Debian GNU/Linux 3.1 Bible by Benjamin Mako Hill  (14)  $26.39

Learning Debian Gnu/Linux by Bill McCarty  (17)

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Written by several members of the Debian development team, Debian GNU/Linux 2.1 Unleashed does an excellent job of documenting the second most popular Linux distribution (according to most counts, Debian takes second place to Red Hat). The authors know that a large part of their audience (like the Linux user base as a whole) is coming to the operating system with only Microsoft Windows experience. They take plenty of time to explain Unix-isms (such as manually mounting file systems and the concept of interchangeable shells).

This book does a good job of interweaving task-oriented instruction with straight documentation of software, generally emphasizing command-line programs, scripting languages, and kernel options. The companion CD-ROM holds Debian GNU/Linux 2.1, so you're set to go straight out of the box.

As is almost always the case with the operating system books in the Unleashed series, the chapters on programming in big languages (like Java and C++) seem out of place. Though they serve to introduce you to the development tools, they don't teach you much about the languages and shouldn't waste space on the effort. Coverage of relatively simple programming tools (such as Python, Tcl/Tk, and Expect) is better--you can anticipate using this book to learn how to perform useful tasks in those languages. Overall, Debian GNU/Linux 2.1 Unleashed is a very strong power user's guide to a robust and popular distribution of Linux. --David Wall

Topics covered: Debian GNU/Linux 2.1 for novice users, particularly those coming to the operating system from Microsoft Windows. The authors explain installation and initial configuration, and touch on the X Window System before explaining key command-line tools, text editing, and configuration of a TCP/IP network (as well as Apache and other servers to run on it). Scripting languages receive solid coverage, as do administration and security procedures.

Book Description
Debian GNU/Linux 2.1 Unleashed shows you how to install, configure, and manage the latest version of Debian Linux. This book covers the most important topics to the Debian Linux intermediate/advanced user on installation and management of Debian systems. The book also provides wisdom and insights on how to control some of the more difficult to use aspects of Debian, like integrating Debian into Microsoft networks. Advanced topics show you how to set up an Internet server, set up a firewall, and install Linux on notebook computers. Debian GNU/Linux 2.1 Unleashed also has extensive coverage of working with open-source databases, and covers programming in several languages and shells in detail.

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews   5 of 5 people found the following review helpful: Good for beginners, August 8, 2001 By  Eric J. Wu (cambridge, ma USA) - See all my reviews    Don't let "2.1" influence you; the linux version really doesn't make a difference. This book covers a wide range of topics from scripting to C to Java to python to file sharing to internet services and the like. The strength of this book is the wide range of things it covers. Another strength is that is generally very easy reading and easy to follow for a beginner. You don't have to know what you are doing to learn a lot. The Samba chapter is topnotch with sections on troubleshooting and everything. The shell scripting chapter is nice too. The downside of this book is that nothing is really done in detail. For instance the chapter on shells lists some differences between C shells and bash shells, which was good. But it has nothing really about commands themselves. In some ways this book can't decide if it's for beginners or more advanced people. The chapters on internet services (httpd, nfs etc) are really simple. But the chapters on stuff like tcl python java are more for advanced people. I think the book works best for beginners. There is a lot of information clearly written, all in one book. It is a very good book, with limitations.  Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? (Report this)   21 of 23 people found the following review helpful: Typical Linux book, plus the word "Debian" on the cover, April 19, 2001 By  Matthew Whitworth (Louisville, KY USA) - See all my reviews    Debian GNU/Linux 2.1 Unleashed promised to be the book I was looking for, especially when it had the 2.2 version number in the working title back in the Fall of '99. Debian was undergoing some radical transformations (X, FHS, etc.) and I wanted to know what was going on. As the Debian Team continually pushed the release of 2.2 back, I assume the publisher (determined to include a CD-ROM) eventually decided to just make it "2.1" and call it a day. Fortunately, this book deals with Debian in such a marginal manner that the version number doesn't matter a hill of beans. This is the typical 1000+ page Linux book plus the word "Debian" on the cover. Chapter after chapter introduces UNIX, X, editors (WordPerfect?! hardly appropriate...), servers, a host of programming languages, and all of the bizarre UNIX commands we know and love, but Debian specific information about these tools is scattershot at best. This wouldn't be so bad if, after going over a standard UNIX topic, the authors took time to explain how and why Debian implements that topic the way it does. In most situations they don't. Most of this text could've been ripped straight from the "Using Slackware Linux" book I bought in 1995. A classic example is the woefully inadequate chapter on email. Debian installs Exim as its standard MTA. But "DG/L2.1U" contains 11 pages on sendmail and 8 pages on listar (listar?!). There is one mention of Exim in the book that basically says, Debian will install Exim as your default MTA. I guess it's up to you to figure out how to configure it. "DG/L2.1U" devotes about 95 of its 1000+ pages to Debian topics, including dpkg, make-kpkg, the Debian bug tracking system, installing Debian, and the Debian Free Software Guidelines. But that's it. Really. If you know very little about Linux or UNIX and you want to install Debian, you might want to buy this book. Or you might want to buy any other, it won't matter.  Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? (Report this)   14 of 16 people found the following review helpful: