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Red Hat Linux 8 Bible
This book is a great example of that. It comes complete with three CDs containing Red Hat Linux (which, I assume, are the same as or very similar to the three that come with Red Hat's own shrink-wrapped product) and it therefore starts with installing Red Hat Linux. However, some thousand or so pages later, the same book is talking about some really quite advanced systems administration tasks. I'm really not sure that the same audience will need both of those ends of the spectrum.
Let's take a look at the contents in more detail:
Chapter 1 gives a useful review of Red Hat Linux. It pretty much assumes that the reader knows nothing about Linux and goes into some detail about what Linux is and where it comes from. It even takes time out at one point to explain what an operating system is. The book does score a few early points for knowing the difference between "hackers" and "crackers" and using the terms correctly. This chapter ends with a more detailed look at Red Hat Linux and some of the changes that were introduced with version 8.0. Chapter 2 covers the installation of Red Hat Linux. It does a good job of explaining this in a way that would be clear to someone with no previous knowledge of how to do this.
Chapter 3 is the start of the second major section of the book which introduces the day-to-day use of Red Hat Linux. In chapter 3 we look at logging into the system and get an introduction to using Unix from the command line. Chapter 4 goes into a similar level of detail on using the two dominant GUI environments -- Gnome and KDE. For a beginner, it may have made more sense to have these chapters the other way round as most Red Hat installations will boot straight into a GUI environment and one of Red Hat's changes for version 8.0 was to make it far harder to work out how to get a shell window open.
Chapter 5 starts to look at at Linux applications. It begins with a table of common Windows applications and their Linux counterparts. It then goes on to discuss finding, downloading and installing new applications where, to my mind, it would have been more sensible to first look at using some of the pre-installed applications. The chapter also includes details on using the Red Hat Packager Manager (rpm) and running Windows applications using WINE.
Chapters 6 to 9 each look at a separate application area and present a very brief overview of the applications available in that area. Chapter 6 is about producing documents, chapter 7 about games, chapter 8 about multimedia and chapter 9 about the Internet. In all of these chapters the overviews are necessarily very short and it's hard to see how anyone could get much useful work done after reading them. It would be better if the chapters contained references to further reading, but they don't even mention the man pages.
Chapter 10 starts the next section of the book, which is about system administration. It contains a useful overview of a number of the most common administrative tasks like mounting disk drives, monitoring system usage or setting the date and time. Chapter 11 is about administering users. Chapter 12 looks at automating system tasks. It includes an introduction to shell scripting and a useful description of the start-up and shutdown cycle. Chapter 13 covers backing up and restoring files. Chapter 14 is possibly the most useful chapter in the book for the complete Linux beginner as it contains an overview of security issues. This is particularly important with the increase in the number of people who leave their computers permanently attached to their broadband connections.
The forth and final section looks at networking, with chapters on setting up a LAN, a print server, a file server, a mail server and many other shared resources. This section also includes a chapter on getting your network connected to the internet. As with much of the rest of the book, space constraints prevent these chapters from going into great depth, and there are very few references to other material.
So what did I think overall? Well, as I said, it's too big. But on the other hand it's too small. It's too big in that it covers such a wide range of topics that very few people are likely to be interested in all of it. It's too small in that it just doesn't have the space to go into great depth about most of the topics is covers. I think that it would be far more useful if was three books: Red Hat 8 Linux Users Bible, Red Hat 8 Linux Admin Bible and Red Hat 8 Networking Bible. Each of them could be smaller than this volume, but still cover the material in more detail.
Having said that, the material all seems accurate. The few times I noticed something that I thought was wrong, on checking I found that I was mistaken. So if want you really want is a broad (but in places shallow) overview of Red Hat Linux then this could well be the book for you.
And it's also cheaper than the "official" Red Hat Linux products.
You can purchase Red Hat Linux 8 Bible from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
My thorax aches, but I must say it: Theres needs to be a "Learn Linux" for a generic distro for new users, instead of "Red Hat 8.0 Bible". Too imposing and specific.
I'm sure I'll enjoy 8.2 but until then 7.3 will have to do.
I mean really... bible? Is /. going fundie on us?
Is this truly the only Earth I can live on?
These are generally the most-rushed, least useful books published on any topic.
The web rendered these books obselete circa 1995.
Conformity is the jailer of freedom and enemy of growth. -JFK
... Guess what Davorg got for Christmas!
Running Linux?
Best Slashdot Co
It's the same people that buy the "teach yourself x in y units of time" books. Or the Wrox books. Or pretty much any non-O'Reilly book. Boggles the mind, doesn't it?
Teach yourself to be a dummy in 24 hours!
--
the strongest word is still the word "free"
Also, It's a book that you read time and time again for various reasons. So this books title might be fitting based on the reviewers opinion.
That being said, I don't think any book written within the past 50 years should have "bible" in the title.
That's a good point about a book with too much breadth. Have a beginner's book and advanced book (probably multiple of the latter).
It seems they're trying to make a book where you can "grow into". By the time you grow into some of the advanced concepts, you'll probably need a new book anyway..
"Truth is not decided by majority vote" consensus gentium -- Norman Geisler
This type of book is good if you don't read it. Instead of reading it cover to cover, it should be used as a reference. Read the sections you need when you need them. No one should read about NIS if they are using a single computer at home to try out linux.
1) It has apache 2.0 ... threads are great for large apps ... keeps server load down on RH 8.0 web servers
... which is good
:)
:)
2) Wine w/ OpenGL allows you to play WarCraft III on RH 8.0 work stations
3) Still has journal file system
4) Grub still sucks
Buy a discounted book on RH 7.x for the rest (not much else is worth reading on IMHO) and send me an email thanking me for saving you some $$$$, especially if ou live in Soviet Russia where $$$$ owns you
HallmarkOrnaments.Com
Earlier RedHats used to have nice README files in many places. Today, RH 8.0 usually has only a reference to the paper manual. This is really annoying. I hate paper and wish I could obtain the information directly on cd. To me it is obvious that RH is protecting their business (not for the benefit of the customer) by trying to sell the full set with the manual rather than having people to just copy their cd. This behavior is creating market for other unnecessary books, too.
-- Imperial units must die --
I want a book for someone that is a Mac/Windows user that shows how to setup a small office server. I use Mac OS X exclusively at home and want to turn an old (P2/450) Dell into a Linux server. I want it to run DNS, DHCP, File sharing (NFS?), email, MP3 streaming, and web. All of this I want to control from my Mac, so I would rather do it all from the command-line. Is there a book that can help me?
"The objective of securing the safety of Americans from crime and terror has been achieved." -- John Ashcroft
>> I've never been much of a fan of large computer books and, to be honest, this one hasn't done much to change my opinion.
Large books should be used as a reference tool and not a novel. I rarely read an *entire* 1000 page book... Skip the newbie chapters. Read the important ones and reference the odds and ends when necessary.
Karma: The shiznight, mostly because I am the Drizzle.
I had trouble with Red Hat. Red Hat is very easy to use, howerver when you want to tweak your system as newbe then such a book can come in handy to learn quickly some basics. Though I find it very shallow. There are hardly trouble shootings or anything. But then again I like the brief description. I gues my next GNU/linux book will be about a special theme. And not as general. So I advise it for a starter, maybe there are more books.
One note that I had problems with. Does Red Hat get any money for this book. Afterall there distrubution is allong the book. I hope they at least get 2$ from the publisher. If not, then it will be the last time I'll buy a book of them.
Whenever I jump into something completely new -- like Linux several years ago -- I tend to go out and buy several books on the subject. Contrary to two perennial /. comments about books of this nature, their readers are not idiots, nor do they find that the web offers a convenient, coherent and error-free substitute.
/. book reviews would be more useful if they'd concentrate on the book itself, rather than trying to prove their assertion that the book doesn't need to exist. Leave that for the self-inflated /. posters who castigate the "idiots" who might actually buy the book.
So-called "bible" volumes are intended to package enough information to allow a completely new user to move from installation and configuration to moderately sophisticated use. One of their most useful attributes is that they help the neophyte begin to understand all the capabilities available in Linux (and how to exploit them via the inevitable distribution-specific foibles).
On a second note,
-- Slashdot: When Public Access TV Says "No"
These large books often seem a little confused about their target audience. They often cover everything from very basic concepts to very complex ones, and I don't really believe that anyone really needs that breadth of coverage.
Well, not all of the book may be useful to you in your application of RH8. But, if they wrote this book specifically to your needs, then this book would not have broad appeal. Its all about the audience. You use a small portion of the book, other people use other portions. But in its entirety, it should appeal to a broad range of RH8 users.
Even if you don't use a lot of what is covered in the book, its still beneficial to read up on the more complex topics. At least be informed -- then less will be mysterious to you in the future should you need to apply more diverse skills.
Skiers and Riders -- http://www.snowjournal.com
Be kind to the"Tech yourself XXX in 24 Hours" books. They are not presented as authoritative or deep textbooks, just as a quick introduction for people new to a subject. I find that one of the best ways to learn about a topic is to read the related "24 Hours" book, and use the basic knowledge presented there as a foundation for deeper knowledge.
Another nice feature of the "24 Hours" books is the authors. Sams has brought in some really great authors over the last few years, and most of the new books are written by accepted experts, not just some guy with a certification.
Any book that has "complete reference", "BIBLE", or "Everything" in the title is just cliff notes.
You can be a neophyte to all, or a master of one. Pretty much goes for books on large subjects as well.
Neck_of_the_Woods
#/usr/local/surf/glassy/overhead
I still check these books out in my search for the Holy Grail of Linux books, a good, well written book that I can recommend to people who are familar with computers but, unfamiliar with Linux.
This book sadly, is not it. The reviewer is actually quite generous in his review. I found the book to be convoluted in its arrangement with repeated early referrence to commands that were not explained until after the tenth chapter. It did not flow well which made it all the more difficult to read its copious 1000 pages.
As the reviewer stated it tries to cover the full breadth of a subject from very basic to very advanced but in both cases it simply touches on each topic without any real depth. For instance, after adequately explaining the installation steps, it describes recompiling the kernel in less than two pages with no real explanation or what or why. Hardly something necessary for new users or people who may never have compiled a program before, and really no information on the ins and outs of the kernel for advanced users.
Basically, the book is adequate for a referrence if someone needs to get a new service up and running quickly. If you've never setup MySQL or Sendmail the book will walk you through installation and basic configuration, beyond that, you're on your own. Read the Man page and check the news groups, as the book says repeatedly.
I'd rate this book as a 5 out of 10.
"A book considered authoritative in its field."
That certainly would apply to many of the tech books with bible in the title.
And who said the forbidden fruit were apples?
Articulation, clarity, and elegance, mean little to publishers when physically large books sell faster than skinny ones.
Publishing companies push hard for writers to expand all points to the maximum number of pages. Even if the expansion made points incoherent. I couldn't do it. Was always a source of friction between me and various project managers.
...Even after reading this review.
I'm getting it for Christmas (My Mom ordered it for me from Amaz[ingly slow to deliver]on.com) and this review assures me that it's just what I want.
I've been using Red Hat exclusively since 7.1 and have learned plenty of tidbits here and there, but I still lack a full understanding of certain topics. It appears that those topics are the ones covered toward the back of this book.
The other thing that I'm excited about is that this book sounds like something my wife can read and get something out of. She is mildly technical and might like to know more about the OS she uses (Yes, she prefers Linux to Windows, but still has to reboot once a week to run some proprietary business software).
Hey, I think I'll even ask Chris to autograph it! He's a member of my LUG and a really nice guy. ;-P
I'm happy to support him with my Mom's money.
This user account is inactive account replaced by the PDA
this review of Wiley's new Red Hat Linux 8 Bible, writing "I've never been much of a fan of large computer books and, to be honest, this one hasn't done much to change my opinion. These large books often seem a little confused about their target audience.
My question is Why did You bother doing a review of it? Why did you even buy it? It must have appealed to you on some level? I myself enjoy a GOOD big book, as it makes me feel like I am getting my money's worth in the purchase, especially if it goes into the detail and expanse that your review later stated it did.I would have to also ask if there was any coverage of SAMBA and the "new" method it uses to set itself up? That alone to me would be worth the price of admission, especially because it applies to Red Hat 8.0. The "MAN" pages and all of the help online were useless when I was setting this up. I was able to get it to work, but in no way/shape/form as to how it was instructed by the outdated information. If this book covers those specific topics that directly apply to the Version of software I am running, as opposed to the older versions, then it is definitely well received regardless of the breadth of the book itself.
In fact, I will now have to look for this little gem on my next outing to Powells or Borders.....
You keep going until you die..."Me".
With Man and HowTo pages all over these books are not that necessary. While I have always felt HowTo and Man pages sometimes being too thorough and making me search for info these "bibles" seem to be too brief, they touch on a topic and move on with the reader wanting more, ironically it also points to websites for more info that are not created by the author of the book, but developers or people that have done a good job creating a How To page.
I will admit I used to own a Mac bible during the OS 7 days and it was fun just because it didnt teach you anything but listed easter eggs and tidbits of trivia on Apple. But when the internet hit with specialized sites it turned those books into a monitor stand.
First background: I have been using linux since the mid 90's, but would not call myself an expert. I have found the bibles to be a good "manual" akin to the good old days when every software package came with 3 ring bound 1000+ page manuals.
The "bible" does a good job introducing new features of RH distro, (like the alternates system) that are not "standard" or in wide use yet. They also have a nice charty of all the applications and where the config files live. While a lot of them are obvisous, it helps when setting up something for the first time, or trying to tracking down security settings etc in unfamiliar apps.
They have helped me immensely while getting started with current information. The one area where a book has an advantage over the Internet for me is the specific target. It is frustrating to wade through newsgroups, and websites, when there is so many variations and versions of software in use. I like the book as a starting point because it is a references how to complete a task w/ RH and you can use that to start, then if you do need to advance beyond what the book offers, you have a lot better background to refine your google search to save a lot of time.
While the review says its too big and simultaneously too small, I disagree. If you take the book more as a manual, it is a good size (considering the monstrocity that RH is growing into). It touches on virtually everything that RH includes in the distro, and explains what it does. This makes it a lot easier to tune and trim your RH system.
Overall, for $50 bucks, these books have saved me a lot of time, and are worth the price to me even if they only serve as a starting point for further investigation. The book is like any other tool, it is only as useful as the person using it makes it.
-MS2k
all of these linux newbie->vet->guru books are good for one thing only :
introducing you to linux.
the book I learned linux one isn't even in print anymore ( honestly, I can't even remember the name of it ), but it was cut from the same block ( judging by the review ), just a few generations before, as this one. I paid ten bucks for it at a used bookstore, it helped me crawl until I could walk, and then I moved on to O'Reilly's and to much broader aspects of computing + programming ( actually, linux convinced me that it was worthwhile and fun to go back to working on my CompSci degree ).
PC moderators can suck my White pierced, tattooed dick. If you think pride == hate, s/dick/Aryan meat mallet/g.
I disagree with the poster. I like a big book that introduces the topic in the first few chapters to someone who doesn't know anything about it. the rest of the chapters have good in depth information - because even newbies at a topic sometimes need to know nitty gritty. A good book will serve as a good reference, too.
If i want to learn something new, i don't want to buy 3 books (one for learning from scratch, one for advanced topics, and one for reference). That's why I really dig O'Reilly books - I find them to not only teach a topic well, but they serve as a great reference after that!
In the case of the Christian doctrine it is *The* Book. In it's original usage a generic meaning to apply to the *particular* book was probably intentional. Early Christians could talk about "the book" in public without an outsider knowing what they were specifically talking about.
You'll find the word used genercially even today in such words as bibliography and variations of the word are still the generic for book and library in many Latinate languages.
Let me repeat. Bible is not a religious word, any more than, say, genesis is.
You're right about the apple of course. There is no Biblical source for assuming this.
Me, I rather guess that the actual fruit was a banana.
KFG
And it's also cheaper than the "official" Red Hat Linux products.
If the book includes a CD-ROM, buying the book is a great way for the bandwidth-challenged to get the RH distro, as well as a great big steaming heap of documentation. It would be nice though if the CD also included a large collection of HOWTOs.
If you are planning on picking up a boxed linux
distribution anyway, you can do a lot worse than
picking up a big, gereral purpose linux reference
that includes the CDs. Chris Negus does a great
job with every incarnation of this book... as
good as can be expected with such a broad subject
matter. It is not a book to sit down and read
from cover to cover and expect to learn Linux,
but it does make a wonderful reference.
DISCLAIMER: I might be a little biased; I was a
contributing author for the initial version of
the Redhat Linux Bible.
Thad
The Bolachek Journals
"Two weeks ago I was a clueless n00b. Now I'm a *clueful* n00b -- I know just enough to get into trouble! Thanks O'Reilly!"
Or to paraphrase the old saying, "No one ever got downmodded for recommending an O'Reilly book by its 'street' name."
The biggest complaint about Linux books is usually from novice who are looking for information that just isn't in the book. For obvious reasons the writers of these books will make books that will sell.
All those of you who bitch about these books aren't going to buy them anyway so you are irrelevant.
As in everything, if you don't like it you don't buy it and you stop bitching. This book is likely or sell like hotcakes and increase the use of Linux.
As an experienced Linux user I still like those books as a reference. Memory is a faculty made to forget and it is nice to have a reference books that can browse thru to refresh your memory.
It's like a dictionnary, why would anyone put in the dictionnary just the words that you don`t know about?
i was a proud borrower of 'unix system administrator's bible' and own 'red hat linux bible'. the s.a.b. covered almost exclusively command line work and came with freebsd 2.something. over 1000 pages of unix command line tutorials, you can learn from such a thing.
the r.h.l.b. came with red hat 5.2 for 7 dollars used. it was very useful to study in preparation for my new job as an i.t. manager. i carried it around all summer in my car, and if i ended up resting under a tree at the race track or something i could study it and take notes.
i don't see how a book can have 'too much information' unless you're talking about professional wrestling or johnny knoxville or something...
these books make good long-time companions and are good for reference for a long time imho...
ok, links -g still doesn't understand my shift keys, i'll get to it someday...
lr
of buying alot of Linux books, especially when first learning the os, but they really are superfluous when all the resources are online and free. Fire up the printer and study what you need to at the time. I used to print out code when learning to program in C and I would fold up the sheets of paper and shove them in my back pocket, then study it at work - during break of course (cough).
SEO Copywriter. Just Say ON
stuck it in her *throat*?
KFG
Big books always have some portions you don't want, or that are too shallow. While this much is true, my experience is that there are always part of an OS that you don't know that well. That's where the mixture of advanced and beginners' topics comes in handy.
;-) ). I always find that when it comes to big books, you find some interesting parts, *not* covered in the generic howto's you've read, in the advanced sections, and that when you have to do some simple things like making a dial-up server while living in an cable-internet-area, it's just there. And that's great.
I am an RHCE, but I know virtually nothing about NIS, or KDE, or wu-ftpd. I could, however, cite the iptables manpage for you (don't ask...
Furthermore, books like this can always be given to friends thinking you'll answer the phone at odd hours, helping them install or configure this or that, so they also give me a good night's sleep.
Honestly, I like big books...
the verbs understand the difference between nouns and YOU!
-------
Support Indy Music. Buy
Someone can tell me if this book tell us how to add a item in the bizarre Gnome menu of RedHat 8 ?
Everyone and his sister are complening all the fuckup RedHat make with KDE in RH8, but, in KDE on RH8 you can add item in the Menu, not in Gnome ! I think that RH make a lot more fucking shit in Gnome that they made in KDE !
Ceci n'est pas une Signature !
And it is one of the best Linux books i have read. it is really through and in depth. Plus it came with RH 8.0 Cd's! That was the coolest part. How many windows books come with the OS loaded..
---
I've never found the "Bible" books to be good for general Admin of a system. I have however found the Bibles to be a excellent resource when used in conjuction with a class of some sort.
The world called out for a hero and all it got was me...
I am one of those users that has just enough information to be dangerous. I understand the user concept and some basic command line stuff. I can install/update/remove RPM's (why do they still use RPM's?). I can install from source, if there are no big issues (dependency hell reminds me of DLL hell from win 3.11 days...).
I would like to learn more, from one comprehensive source. My "teacher" (old roommate who moved to another state) just barks at me to 'look it up online' somewhere.
If I have the time, this could be the book for me, if I go back to using redhat.
I like how O'Reilly sometimes puts out sister books on a topic -- like "Learning X" and "Programming X".
Quote: They often cover everything from very basic concepts to very complex ones, and I don't really believe that anyone really needs that breadth of coverage. Or, at least, not all at the same time and from the same book.
Wrong.
I have a Slackware Unleashed book from '96 that still helps me to this day. The advanced stuff may not be for now but eventually you'll get what you need. Plus, it allows you to look at advanced things you might not otherwise know existed.
Let me let you into a little secret. Reviewers don't buy books. Publishers send us free copies.
Quid pro quo. Look at Harry Knowles and his pweasants.
If you have to explain to people in your own field who you are (and who the fuck are you, again?) you're not Big Time enough to get an endless stream of free shit unless you give out lots of attaboys and politely ignore the stinkers.
It's a 'Bible' type of book, so I'd say it can cover whatever breadth the author chooses..
What.. no M$ exploits to whine about today?
Bought this book for some insight into configuring Sendmail on RedHat 8.0, Sendmail being something I've never played with before. Was looking for a book that might identify any distro specific issues. While the book does go into some in-depth detail on the subject of configuration, I found it to be somewhat useless. After multiple warnings from the author to configure the sendmail.mc script used to generate the sendmail.cf file rather than the sendmail.cf file directly, the author then when into an in depth analysis of the sendmail.cf file and stated nothing I found helpful about configuring the sendmail.mc file. Being new at this, maybe the information provided was universal and applicable to both, however if it was, that distinction was not made clear enough for me to gain any knowledge from this book. The warnings were enough to keep me from messing with the cf file, and left me with no resource on how to configure the mc file.
This is a sad attempt at a troll, you morons. Look here.
I'm a newbie to Linux in general, and Red Hat specifically.
So far I have found that the book has got me up and running quickly, with good explanations and examples.
I'm coming from the windows arena, and it gives great comparisons for people like me (read: people Linux supporters seem to want to switch over).
I consider myself quite computer literate (in Windows/DOS) - and this sort of book is perfect. It starts out with the basics, but then also gets into the tougher stuff like configuring sendmail and squid.
As someone who is very interested in moving from Windows to Linux, I am finding the Bible to be a great resource.
Books like this are definitely needed, and no, the 'net is not a good substitute for such a book, at least not for this book's intended audience.
I've found that there are too many places trying to cash in on the Linux craze by having 'everything you need to know' books, usually by many unknown (and yet likely underpaid) authors. These huge wastes of good pulp never deliver on their promise.
A subject like Linux is just too big. Linux installation, Bash shell (ineteractive and scripts), GUIs, applications, server software -- all of these should ideally be in different books where they can be covered in good detail.
I found that after reading the first few chapters of A Guide to LaTeX, I was able to do nearly everything I wanted. The book now makes a convenient reference, even though I still haven't read most of it. I've even done a little TeX programming, with the book as reference. I think Lamport's book gets good reviews too, but I haven't seen it.
The ocean parts and the meteors come down
Laid out in amber, baby.
coming from the same root.
[Middle English, from Old French, from Late Latin biblia, from Greek, pl. of biblion, book diminutive of biblos, papyrus, book, from Bublos Byblos.]
KFG
I went to the The Linux Documentation Project, got to the HOW-TOs, and grabbed the tar.gz file of all the HOW-TO pages (multiple archive formats and document formats available, NO, Word isn't one of them). Then I grabbed the same in mini-how-to. Found other things to do while I waited for the files to download via dialup. It links to the collected man pages in html, I may grab it, there seem to be man pages missing from my RH-8.0 installation.
Tech Public Policy stuff
Someone mentioned that the book contains too much information... *HELLO* it is called the Red Hat Bible. When bible is in the title of a book, it usually means "Crapload of information".
While I cannot validate the quality or usefulness of the information, there certainly is a crapload of it.
If you want a simple book for beginners, get Linux for Dummies. If you want to learn about sendmail in detail, get the O'Reilly Sendmail book.
A linux "bible" type book usually touches on the available programs in linux, such as bind, sendmail, etc., but mainly concentrates on how to get around and do things in linux and the particular distro the bible is written for; the bibles usually don't attempt to re-document every program in detail.
IE, if you want to set up a secure internet server running bind, it is doubtful that any "bible" book is going to help much beyond getting the box itself up and running, explaining how to use the package manager, and turning some services turned on and off.
Running bind effectively and securely is outside of the scope of this book, as is effective security. But if you want to try creating an rpm, or compiling that hot new freeware on Red Hat using GCC 3.x, the bible might be a big help.
It is a reference, not a bible, and not thee Bible(R). Authors of this book, please do not confuse a Reference with a bible. A bible would include commandments and regulations. A bible is a code of law. "RedHat 8 Bible" is both improper use of the string "Bible" and incorrectly implied to actually being a reference to the Work(TM).
In a bible, I expect to find laws(code) such as, yet "RedHat 8 Bible" contains none:
Though shalt not steal software marked for per-user usage.
Though shalt enjoy the free beer and free speech software and keep them wholey and good.
Though shalt not use the X Windowing System in vain (implying KDE and Gnome are evil).
Though shalt honor thy initd process.
None of those were found in the said "RedHat 8 Bible" and it is too late to re-label it as "RedHat 8 Reference." As usual, open the book and you immediatly see notes as it being a "reference." oi
But I'm sure you already Gnu that.
I wasnt sure where to post this question and this tread seemed like a good place so here goes :D
I want to start using Linux, which distro should I start with? Is Red Hat 8.0 a good place to start?