| OverviewThis book has all the information you need to understand,
install, and start using the Linux operating system. It
includes an installation tutorial, system maintenance tips,
document development and programming tools, and guidelines
for network, file, printer, and Web site administration. New
topics in the third edition include KDE, Samba, PPP, and
revised instructions for installation and configuration
(especially for the Red Hat, SuSE and Debian distributions). Editorial ReviewsAmazon.comEarlier editions of O'Reilly's Running Linux served as central guides on installing, configuring, and using the OS. The third edition of this guide covers the kernel through version 2.2.1 and will prove especially useful to those with high technical aptitudes and a well-tested willingness to experiment with their computing environments. The explanation of how to rebuild the kernel--a particularly daunting task for many--deserves special praise, as do the sections on configuring network links and servers. Users will find that the informative, prose-heavy style packs maximum information into this book's pages. For example, the purpose of a Linux element is described and then the reader is shown various ways of using it, complete with explicit statements of what you type and what you get in response. Back this book up with a good command reference (Linux in a Nutshell is solid), and you'll be well on your way to Linux mastery. --David Wall Topics covered: KDE and Gnome windowing systems; Samba, file, and system management; shells; windowing systems and networking; installation on Alpha, PowerPC, Motorola 680x0, and Sparc boxes. | Book DescriptionOnce a little-known productivity boost for personal computers, Linux is now becoming a central part of computing environments everywhere. This operating system now serves as corporate hubs, Web servers, academic research platforms, and program development systems. All along it's also managed to keep its original role as an enjoyable environment for personal computing, learning system administration and programming skills, and all-around hacking. This book, now in its third edition, has been widely recognized for years in the Linux community as the getting-started book people need. It goes into depth about configuration issues that often trip up users but are glossed over by other books. A complete, UNIX-compatible operating system developed by volunteers on the Internet, Linux is distributed freely in electronic form and at a low cost from many vendors. Developed first on the PC, it has been ported to many other architectures and can now support such heavy-duty features as multiprocessing, RAID, and clustering. Software packages on Linux include the Samba file server and Apache Web server; the X Window System (X11R6); TCP/IP networking (including PPP, SSH, and NFS support); popular software tools such as Emacs and TeX; a complete software development environment including C, C++, Java, Perl, Tcl/Tk, and Python; libraries, debuggers, multimedia support, scientific and database applications, and much more. Commercial applications that run on Linux range from end-user tools like word processors and spreadsheets to mission-critical software like the Oracle, Sybase, Informix, and IBM DB/2 database management systems. Running Linux has all the information you need to understand, install, and start using the Linux operating system. This includes a comprehensive installation tutorial, complete information on system maintenance, tools for document development and programming, and guidelines for network, file, printer, and Web site administration. New topics in the third edition include: - KDE, a desktop that brings the friendliness and ease-of-use of Windows or the Macintosh to Linux
- Samba, which turns Linux into an office hub that serves files and printers to Microsoft systems
- PPP, the most popular software for logging into remote systems over phone lines
- Revised instructions for installation and configuration, particularly covering the Red Hat, SuSE and Debian distributions
|
Other Readers Also Read | Top Sellers in This Category | Browse Similar Topics | | | Top Level Categories:Sub-Categories: | | | | |
Reader Reviews From Amazon (Ranked by 'Helpfulness') Average Customer Rating: based on 131 reviews. Not helpful, 2007-12-17 Reviewer rating: The back of the book says "widely recognized in the linux community as the ultimate getting started and problem-solving book", "will provide expert advice when you need it" and "one of the ultimate linux manuals". I haven't yet had a problem that this book helped me solve. I understand that it can't and isn't meant to cover everything. But I was annoyed that it's "in case of an emergency" section basically said that users should have a rescue cd with enough tools to recover -- but not much on how to recover. Now, whenever I break something, my recovery is 1) check Running Linux and find nothing helpful, then 2) throw the book into a corner and search the web for people with similar problems. | A truly wonderful intro to Linux all around., 2007-08-31 Reviewer rating: I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is new to Linux and attempting to figure their way around. It's not a great book for those who just want the how-do-I-do-this-without-having-to-understand-anything-under-the-covers approach. If you want that I would recommend going with a book like Spring Into Linux (Valade), which is much more of a get you up to speed as fast as possible without teaching you much.
I like so far how much detail this book gives you, though the reason I haven't given it 5 out of 5 is simply because I feel like it's lacking detail in some key areas (most notably so far for me would be its sparse offerings in the NFS section). However, the book itself does not claim to be exhaustive. In fact, it claims to be just the opposite and admits early on that its goal is only to give you enough information to be dangerous and then point you towards better maps if you so choose. That in itself is one of the reasons I like the book. They really do, for the most part, give you tremendous little intros to topics that help you understand not only how to do something, but also why you're doing it that way, why linux may have been designed in that way, etc. etc.
So, in short, great book for an in-depth intro to linux. However, if you're looking to spend your money for a book that treats any topic very in depth, I would recommend going with any of the other books in this series from O'Reilly, because this book was not designed for that. Good luck with Linux! | Excellent, 2007-07-16 Reviewer rating: I was in a urgent need of some fairly serious Linux bootcamp. This book worked, and this is how:
I hadn't had any significant Linux experience prior to buying this book. Sure, I knew a few basic UNIX commands, who doesn't?
After installing Ubuntu it became clear that I simply will have to spend too much time googling solutions for every problem. I went ahead and bought this book, read it cover to cover in about two days, and my fluentness in Linux administration/programming has increased dramatically. I still have to google some specifics (like Postfix/MySQL integration issues), but most of what I needed for my work, was in this fairly thin book.
Note that it is not focused on any particular distribution, and most of the tasks are explained with several major distros in mind. I kind of appreciated that also, since it only reassured my decision to go with a Debian-based Ubuntu.
| Failed to answer a simple question, 2007-01-15 Reviewer rating: I haven't used Unix/Linux for about ten years. I know there is a command that will tell me how full the disk drives are. I tried to find the answer in this book. I looked up every possibility I could think of in the index (no entries for disk, or drive by the way--you need to look for "hard drive"), and waded through the section of filesystems with no luck.
When I found elsewhere that I was looking for the DU command. I looked that up. It's in the book but as a digression in a section explaining redirection on the command line. The related DF command is not mentioned at all, at least in the index.
These are basic commands that should be well referenced.
| Not Extremely Helpful, 2007-01-13 Reviewer rating: I bought this book because I am switching from Windows to Linux on my home network. I thought it might be quicker to learn the ins and outs with the book vs. surfing from place-to-place on the web. My experience with the book is not that great--it never provides enough information on any subject to answer the question I have. I always have to resort to the internet for enough information to solve the problem of the day. It might be o-k for general Linux information, but it won't get you up and running as a system administrator on a home network. |
Some information above was provided using data from Amazon.com. View at Amazon > |
| |
|
|
