Two Books On Red Hat 9

Read on below for two readers' review of books aimed at Red Hat 9 users: acemics writes with a quick review of Red Hat Linux 9 Professional Secrets, and reader skogs contributes a longer look at Sam's Publishing's Red Hat Linux 9: Unleashed. Red Hat Linux 9 Professional Secrets, Red Hat Linux 9 Unleased author See each. pages See each. publisher See each. rating See each. reviewer See each. ISBN See each. summary Guides for both experienced users and newbies to Red Hat 9

skogs' review of Red Hat Linux 9 Unleashed Red Hat Linux 9 Unleashed author Bill Ball and Hoyt Duff pages 1002 publisher Sams Publishing rating 9 reviewer Nathan Jay Skoglund ISBN 0672325888 summary A guide for intermediate to advanced users of Red Hat 9.

To begin my humble review, I think I need to explain my point of view a bit. I am very interested in Linux and the open source movement, hence the purchase of a 1000+ page Linux book. Nothing new here, just a book review, if you want some technical writing, buy the book.

The problem is that I have tried many distros (Slackware, RedHat7.2, Icepack 2.0, Mandrake 9.1, Knoppix[fun], DamnSmallLinux and now RedHat 9.0), and not really known what I was doing. I liked most of the install programs, and I liked the general office suites, but I couldn't fulfill my need to know what exactly was going on inside my machine.

I sat down inside Barnes & Noble for roughly an hour and a half and looked over the Unleashed Book and compared it to the 'Bible'. Having looked through them both extensively, and learning a few things along the way, I decided that I liked the book I am reviewing much better. The Red Hat Bible just didn't have the same smart feel to it. It did not have specific console commands written out in examples, and did not seem to give as much insight into exactly how my Linux system operated. The best way to describe it would be that it was just like the 'how-to' books for Microsoft products: they tell you how to change things, how to make such and such happen -- but more like "If I turn the wheel in my car to the right, I go right," instead of teaching the physics of the gears in the steering column and the forces being transfered to the wheels, and the wheel's friction turning the cars direction. I learned how to change things, but not how the things I changed specifically interacted.

After a short introduction, the book spends 20+ pages coaching the reader on how to prepare for his first Linux install. It also helps decide how to partition systems and drives, so that just about any foreseeable storage situation is addressed. The next chapter is dedicated to actually installing the OS on your computer(s) by any method you would like, be it CD-ROM, traditional ethernet, hard drive, or even through a parallel port or serial port. The book explains and tells you where to look up the autoinstall Kickstart system, and generally makes you feel like you could walk into any situation and feel comfortable with what you were doing. It even gives a two-page listing of exactly what things to expect during an office transition, and a great checklist for getting all hardware versions and compatibility issues checked out ahead of time. Hopefully before you put a dent in that professional image of yours.

After you are done reading about all the wonderfulness of post-install configuration, then you go through your 'first steps' with linux. Learning the directory tree a little better, shell commands to compress/decompress, directory permissions, various switches and adding users.

There follows in the 6th chapter the best explanation of X I have ever read. I must admit that I had no idea how versatile and powerful X was. This is the section of the book that started to make me feel like I was 11 years old again and playing with my first computer, and trying to understand how to program Basic. :)

Part II of the book then starts dealing with actual system administration, including all the services that run in the background, software and system resources, user management, filesystems, and backup/restore/recovery. I get kind of misty eyed when I think of all the user commands that I can now type in at a prompt. Group and user admin surely beats the competing win2k/win2k3 server editions (User manager, though wonderful, is not as powerful as these simple commands in Linux).

Part III of the book deals with System services, including Printing, Network, DNS, Apache management, MySQL, FTP, Email, and collaborative software. While I have always found network connectivity to be a strong suit of mine, I think I learned a bit in that chapter anyway. I have not had the opportunity yet to set up my own email servers or web servers, but I do anticipate doing so within the next 2 years, and with the excellent line-by-line examples in this book to lead me, I feel that I will be far less bewildered than your average Microsoft-only user.

Part IV deals with programming and productivity. I am not a programmer, so I skipped most of the sections on perl and C/C++. I did find shell scripting to be a worthwhile read, and implemented a few little tweak scripts on my own little machine. Multimedia is also covered in this section, which also describes why RedHat avoided allowing MP3 playback by default. No matter; I had long before reading this section updated xmms to allow MP3. (Gosh, I would never accomplish anything without my trusty MP3 collection.) There is also a very nice history of OpenOffice.org, and how to use it too. The book also offers help with PDAs, faxing and scanning.

This section also includes text examples of configuration and setup for emulation and cross-platform tools. While I am intrigued by the beautiful screenshot of Return to Castle Wolfenstein running perfectly in emulation mode, I cannot say that I have attempted to completely replace my gaming computer just yet -- sadly I still dual boot with win2k. However, after fully reading the chapters in the emulation section, I feel that I will have a much better chance than I did before. I know that newsgroups are great, but my general feeling after reading this book is much better than after reading bulletin board posts. :)

This book concludes with a large appendix section -- and best of all, somewhere around 20 pages of blank paper for me to write in my own notes and cheats. That way I won't lose them underneath a computer, because, damn, that is a big book.

I strongly recommend this book to just about anybody interested in starting into Linux. Assuming that you can indeed read, and don't get freaked out by an occasional command-line interface, you should be fine. I know most things have a GUI command interface available, it is nice to know exactly what that little GUI applet is doing. "It is editing this text file, that is linked to this one," and so on. I also strongly recommend it for the hardened Linux user/admin, as I believe it would be a worthwhile thing to have on the shelf. You probably will get a little bit more use out of it than you do that Windows NT4 server book you have up there. I find this book relevant, accurate, helpful, logical, and insightful. It has a few typos, grammatical mistakes and spelling errors(show me a programmer that can spell in English!), and sometimes I wish the authors had spent more time on the graphical tools rather than the text/console based tools, but on the whole, excellent.

Acemics' review of Red Hat Linux 9 Professional Secrets Red Hat Linux 9 Professional Secrets author Naba Barkakati pages 1038 publisher Wiley rating 9 reviewer Vince ISBN 0764541331 summary A great Linux guide for experienced users as well as newbies.

The task of learning Linux can be a burden that some people just do not want to take on. Trying to find the right book to learn more about Linux or to use as a reference can be a mind blowing task given all the choices that are available. Red Hat Linux 9 Professional Secrets by Naba Barkakati is an excellent option for the Linux newbie or the experienced Linux user who wants a useful reference guide.

Weighing in at over 1,000 pages, Red Hat 9 Professional Secrets provides many useful insights and behind the scenes tips on the inner workings of Red Hat Linux. I have used many different books on Linux and specifically the Red Hat distro, and over the past few weeks I found myself going back to this book as a reference and easily finding the solutions I was looking for.

Such a large book can sometimes be a "turn off" for someone looking for their first book to learn something new. The fear being that they will never be able to navigate through all the technical advanced jargon that one usually finds in a 1,000+ page book. However, I feel the author does a good job introducing Linux basics and fundamentals in Part I: Setting Up Red Hat Linux, and Part II: Exploring Red Hat Linux.

The first two parts of this book which compose chapters 1-12 are only the first 373 pages. Parts III, IV, and V discuss in detail Internetworking with Red Hat Linux, Managing Red Hat Linux and Programming Red Hat Linux. These sections of the book deal with more advanced subject matter such as setting up Red Hat Linux as a Mail Server, News Server, Web Server, FTP Server and Samba Server, and how to manage, secure and administer your Red Hat Linux system.

While some may consider the first two parts to be strictly for the Linux newbie and the second three parts for the more experienced Linux user, I believe that these areas mesh well with each other providing the experienced Linux user with install tips in the first two parts that are often overlooked and providing the newbie with the definitive Linux guide that will walk them through the simple tasks as well as provide them more in-depth detail to the more advanced concepts that are often only found in a separate Linux administration book.

I would highly recommend this book to the experienced Linux user and the Linux newbie who are looking for the ultimate guide on Red Hat 9.

You can purchase Red Hat Linux 9 Professional Secrets or Red Hat Linux 9 Unleashed from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

Comments

Spelling

[Zathrus]

spelling errors(show me a programmer that can spell in English!)

Hi there, damn good to meet you.

Yeah, I make typos or grammatical mistakes every once in awhile, but neither I nor most of my coworkers (on the C++ side at least... the Java coders are another issue) have major spelling problems.

Of course, that doesn't change the fact that we all hate writing docs.

Best?

[mopslik]

...and best of all, somewhere around 20 pages of blank paper for me to write in my own notes and cheats.

The fact that blank pages are the best part of the book doesn't really encourage sales.

Review of the reviews

[CySurflex]

The first review is in depth, interesting, includes personal andectotes, and has a tone of voice that just makes you "want more!"

The second review is dry, pretty much contentless, and really not very helpfull at all.

Any Books for Non-Sysadmins?

[AZPolarBear]

Are there any recommended Linux books for people who do not have the root password?

I support several users where I have given them normal user accounts, but all of the books I've seen spend a significant part of the book on features requiring root access. I'd much rather save money on a book that did not have these sections, then these books would be slightly less scarey and more relevant to these users' needs.

RHL Changes

[phloydphreak]

"The Red Hat Bible just didn't have the same smart feel to it."

Being a RHL Bible user (3 months), I stake my life on that book. Smart feel? It gives the user every file location, server information, and allows the user to understand by explaining the settings; allowing the user chance to play with them. It has assisted me through FTP, NFS, and Apache server setup and tweaking without a problem. Its security information for all things linux are excellent. I have not read or even looked through the books mentioned in this review, yet I did not find a book which was comprable when I was looking.

I guess if you want to have a smart feel, you should buy a book which is not intuitive. The bible is. It allows the user to figure out how the OS works by assisting the problem-solving process.

Dont buy a book because it explains all the information, buy a book because it gives you the tools to learn through action. the bible does.

Linux newbie here

[Bob-o-Matic!]

First, my disclaimer: I am a newbie to *ix. I am confident that I can handle any reasonable system administration task in Windows and/or DOS, as I have dealt with those OSes since 1990.

My experience with Linux has been one week of trying to make the GUI work with RH7.2 and my Radeon 8500. I believe that at that time XFree86 was just plain incompatible at that time, though I'd bet some uber dudes made it work. I couldn't, and if there is no GUI, then it is not the kind of OS I want to use at home. Later I tried RH7.3, and X worked, but with no hardware 3D acceleration. Tux Racer was a slide show. Since I will not pay Xi for drivers so I can game at home, and ATI's binaries didn't work well enough for me, I abandoned 7.3. I skipped RH8 entirely because by then I had sold the 8500 and installed a 9700 Pro (love that card!). So now I have RH9 up and running, ATI's catalyst 3.7 drivers working reasonably well, and RTCW:Enemy Territory and UT2003 working great, so I can say that I believe I now have an OS acceptable for my home use.

As for *ix, I know there exists a command line prompt, and the operator can do many things provided he knows what to do there. I am not one of these people. I am the guy who needs a HOW-TO page to use rpm. I want to know how to use bash and the like. I want to know how to make KDE and GNOME do exactly what I want. I want to know how to install drivers correctly and understand the steps. I want to be as proficient in Linux as I am in windows.

That said, I do have a Linux book--The Red Hat Linux Bible (for RH7.2) It is a comprehensive book, with enough information for a beginner to install RH Linux and not much else. I'd say that unless you are already familiar with Linux and similar OSes that 95% of the material in that book is going to be over your head. About the only useful newbie information I found was installing RH. I understand that not everyone is going to use the same procedure, but for me, it was pretty much insert disk 1 and follow the prompts.

Don't get me wrong-- while convering installation is a great idea-- maybe some easy to understand tips on configuring X would be nice. Would you believe that changing the desktop resolution is covered in an obscure paragraph some 300 pages into the book? How about changing the refresh rate? I'll bet I'll have to edit my config file, but perhaps someone made it possible through the GUI. You Linux uber coders did that, didn't you?

How about sound cards? I'd bet that millions of computers sold in the last 4 years are capable of 4- or more channel audio. I don't know how to activate the rear channels. (Disclaimer-- i accidentally got them to work in RH7.3)

Guess what else? I sure would like my logitech 3 button + wheel mouse to work correctly. When connected via PS2, the only selection that works is 2 button wheel mouse. Changing to the USB port, RH discovers it nicely (I was floored to see the mouse discovered when booting!), but I have no idea what the thumb button does nor do I know how to change it.

My guess is that those of you who have read this whole thing are saying RTFM. Well, sure, I'd love to RTFM. Just give me a manual I can understand! Man pages are not good reading for the beginner, and unless you have a laptop, hard to take with you when you need a break from getting the fvcking screen resolution fixed.

Ah, well... just venting. I'll probably have to take a class at the community college, as none of my friends use Linux. Me, I am bored with windows, and want to be ready for the time when it is not worth the effort to get an unliscensed wopy of windows to work. I'll see if I can find a copy of RH9 Unleashed... thanks for the review!

Re:Linux newbie here

[kfg]

The very first lesson that every Linux newbie learns is:

Documentation sucks.

It's getting better by the day, but it still sucks.

Fortunately there's an alternative. UNIX books. Don't bother spending money on these. Go to your library, browse around, pick a couple that "speak" to you. After a few nights of poking at these all of a sudden the Linux books will start to make sense to you and you can return to them.

The thing you absolutely must understand is that you are joining the Unix community and its culture. These are not merely empty buzzwords. They have real meaning and import. Unix/Linux are not merely "Windows alternatives" in the sense that they simply replace Windows with a free version. Unix is fundamentally different. It's foreign. Like when you go to Japan and can't even guess where the restrooms are.

Windows is the end result of a series of commercial accidents and commercial rapacity.

Unix was designed by a handful of people outside of the commercial sphere (AT&T was actually forbiden by law to enter such a sphere at the time) according to their ideas of what an OS should be and how it should work. A growing community who agreed with that philosophy took hold of it and has pushed its development to where you see it today.

That original philosophy and community are still the core values of Unix. Learn them and you'll get along. Insist on doing things the way you grew accustomed to under MS "products" and you will always be unhappy.

Always.

You can't just learn a few new commands, just as in Japan you can't just learn a few equivilent words to English words you know. The very culture that words are built upon are different.

Read the UNIX books, or UNIX may forever remain "inscrutable" to you.

Spend your actual money on two O'Reilly books. Running Linux and Linux in a Nutshell. These might not be what you consider the best books in the long run, but they'll put you on the right track. On the other hand you might just find they're the only pure Linux books you'll ever need.

KFG

If You're Doing standard things they're OK...

[ewanrg]

My complaint about both books (which I have looked at as part of a departmental purchase) is that they're very good if you're doing the same sorts of things that the authors are. IOW, using Linux as a personal server or such.

However, you want to use some external firewire drives? Do some video capture? Write to a DVD? Neither book addresses these issues to any depth. And some of the things they do put in there to make their "heavy enough to justify the price" length verge on silly. I really don't expect to see a page on Xine if I can get a URL to the home site and be more up to date.

In both cases, the book seems like a way to sell RH CDs at a decent price and with a "Help" manual. For that they are adequate. But I'm still looking for the RH (or Mandrake) book that can get into the challenges my team faces.

Redhat Scares Me

[phorm]

Has anyone noticed the huge proliferation of "RedHat as Linux" over the linux literary and driver (closed-source drivers, generally) community? The amount of articles that go on about teaching linux, and then teach "Red Hat" are huge. In addition, if you notice hardware that "Supports Linux" you will often find that it supports "Red Hat" (IMHO, the only way to support "Linux" properly is to have an Open-Source driver).

If you search for linux on chapters you will find a lot of literary material. 8 of 20 results are specially about redhat on the first page...

Searching for "Red Hat" Linux shows that at least 106 books specifically contain the words "Red Hat" in addition to linux.

While I'm all for use-your-own-distro, and I'm sure that RedHat is a good OS for newbies... I get this tingling feeling that there is a whole mentality that "Red Hat" IS linux. I understand that distros like Debian Linux might be more daunting with text-based installs, etc, but I hate to see future admins being taught that the "Red Hat" way is the only way.

Of course, it may be because many of those in the Debian-oriented mentality simply hate to document or make book-like material, whereas many more RedHat newbies have gone on to share their experience with the masses?

Give it a few months, and I'm sure we'll see a few more "Using RedHat 10" books to add to the pile. Version-chasing AHOY!

thanks for the kind words

[linux_author]

- as the author of Red Hat Linux 9 Unleashed, i like to say thanks for all the kind words regarding the book (and also any unkind words, as i have a thick skin and take constructive criticism to heart)...

- i'm not sure about the blank pages you found in your copy of Red Hat Linux 9, as my copy doesn't have these blank pages, and i don't think Sams Publishing (Pearson) would allow a printing like that (of course worse things have happened, such as corrupt CD-ROMs)...

- i think the Linux Bible series is good too, and i have copies of many different books about Linux... i've met many other Linux authors, but have not had the pleasure to chat with authors of the Bible or 'Secrets'... this is something i look forward to (perhaps in NYC this winter?)...

- i also wrote Linux Unleashed, which covered Caldera, Red Hat, and Debian, and SuSE Linux Unleashed... and a book on using Linux on your Apple PowerPC... i would like to see more books on Debian and SuSE, but you know what? publishers won't do them because they don't sell! (or fit into the publisher's marketing scheme)

- i write about Linux because i believe in Linux... believe me when i say that writing technical books is no way to make a living - horrendous deadlines, sweating out revised content based on beta releases, and authoring contracts that turn your book efforts into a vanity press pursuit...

- i have been dreading a review of my book here on /. as i'm aware that there are many of you out there who are far more talented and knowledgable about Linux and other software services than i... all i can say is that i hope that the information i present is technically accurate, helpful, and well-organized...

content is another matter (the Unleashed series are *supposed* to be aimed at intermediate to advanced users, but it seems that newbies, God bless 'em, buy the book anyway - i'd much rather write books for the total newbie than the astute user, because i remember the excitement i felt when i first started using Linux and realized just how powerful it is...

anyway, thanks for not scorching my shorts on this one...

bb

p.s. i'm sure hd would chime in here, but he's trapped on a cruise liner with a number of Linux madmen at the moment (the Geek Cruise)...