graphics, working with files on the desktop, using OpenOffice.org, customizing your desktop, web browsing and email, managing processes, security and system administration.  If you read through and apply this book you will know quite a bit about using a Linux computer... maybe even more than you know about Windows!
3) It teaches both the command line and the GUI.  Using DOS on a Windows computer seems very quaint and retro, but using the command line on Linux is essential to harnessing its power - not to mention that it is often quicker and more convenient.  I was very glad to see that this book doesn't skimp on learning the console.  It also does a good and thorough job explaining how to use the desktop (GUI).  It is the best of both worlds.
 
The Bad:  1) Not enough detail in some areas.  Like a textbook, it only introduces several topics that could (and should) be explored in greater depth.  For example - using vi and emacs.  The book spends all of a few pages each on these very useful, important and big applications.  It is left up to you to find more information - without any help as to where to look.  A "for more information see..." section in each chapter would have been incredibly helpful.
2) Some editing problems.  Honestly, nearly every book I read has some editing problems - this one is no exception.  One very annoying problem is how the book makes several references to Red Hat Linux 8.  8??  This is a frequent occurrence, and made me wonder if anyone checked the script before it was submitted to press?  Luckily, it only says 8 - the content still refers to 9.  Also, there are several areas where the figures and pictures are on the wrong page, or in the wrong topic.  For example - the vi screen is shown in the emacs section - whoops!
3) Nothing about Linux history, GNU or Open Source software.  I found this to be the most frustrating and blatantly overlooked part of the book.  There is nothing.  It would have been nice and helpful if the book had included at least a brief overview of these concepts - as well as some information about Linux distros and how Red Hat relates to them. 
 
Overall:  If you are like me and you find Sam's line of "Teach yourself ... in 24 hours" books to be useful, then you will most likely enjoy and learn from this book.  Yes, it has some problems (what book doesn't?) but that isn't enough to detract from the overall usefulness of this book.  If you want to get into Red Hat Linux 9, or you are still using it - this book is a great reference to have handy.

One of the big problems getting started with Linux is actually getting your hands on the software. Sure you can spend half a lifetime downloading the stuff, but why bother? This book (like many others, to be sure) includes the 2-CD "Publisher's Edition" of Red Hat Linux v9. (The full version is 3 CD's and includes a lot of other add-on packages, but believe me, all the essential stuff is here, along with plenty of other goodies to keep you busy for quite a while!).

The book itself is broken down into 24 chapters, representing one hour of study for each chapter. You may be able to *read* it in an hour, but to really understand it will take many more hours of self-study. Ideally, you'll read the chapter, then go back and review it while you're at you machine.

Each chapter does a reasonably good job of presenting the material. The book starts with the installation process, most of which is automated, so you get up and running pretty quickly. It then moves through basic text-console operations (using help, configuring the network, the help system and basic scripting). By Chapter 10 we're into the GUI (basic desktop configuration, using some of the built-in productivity programs and system tools, etc). By Chapter 17, we're getting into the 2nd level stuff (advanced configuration, security, job scheduling), with the last few chapters dedicated to very specific functions (Installing Software, Network File Services, Web and FTP Servers, and Troubleshooting). Each chapter concludes with a concise summary, a short Q&A section, then a brief Quiz (hey SAMS! Why not move the quiz answers to the back of the book in the next edition?)

Hsiao's writing style is comfortable and easy to read. He keeps it simple, without too much jargon, and presents the material clearly. Occasional typos and even a few inaccurate pictures (Figure 2.10 is a shot of the "Network Configuration" screen, when it's supposed to be about Disk Partitioning!) might be frustrating for some, but the diligent reader should be able to work through them without getting lost. I especailly liked the later chapters where much of the same material is covered twice: once for GUI users and again for command-line jockies (the preferred method if you're installing a server as opposed to a desktop machine).

If you're already comfortable with command line operating systems (DOS, NetWare, etc), you'll probably have an easier time moving to Linux that those who grew up in the Windows world. But in either case, this book will do a good job of easing you gently into it, giving you enough know-how to get the basics done, and empowering you to explore deeper. If you're already familiar with Linux, this book probably won't tell you much you don't already know. But for the rest of us, its a very good intro into this exciting and powerful alternative to Windows.

At [a little money], one gets a fully operational OS and a manual on how to use it effectively. While there are siginificant differences between Red Hat 8 and 9 (differences which the book overlooks), the 24 hour teaching format does enough to help one get the essentials of this OS. I would definitely recommend getting this book and the accompanying CDs to any Linux newbie.

SAMS Publishing could have done a better job of replacing Red Hat 8.0 to Red Hat 9.0. They forgot to update the wording from the previous version .Is anybody reading and correcting at SAMS?
In addition, a few typos here and there. I bought this book because of the security chapter, which I thought was great. However, the author contradicts the official Red Hat Documentation on the Security Level Configuration utility. If a linux server is supposed to be a firewall, a minimum of 2 network interface are needed like any other firewall. The author miss the point on how to firewall correctly a red hat box.
However, overall I was impressed by the quality and some advanced knowledge there is on this book. Certainly not a 24 hour learning curve!!! Supposedly a second version is in the work.

I have a pretty extensive background in Windows, and have been meaning to dive into Linux, after a fairly negative experience with it back in about 1996. After doing some shopping, I chose this book and one other (Linux for Windows addicts.) It is very well-written and quite easy to follow, at least for me.
The book includes two cd-roms with the Red Hat Linux distribution on it, which is very useful, since you know the version you're working with is the same as what you're reading about. (The distribution includes Apache, Samba, Open Office, mySQL, and a load of other stuff.)
Having a text referring to the same version you've got on your desktop is not a huge deal, but there are minor differences. For instance, in some distributions, you switch between different consoles with the [alt] key and the function key (F1-F7) With Red Hat 9, it's [ctrl]-[alt]- F#.
The "24 hour" feature in the title is a sort of a gimmick, I guess; it would be more accurate to say "24 lessons." But the lessons do follow from one to the next in a sensible way, and build on one another well. For me, it worked well to read the chapter over, then sit down at the keyboard and work through the chapter. And, I was able to jump around and mess with stuff that interested me without a problem. For instance, I was quite interested in getting Samba up, so I interrupte my progress at hour 5, and jumped to hour 22.(If you do that, the beginning of the chapter points you to earlier chapters that have specific information you might need, which is a really thoughtful feature.)
One thing that might have been useful is a table of Linux commands and their analogous DOS commands. For instance, one handy DOS command I use without thinking is CLS (to clear the screen.) The Linux equivalent is CLEAR, but to find that out I had to ask a Linux guy I was working with. It's not a command you NEED to have, but it's handy.
A problem some Linux books (and many users) have is the self-righteous approach they tend to take: "you're really stupid to be using Windows and giving your money to that evil empire." Mac users have the same sort of attitude, and believe me guys, it may make you feel better, but it doesn't do anything for your cause. This book avoids that stance (most of the time.)

I was fortunate to have a spare PC to install Linux on, rather than making space on a partition on my Windows PC. But if I had needed to use the same PC, the approach I would have used would have been to purchase a new IDE drive and install it there. It's a cheap solution, completely safe, but not suggested anywhere in the book. (Having two PCs is nice because you can experiment with Apache and Samba more realistically.)

Overall, it's a very good book, and I'd look to this publisher for other books in the series.

I like that book and the author. It deserves 4-5 stars. The only problem is Linux discs with that book. My PC is dead after I tried to install Linux following the instructions from the book. Even though I installed it on a second dedicated harddrive after I started the Linux the very first time after "successfull" (no errors no nothing) instalation it gets frozen and my first harddrive with Windows got killed. And all I selected was Remove all Linux Partition on this system for the dedicated harddrive. So be aware.

... but that's about it.

There isn't really any 'new' information in this book - you could probably find more help by looking up whatever you need help with, on the internet. It has much more wealth of knowledge than this book does, and also in a better format since you just fnid whatever you need help with.

24 hours to learn RedHat? You could get it up and running, and immediately pick it up in a much shorter time, and I know this from my first experience with Redhat, and also from what others have told me in the past.

I'm a newbie to linux. Have no prior knowledge. But used windows for a long time. OUtside with the GUI in RH9. It looks the same but underneath is different. I printed out many PDF's on redhat but found that the book was a better way to go and really helped you from installing to set up networks to applications to everything in between. I highly recommend for newbies. But for little people with a bigger SCOPE of linux should buy the book i'm currently reading "Bible for RH9". More knowledge and shows the true colors of RH9