Customer Reviews

Teach Yourself Linux (Teach Yourself Series)

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

 

 

Like the author of this little gem, I also have decades of computer experience. I began by

teaching myself FORTRAN on an IBM 1620 in the mid-60's. Since then I have written

lots of 8-bit machine code, but most of my work has been with high-level languages. Now

in my dotage I have set a personal goal to teach myself Linux. So I started with Sams Teach

Yourself Linux in 24 Hours. It was ok to get the feel of Linux, but in the end it was too much of a formula cookbook.

About mid-way through the book I lost interest and let it go. Then I tried Marcel Gagne's Moving to

Linux. Although the bundled Koppix CD was fun to play around with, the book never

got much beyond the GUI desktop. I was looking for a reference that would give a better

overall view of how Linux works and what I could expect from it. I think Billing's book may be

the one. I found it on the new book shelf at the library and read it pretty much straight through.

As a Linux newbie I won't know for sure whether the book is really that good until I get

my own sea legs (and then I won't need it any more!) But for now I think it fit my needs perfectly.

I enjoyed reading it and plan to buy my own copy as soon as the library forces me to give back the one

I borrowed.

As the book cover indicates, the goal of the book is (basic) proficiency and understanding of Linux. This book is a survey of the land of Linux, an easy read with some hands-on practice that can be done in 3-4 days. The reader should try all of the commands given in the book. Lessons cover the filesystem, how the kernel works and communicates with software and hardware, command line scripting, networking, maintenance, and an outline of programming and careers. The author, Robert Billing, does a very commendable job of explaining deeply technical concepts and jargon into easy to understand, plain English. That's no easy feat.

This book is based on Red Hat Linux, so I strongly recommend downloading the latest version of Red Hat's Fedora from fedoraproject.org/en/get-fedora. A live CD version of Fedora is also available, so you don't have to install to a hard drive. Since other distribuitions configure files differently and include different applications and utilities, it's best to practice on the distribution the author uses in the book (in this case, Red Hat).

Some older utilities and technologies/hardware covered in the book are outdated, so skim over these sections if you can't find them on your installation (use find or locate [filename]). However, you should download and install emacs, since it's a popular, powerful and useful editor.

I have lent this book to friends getting started with Linux, and it provides a good start and way forward to other books. If my friend isn't very technical, I'll direct them to something like "Linux All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies". If my friend is more comfortable with the CLI, then I direct them to O'Reilly books, such as "Running Linux", or the more recent "Ubuntu Linux Toolbox".

This book could definitely use a good deal of updating--again, it's about 5 years old--but provides an excellent overview of the central components of Linux. I hope to see more books from this author.

Just starting to learn Linux, I needed a book that could help me understand better this operating system. I think that Billing's book tried to use the simplest possible methods to help beginners appreciate Linux.

Ok.. you downloaded Linux and got it up and running. Now what??? A new and strange desktop, with no owner manuals, can leave most of us dumbfounded. My advice, is to buy this book and dive into the thing. Linux is more stable than Windows and less likely to ever be infected with malware, so its worth looking into. This book certainly helped me become more familiar with the Linux operating system.

I have recently begun a transition into Linux from Windows and found this book to be probably the best so far at explaining at an "intelligent beginner" level what is going on behind the scenes and how Linux actually works and is built from the ground up, rather than a "type this in and it will work" cookbook. My only minor quibble is that a lot has changed since 2004 and it could do with an update for 2008/09 and cover Ubuntu too, as the book is slightly Red-Hat centric. An update, if done to the same standards as the rest of the book and if it included a basic command glossary for easy reference to the commands covered in the text, would definitely merit 5 stars.

I have enjoyed this little book, concise and to the point. Just about right to read or study.