Linux Power Tools

Dan Clough writes "I found Linux Power Tools to be a useful book, although it does have some shortcomings. It's a 644-page, well-written book that covers almost all aspects of managing, administering, and optimizing a working Linux system. The book's cover claims the target audience as intermediate to advanced users, but I think that beginner to intermediate would be more accurate. More advanced users may find Linux Power Tools a little beneath their level." Read on for the rest of Dan's review. Linux Power Tools author Roderick W. Smith pages 644 publisher Sybex rating 8 of 10 reviewer Dan Clough ISBN 0782142265 summary Well-written introductory and intermediate material; a useful jumping off point for many tasks though not the definitive source for specialized ones.

The text doesn't cover installing a Linux system, but does point out some of the differences among the major distributions in common use today, specifically Debian, Mandrake, RedHat, Slackware, and SUSE. Much of the distro-specific information is contained in a chapter on package management (RPM, deb, tar.gz, and the GUI tools for the aforementioned distros). I found this book a good reference for a new user (and especially someone self-administering their Linux box for the first time), but most "expert" users will not find much here that they don't already know.

The author covers a wide range of software that is frequently used. This includes the major desktop environments KDE and Gnome (with a brief discussion of alternate window and file managers which can be used to create your own custom environment), and office application suites (fairly simple overviews of OpenOffice.org, KOffice, and Gnome Office). Also covered are the two most common bootloaders (LILO and GRUB), printer configuration options (LPRng and CUPS), and a pretty basic section on command-line shells and scripting. There are a couple of chapters that touch on the basics of doing backups (using tar), and some general methods of improving the security of a Linux system (such as using proper passwords and stopping unnecessary services). These topics are followed up by several sections on basic networking configuration (TCP/IP, DHCP, and DNS), and controlling network access with firewalls, TCP wrappers, and xinetd service restrictions.

The last few chapters cover setup and operation of various common server applications, including Apache, FTP, Sendmail, Postfix, SSH, and VNC. All of these server descriptions are of the "general overview" variety, and additional resources will be required by someone trying to configure them for the first time. The book includes a basic glossary aimed at beginners, and an excellent index. The inside front and back covers contain a nice list of essential Linux configuration files, with their default locations, although distro-specific variations are not included.

The two sections that I found the most useful are the kernel customization chapter, and the one on optimizing the X Window System configuration.

Although the kernel chapter contains information that can be found elsewhere, it offers a very understandable explanation, and should make the process of compiling a custom kernel (for performance optimization) achievable for someone who hasn't done it before. In short, everything I needed to know about was right there in one place, and eliminated the need to bounce back and forth between the numerous how-to documents available online. By following this book's guidelines, I was able to successfully compile a kernel optimized for my AthlonXP CPU, containing only the drivers I need, which resulted in noticeable improvements in bootup time, application loading times, and desktop responsiveness.

In the X Window System chapter, the use of options in the XF86Config(-4) config file was well explained, including how to set custom modelines useful for a non-standard screen resolution and/or refresh rate. Font configuration was very clearly discussed, and included directions for adding additional fonts, and enabling smoothing (anti-aliasing) in applications.

Linux Power Tools is an excellent reference book, well suited to assisting in specific tasks related to Linux system administration. There is no real new information here, but this book does better than most at having many things you want to know very accessible in one reference volume. I would compare it favorably with another of my favorite books -- O'Reilly's Running Linux. In fact I've found it to be even more valuable for some specific tasks. It is very complete and recent (copyright 2003), and I highly recommend it to other intermediate level system administrators.

You can purchase Linux Power Tools from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to submit a review for consideration, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

Comments

644 ?

[EnderWiggnz]

well, at least everyone can read it....

Re:644 ?

[mrtroy]

oh my god he is a clever one!

chmod him up!

Re:644 ?

[Anonymous Coward]

That was beautiful, man.

Re:644 ?

[tds67]

Yeah, Sybex must have a nerd division in their Marketing department. This can't be coincidence.

Re:644 ?

[Anonymous Coward]

Not everyone. Only the people who want to pay the money to read it, eh.

Re:644 ?

[Anonymous Coward]

well, yeh - you have to have a local account to read a file thats world readable....

duh.

Re:644 ?

[GammaTau]

chmod him up! .. with -R option!

That was not funny at all. The moderators will chown you.

Re:644 ?

[ScottGant]

Bingo...the chown-o

Re:644 ?

[EnderWiggnz]

i love it :-)

Strange

[tds67]

More advanced users may find Linux Power Tools a little beneath their level.

How ironic! I am rather short in height, and I sit on this very book at home when I use my computer.

Re:Strange

[jvollmer]

>users may find Linux Power Tools a little beneath their level

>I sit on this very book at home

Then it's not exactly beneath your level, is it?

If it's not Consolidated Lint, it's just fuzz!

Power Tools?

[nairnr]

Does anyone else other than me seem to think that "Power Tools" is an ill-suited title for a book that sounds more like an introductory book, then one detailing tools for a "Power User"?

Re:Power Tools?

[linuxci]

But they did say the target audience is intermediate to advanced, although the reviewer disagrees with that.

So it's a good title for their target audience.

However, the most likely effect is beginners feeling they're advanced users a bit too early!

Re:Power Tools?

[Anonymous Coward]

it's called power tools b/c the authors see the utilities in unix to be power tools to the user if used with other utilities.

Re:Power Tools?

[einhverfr]

Define power tools and define power user.

I tend to think that there are a few different kinds of users:

1: Basic users (knowing just enough to get their job done).

2: Basic admins/Power Users. Have enough knowledge to know how to do basic administration. May have SOME in-depth knowledge of a system.

3: System engineers (NOT MCSE's). the system engineer as I define the term here is the person who has combined the mastery of the power user with an indepth understanding of a large number of useful packages and in-depth hardware knowledge. The system engineer is the person who designs the black box in the corner which acts as the VOIP/POTS gateway, etc. In the UNIX world, it is this engineer that basically ensures that the software packages work together to accomplish a specific, dedicated task which is not common enough for an out-of-the-box solution to be available.

It seems that this book is very much suited for #2 above (power users). What exactly is a power tool is, however, for others to answer.

Re:Power Tools?

[warpSpeed]

Does anyone else other than me seem to think that "Power Tools" is an ill-suited title for a book that sounds more like an introductory book, then one detailing tools for a "Power User"?

Sounds like "title inflation" to me...

Next thing you know there will be a "Linux Power tools for dummies".

Re:Power Tools?

[g0at]

True. It evokes images of using rotary saws and drills to [dis]assemble Linux boxen. :D

-b

Re:Power Tools?

[An Anonymous Hero]

Does anyone else other than me seem to think that "Power Tools" is an ill-suited title for a book that sounds more like an introductory book, then one detailing tools for a "Power User"?

"Power User" is a concept that makes no sense in Unix land. When everything is open, when anyone can dig down to the metal if s/he so desires, then the boundary between "User" and "Programmer" becomes blurred and replaced by a continuous spectrum. Wherever you stand, you can always keep learning, and everything reminds you of how little you know. Who's to be called a "Unix Power User"? A perl expert? Larry Wall? It doesn't make sense.

Where it makes sense is/was in systems like Windows or (pre-X) Mac OS, where everything was closed so the most you could be was, well, a user. That was the habitat of the quintessential "Power User", someone with an encyclopedic knowledge of all the little (closed source) utilities you should download if you want to perform unforeseen tasks. "Linux Power User" makes just as much sense as "GNU Shareware": the day the expression takes hold is the day we'll know Linux has died.

Re:Power Tools?

[whereiswaldo]

Linux *is* a power tool. So what are "Linux power tools"?

Actualy it's not a bad book

[Anonymous Coward]

I've had the book for sometime, and I open it up every now and again, it brings up some good points here and there and its nice to have a hard copy to fall back on, but all in all its nothing you cant find in a man page.

Power tools?

[Anonymous Coward]

Since when did Linux run power tools?
Better than windows crashing my ditch-witch.
Thank you, Roderick W. Smith!

(Maybe I should start reading the posts before posting a troll.)

The Point is?

[FraggleMI]

I don't see the point of these books for linux anymore. You have better, more up to date resources on the web, and if you are still stuck, you have irc. Why would you waste your money on a book?

Re:The Point is?

[linuxci]

Because some of us like to have material we can read on the train if there's a problem with the on board net access ;)

Being able to get info in whatever form you prefer is a good thing.

Re:The Point is?

[dev0n]

The web and IRC work best if you know the questions you want to ask. Books are better for introducing people to new concepts and giving them the right questions to ask of the wonderful folks on IRC and the right terms to search for in Google, IMHO.

Re:The Point is?

[irokitt]

And, of course, there is that rare occasion when, for whatever reason, there is no web connection for whatever reason. I have been frequently thankful for the archaic "book" at times like these.

Re:The Point is?

[irokitt]

Damn, I should actually read my posts before I submit them. For whatever reason.

Re:The Point is?

[manganese4]

Because the console in the server room only has a 15 inch (800 x 600) screen that prevents one from having the browser and the shell window visible at the same time. This of course assumes your production server is running x-windows and you are not using lynx and viewing green fluorescent text.

Re:The Point is?

[fireboy1919]

Look, he doesn't mean that you should randomly go out and search google. If you're a newbie and don't even know the question, you can read the guides.

If you have a straightforward problem that has been solved MANY, MANY times, like how to set up a mail,web, or ftp server, you can check the howtos.

In my experience (and I do the IRC thing a lot), you can't expect to have esoteric/advanced questions answered on IRC. If people don't know the answer immediately, they don't want to put in the work to figuring it out. What they can help you with is understanding the things in TLDP if you don't - like perhaps telling you what question you should be asking, or where you should be reading.

Re:The Point is?

[FraggleMI]

Laptops are a lovely thing ;)

Re:The Point is?

[dev0n]

Perhaps in my original point I should have said "books are better FOR SOME PEOPLE" instead of just "books are better" .. because there ARE a lot of people out there who learn best from books, and who feel more confident about tackling new problems if they have a reference to refer to.

I personally use a combo of books/web references whenever I do *anything* new. I learn best that way.

Re:The Point is?

[fireboy1919]

But those are books - the guides are.

They're just online.

You can of course, just print them out.

Re:The Point is?

[reallocate]

Because a book is more convenient, more permanent, and more trustworthy than the web. Before a book reaches the market, it is fact-checked, edited, rewritten, and revised. Most verbiage on the web, in contrast, isn't fact-checked, isn't edited, isn't rewritten, and isn't revised when it ought to be.

People get pad to write books; the web is full of ranting amateurs.

Re:The Point is?

[Anonymous Coward]

Because if there is no book, you can't say RTFM. Then the elitest snobs won't have anything to post. Never mind that TMAWAF (The manuel ain't worth a ...you get the idea).

No such thing as a Linux beginner?

[RobertB-DC]

The book's cover claims the target audience as intermediate to advanced users, but I think that beginner to intermediate would be more accurate. More advanced users may find Linux Power Tools a little beneath their level.

I think this might be considered fair marketing. If you're using Linux, you're probably not a "beginner" -- you've probably an expert on other OS's and have decided to take the next step.

I just got a $35 PII and installed Knoppix 3.3. It's my first Linux box after 15+ years in the DOS/Windows world, and I'm finding out just how little I know. But I can at least make some educated guesses about "hda5" and "eth0", and when the screen displays 4 penguins instead of 1 I know that it's a screen resolution problem, not a "it doesn't work" problem.

So I'm not sure there's such a thing as a "Linux Beginner"... at least not until Wal-Mart's Lindows PCs outsell the Windows/AOL equipped models. Those buyers are the true "beginners".

Re:No such thing as a Linux beginner?

[nairnr]

Fair marketing? When I look at that kind of rating I assume it is more domain specific. So just because I am an expert at Linux doesn't necessarily mean that I shouldn't pick up a Beginner book in Oracle or Cisco!

If you don't think there is anything such as a Linux Beginner you don't hang out on enough IRC channels or newsgroups.

Re:No such thing as a Linux beginner?

[tuxette]

So I'm not sure there's such a thing as a "Linux Beginner"

Here where I live, there's a "Linux in the schools" program going on. So yes, there is such a thing as a "Linux Beginner." Little schoolkids can hardly be called experts on other OS's ;-)

Here's a link to the project with a brief explanation in English: http://www.skolelinux.no/index.php.en

They also have this program in other countries, but I don't have a list of where at the moment. If you read Scandinavian, you'll probably find them in "links" in the above-mentioned URL.

Re:No such thing as a Linux beginner?

[4minus0]

I would like to thank you for the link to that used computer site.

I was yelling out the prices "Oh my god look at this, a p2 400 for $40, that's twice as fast as our file server!"
My wife rolled her eyes and denied knowing the whereabouts of the credit card.

At this rate I'll have several more computers to do *ahem*, "testing and development".
On behalf of myself and Visa, I thank you.

Re:No such thing as a Linux beginner?

[Nothinman]

and when the screen displays 4 penguins instead of 1 I know that it's a screen resolution problem, not a "it doesn't work" problem.

Depends. When the console is configured to use a framebuffer a penguin for each CPU is printed above the boot messages, so if you have 4 CPUs you'd have 4 penguins.

Re:No such thing as a Linux beginner?

[RobertB-DC]

I would like to thank you for the link to that used computer site.

No problem! I found the joint thanks to a Slashdot article, myself. Their $70 laptops were pretty appealing, but we went for the $35 desktop instead.

Customer service was excellent -- I couldn't find the shipping costs, so I included a note asking them to contact me if the shipping was above $20. They called the next morning, less than an hour after they opened. It's $27.50 shipping, BTW, which seems to be a standard rate -- but it includes testing and packaging, which I found to be excellent.

Re:No such thing as a Linux beginner?

[An Anonymous Hero]

you've probably an expert on other OS's and have decided to take the next step.

Nah, that would be the audience for this book.

Re:No such thing as a Linux beginner?

[algernon7]

It's funny - just before I checked slashdot today, I got an email from a friend with a link to retrobox.

hmmm, I wonder where he got it...

Anyway, my response to him was almost word-for-word the same as yours - '20 bucks would buy me a server/firewall twice as fast as the one I'm using, with twice the memory!!...'

A few years ago, I would have laughed at the idea of drooling over ridiculously old hardware...but then a few years ago, I was running windows.

Power tools?

[bdigit]

Will this book tell me how to put linux on my screwgun?

Various Bookstores:

[herrvinny]

Amazon has it for $35

Froogle Link. Interesting that in the search for "linux power tools", the first result is Unix Power Tools

Beneath?

[Anonymous Coward]

More advanced users may find Linux Power Tools a little beneath their level.

Don't most advanced Linux users find "Multi-Dimensional Calculus for Astrophysicists" beneath their level? Much the same way showering and deodorant use are beneath them...

UNIX Power Tools

[Coryoth]

It's a shame that the book is perhaps a little basic - when I heard the title I was hoping for something along the lines of UNIX Power Tools specialised to Linux. UNIX Power Toolsreally is one of the best books out there on using UNIX. No matter how experienced a user you are you're likely to find some little gem of information buried in it - and that's all it really is, simply a collection of little gems of information about everything UNIX. It would be nice to see a book along those lines that covered Linux more specifically.

Jedidiah

Re:UNIX Power Tools

[linuxci]

Yeah the first time I read the review I never paid attention to what it said the publisher was so it thought it was an O'Reilly book based on UNX Power Tools, presumably the publisher named theirs similarly so people would think it was connected to this popular oreilly unix book.

Re:UNIX Power Tools

[peeping_Thomist]

UNIX Power Tools really is one of the best books out there on using UNIX.

That's really true. But it's also a really good book on using Linux. Unix Power Tools is my favorite Linux book right now.

Re:UNIX Power Tools

[nrrd]

I agree, UNIX Power Tools is one of the best Unix books ever written. For a new user this should be in the top two or three books (maybe after "Running Linux" and "Essential System Administration"), and almost everyone who uses Unix tools should have it.

It covers hundreds of tips for using a wide variety of command line tools, such as bash, sed, awk, even lowly ed, as well as editors like vi and Emacs. It covers all these tools while talking about what makes Unix special (flexibly combining tools). It's a great book whether your an admin, a regular user, or a developer.

Even if you use MS Windows with Cygwin (as I do at work) this book will show you how you save time and can get a _lot_ more use out of your system.

Re:UNIX Power Tools

[rk_nh]

The updated third edition has been revised to include updated information on Linux, FreeBSD, Mac OS X, etc. I use it constantly and have never been stuck with a problem I couldn't solve.

Re:UNIX Power Tools

[Coryoth]

That's good to know. I only have the second edition, and it tends to refer to bash as something new and different, and doesn't spend as much time with it as would be useful for someone not working on Solaris or AIX.

Jedidiah

irc+newbie= good times

[Bill, Shooter of Bul]

Yes.. lets have all of the newbies go directly to irc. I'm so easily entertained

Re:irc+newbie= good times

[FraggleMI]

Everyone has been a newbie once. I personally learned linux originally FROM being on irc. Now I make a career out of it.

Re:irc+newbie= good times

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm so easily entertained is why the book is good and has a place, even if the information in it can be found elsewhere. If newbies are just entertainment for the err... more experienced, IRC is not the most helpful place for them to go for genuine help.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Misleading / questionable title

[Florian]

The title "Linux Power Tools" falsely suggests that the book is a sequel or update to O'Reilly's "Unix Power Tools". Unlike the book reviewed here, "Unix Power Tools" is not about configuring KDE and such stuff, but a wizard's guide to & treasury of classical shell tools, arguably the best Unix user book ever written, the bible of the commandline, the ultimate celebration of design philosophy genius behind Unix. In that light, calling the reviewed book "Linux Power Tools" is pure blasphemy.

looking for a good windows to linux book.

[Deathlizard]

currently, I'm a windows XP user. I've used Microsoft from DOS 6.22 to NT to 2000 to XP and I'm very proficient in how to use these os'es to the point where I'm confortable in how they work and what to do if something goes wrong.

One of the reasons why I don't use Linux is because of this. It's not about fearing change as much as I know how windows works to the point I can set in up in under an hour rather than mess with linux for days.

What I'm looking for is a Linux book that doesn't walk you through a liunx distro step by step from installiation to installing apps, etc, but more along the lines of "this is how it's done in windows, and this is how linux does the same thing. Or a straght reference manual.

So far the only book I've seen that is close to what I want is "Linux in a Nutshell", primarialy becuase it has a great reference to all the commands and doesn't focus on one distro, which seems that all of the books do, but I would like to find a book more suited to transitioning from windows to Linux to the point where if I'm a windows and MSDOS Expert and know what I'm doing then if I follow this book I should have no trouble finding my way through linux based on the examples they give.

Does such a book exist?

Re:looking for a good windows to linux book.

[RobertB-DC]

I would like to find a book more suited to transitioning from windows to Linux

While looking for Knoppix hints, I ran across a page by the author of something called Moving to Linux , subtitled "Kiss the Blue Screen of Death Goodbye." It purports to do what you're asking for, but I haven't bought it and don't know anyone who has, so YMMV.

Re:looking for a good windows to linux book.

[irc.goatse.cx troll]

Can't help you on the book, but I'd advise you to aim for O'Rielly rather than the 'Learn $X in 24 hrs' type books.

I did want to reply to a sepcific comment, though,
"One of the reasons why I don't use Linux is because of this. It's not about fearing change as much as I know how windows works to the point I can set in up in under an hour rather than mess with linux for days."

This really depends on your definition of 'set up'. You could pop in a knoppix cd and be done with knx-hdinstall in about 20minutes and have a fully working linux system, but thats not really set up as to my definition. When I setup a linux box, I configure it exactly how I want, everything from login configs to disable local passwords, shell configs to setup everything how I want, IP QoS configs so my downloads don't kill my ping in quake or SSH, SSH public keys so I don't need to retype a password everywhere, /etc/hosts so I can login to my servers without typing the full hostname, and plenty more. Its a process that takes the lifespan of your install, but generally you're satisfied after a week or so, but when I recently tried windows 2003 I found that it was the same experience -- a week or so to have things how you want it, but still a while longer to fine tune everything (each little apps preferences, installing all of the third party software you need, hunting down serial numbers, the relative[to linux] mess that is drivers/hardware) All of this stuff is optional configuration, but I feel its a required step for setting up your machine.

One thing I can suggest though is if you're going to dual boot, use ext2 or ext3fs, and look into the 'ext2fsd' project. Mounts an ext2 filesystem in windows, defaults to ReadOnly but can be setup to write also. Very useful.

Re:looking for a good windows to linux book.

[Anonymous Coward]

If you don't want to be walked through installing apps (and you might benefit from that), almost everything is documented in man pages and info files. The good thing about books is that they'll help you find your way around the man pages. Linux doesn't do things the same way as Windows, except at the most banal level.

Best thing I can advise is to get a sandbox and just pick any mainstream distribution for starting. Once you've got it installed, play with it, search on google, and ask questions on the appropriate mailing lists. Nothing beats practice.

Re:looking for a good windows to linux book.

[Daytona955i]

It's kindof hard to say this is how you do it in windows and then this is how you do it in linux.

In windows, you click a lot of "ok"s and reboot a lot. In linux, you: ./configure; make; sudo make install

In windows, you install buggy drivers that conflict with other drivers and crash your system. In linux, you either compile support directly into the kernel or compile a loadable module.

In windows, you endlessly navigate through menu's to try and find a preference. In linux, it's usually one config file has all you preferences... and it's usually somewhere either in your home directory for user preferences or somewhere in /etc

The problem is, windows creates a security blanket. It's easy to use and administer. This creates a cheapened definition of "expert" as well as creating a whole new definition of "beginner"

Some of my definitions:
An expert in windows would be someone who is comfortable editing the windows registry (or at least as comfortable as you can get playing with such a horrible creation) and knows what an IRQ is.

An intermediate windows user knows what a dll is, how to install and configure any windows programs. They can also troubleshoot most problems.

A beginner is someone who can navigate through the filesystem and run programs like office and internet explorer and be fairly confident in their skills as a user. Knows very little about maintaining their computers.

Thus a beginner/intermediate may know to run defrag and scandisk every once in a while.
A intermediate/advanced person may know the problem lies in the registry but can't fix it without doing a re-install

Now for the linux definitions:
a beginner is someone who knows what KDE or GNOME is and can login and open up a web browser. Can also usually install an easy-to-install linux distro (like redhat)

an Intermediate user, knows what their hardware is and can not only install a linux distro but configure/setup most of the major applications (like XFree86) without using a GUI. Being able to recompile a kernel (that works) is mandatory for an intermediate user.

An expert user is someone who has intimate knowledge of the linux filestructure. Is able to modify startup scripts. Basically, someone who could make their own linux distro.

given this classification, it sounds like this book is for beginner/intermediate users. (That's not beginner OR intermediate)

So far the closest book to a true Linux Powertools is Linux in a nutshell but the old UNIX Powertools is one of the greatest UNIX books and I would love to have one updated specifically for linux. It's a shame this book isn't it because I got really excited for a minute there.

Re:looking for a good windows to linux book.

[taradfong]

Take my advice:

1. Find an old, unwanted machine.
2. Install Linux. At least with Redhat, it's as easy as Windows. Only consufing part to you might be the partition setup, but any installer today will do this for you
3. Have a Windows machine on the internet so you can Google your way out of problems in case you zorch something and until you use your Linux machine for web browsing
4. Get it on the network, and get a samba share drive going. Now, you can download files the way you always have with Windows (for now) and copy them to the Linux machine.
5. Find some packages that are fun or useful to you. Install a web server and (my favorite) Twiki, and voila, you have easy to create web content.
6. When (not if) you get snagged, Google or 'man' your way out. When you learn a new trick, store it (for instance, on your Twiki site!)
7. Learn how to look at and grep logs. After the shock of seeing all the network debris that flows into your system, learn how to set up your Linux machine as a firewall and block ports.
8. Be prepared to repeat if you hose something, or get hacked.

...in short, dive in. Aim your sights towards something you want, stumble, learn, repeat. Learning Linux/Unix is not like learning physics where you need to learn a few principles and grow a huge tree. It's more like chemistry: it's about filling a bag with lots of little tricks. Indeed, that's kind of the Unix way: lots of little tools that play well together. Having little goals and projects are key, because each 'trick' in your bag is only interesting when there was a relevant reason for learning it.

Re:looking for a good windows to linux book.

[big tex]

SuSE comes with partitioning tools to install linux beside your windows partition, so you can have both.

Also, it comes with massive amounts of documentation - a quick start guide, a user guide and an administrative guide. These books are great. SuSE also comes with like 7 cds, so there's very little software that you need to download.

Re:looking for a good windows to linux book.

[lloydy]

... I know how windows works to the point I can set in up in under an hour rather than mess with linux for days.

Good for you. I can set up 60 linux machines in an hour.
(I'd get someone else to screw them into the racks though - that takes a while.)

Books?

[sirReal.83.]

OK. I love books. For things like Philosophy, literature, Physics.. blah blah. But when I want to learn about something computer-related, I... uh... use a computer. Linux, and free software in general is a pretty fast-moving target to try and hit with a book. By the time it's even submitted to the print house there are parts that are already obselete. Imagine the most complete Linux book ever written, and your joy in having secured a copy. Now imagine how pissed you'd be when 2.6 came out and you realize that half the userspace kernel-related tools in the book are completely irrelevant now. Ooops.

Re:Books?

[bdigit]

The parent is definately right. I made a mistake of buying the O'reilly book running linux, it became outdated so quickly, that I just never used it and I found searching the web to be a better resource as well as forums like justlinux.com. The books just dont cover all the strange problems you will possibly run into.

Re:Books?

[MoronBob]

I find most of the resources and how-to's on the web refering to linux already outdated when I try to use them but you have to start somewhere. For beginners books are a good place to start. With linux and computers in general one needs to be persistant and get good at adapting to an infinite number of variables. I use books as an convenient way to get a good overview of the subject before diving in and getting my hands dirty. No resource is perfect or a replacement for experience.

why it's called "power tools"

[Dynamic Ranger]

I remember there was a book once called "UNIX Power Tools" which seemed to achieve near-Bible status for anyone doing a significant amount of programming on the job. This book obviously follows the theme.

Besides, who would buy a book called "Linux Hand Tools" or "Linux For Poets?"

Re:why it's called "power tools"

[janbjurstrom]

Yeah, I have the 3rd edt. (oct 2002, 1st edt. came march 1993, 2nd edt. in aug 1997) right here.

Unix Power Tools. 1113 pages of goodness, although many things are way too advanced for this delicate flower. But "power grows on you", as the authors say..

*unix+power+tools

[mc48910]

I THINK that the book is a waste if only named to resemble Unix Power Tools. Hey, wait a minute. If you already have Unix Power Tools....

I'd pay good money for a book

[hey!]

That went through all the details of implementing single sign on for a variety of operating systems and applications using Linux and LDAP. In principle I know it can be done, I just don't have the time or the staff to dedicate the weeks it would take to track all the details down. I've gone so far as to get PAM and LDAP working together, the problem is I need to delegate this to people who need a better user interface than editing LDIF files and using ldapsearch.

I've never got to the point of figuring out delegation and scalability because I can't roll out something without a decent user interface for nontechnical folks. Much less got to the figuring out what best practies would be.

Can Linux Power Tools install Windows?

[Anonymous Coward]

:-)

(Ducks and runs for cover!)

I just bought

[Dynamic Ranger]

"Moving to Linux: Kiss the Blue Screen of Death Goodbye!" by Marcel Gagne.

It comes with a bootable CD so you can try out Linux without wiping your computer. I haven't tried it yeat, but the book is very readable and got great reviews on Amazon.

Yes, but then you'll get EACCESS

[Anonymous Coward]

Permission denied!

When your computer's down, you want paper...

[billstewart]

Sure, if your machine is up and running and does everything you need to be able to access the web, fine, but if you're trying to mess with the boot loader, or you're trying to reconfigure X Windows, or you're doing Stupid Firewall Tricks, you might not be able to read the documentation.

Also, books are nice objects, and you can get much more perspective while reading a book than reading on screen, and you've got a reasonable subset of everything you want at once.

Re:When your computer's down, you want paper...

[Anonymous Coward]

Even if you are trying to set up the machine, you can just find the info you need by using one of your other machines.

More advanced Linux users?

[Anonymous Coward]

More advanced users may find Linux Power Tools a little beneath their level.

I thought that advanced Linux users thought that [u]everything[/u] was beneath their level.

Linux power tools?!

[psyconaut]

You mean they've got drills and saws and stuff running Linux now?! Man, it'll be toasters next... ;-)

-psy

Re:Linux power tools?!

[Mr. Dop]

No need to wish, its allready been done. Check it out here

Re:Linux power tools?!

[M. Baranczak]

You mean they've got drills and saws and stuff running Linux now?!

Oh yeah, they do... Routers and lathes, too, I believe.

Re:644 page

[Anonymous Coward]

Um, no... the _owner_ of the book has full read/write (annotate) access to it.

Re:Nobel peace prize won by a muslim!

[pether]

More likely than any americans that goes around invading and oppressing small countries all over the world.

NO ROOT FOR YOU!

[Anonymous Coward]

4 is read, 644 is -rw-r--r--

Re:NO ROOT FOR YOU!

[levin]

Yeah, but owner had read/write everyone else has read doesn't make as much sense within the context of the book :p. Whoever said humor had to be 100% technically accurate?

So which one?

[teh kurisu]

You mention that this book is good for beginners, but also that it compares favourably with O'Reilly's 'Running Linux'. Should I assume that 'Linux Power Tools' is best for the beginner?

Re:Hrm, 644-pages

[Walrus99]

At least it doesn't have 777 pages . . .

Re:Actually it's not a bad book

[jeffehobbs]

Man pages, schman pages. Yes, I'll go so far as to say: schman pages.

The deep, inherent flaw with man pages is that you need to know what you need to know before you can even access the relevant piece of documentation. For instance, maybe I want help with setting schedules system events. How am I supposed to know to type

man cron

if I have never heard of cron before? That's why sometimes it's very useful to have this stuff in a book that you can thumb through, learning new stuff as you go.

~jeff

I can recommend the Definitive Guide...

[joestar]

...to running Mandrake Linux, 3rd Edition.

For five reasons:

1) It's an excellent book and well written.
2) A big spolight is onto multimedia and office tasks, which is not common in books related to Linux.
3) It gets into Mandrake Linux in depth.
4) It doesn't gets only into Mandrake Linux, because it teaches you how to use a Linux system in general, how to use the command-line, recompile a kernel and so on, so even users of other distributions will enjoy this book.
5) It's just been released so it provides very up-to-date content (600 pages).

The book is described online at:
http://www.mandrakesoft.com/company/press/briefs?n =/mandrakesoft/products/2441

And the complete table of contents can also be downloaded (PDF):
http://images.mandrakesoft.com/mdkv2/products/defi nitiveguide/summary92.pdf

Re:I can recommend the Definitive Guide...

[Daytona955i]

can someone please write an intermediate/advanced book that doesn't cover recompiling the kernel. I mean there are so many resources that cover this and I think it's been beaten to death. The majority of the linux books I own cover this and it takes up too much space and they all tell you basically the same thing.

If you are going to cover recompiling the kernel, write one book on one kernel. Then discuss what all the options mean. That might be useful! I think recompiling the kernel belongs in a beginner book. I want an intermediate/advanced book that is truly intermediate/advanced!

Here is what you need...

[gosand]

currently, I'm a windows XP user. I've used Microsoft from DOS 6.22 to NT to 2000 to XP and I'm very proficient in how to use these os'es to the point where I'm confortable in how they work and what to do if something goes wrong.

Would that be reinstall, or reboot? ;-)

What I'm looking for is a Linux book that doesn't walk you through a liunx distro step by step from installiation to installing apps, etc, but more along the lines of "this is how it's done in windows, and this is how linux does the same thing. Or a straght reference manual.

I am a hands-on learner, and I really think the only way to do this is to jump in with both feet. You can learn out of necessity, and having a reference manual with you will help. I like the Unix Systems Administrator's Handbook, which used to be called the red book, but the latest copy is purple. Download and burn a Knoppix CD, boot up your PC with it, and have at it. Or if you have an extra PC around, install a distro on it. The only way to get familiar with Linux is to experience it.

Advanced Admins?

[hesiod]

I think the reason they claimed it is for beginners thru advanced users is because of arrogance, and not necessarily on their part. How many Linux users have you met who call themselves "experts," just to find out they barely have enough knowledge to be a common user? They think that just because they can figure out some shell commands and edit some .conf files, they must be experts. Those are the kind of "advanced" users that need a book like this.

Re:Advanced Admins?

[Anonymous Coward]

That sounds about right.

Of course, script kiddies think they're "h4x0r" experts because they can use winnuke. Remember, using a shell is a big step up from a pure point and click interface. If they know how to configure .conf files, I'd at least call them intermediate users.

Re:Advanced Admins?

[MoronBob]

Beginner,Intermediate, and Advanced are very subjective terms. I started playing with Linux in the mid-ninties with redhat 4.2 and have been using unix since 89. I am a unix/linux sysadmin of 7 years and I consider myself an intermediate user. I look at some of the stuff written in linux journal and it makes me feel like a beginner. However looking at some of the linux books out there make me feel like an expert. I really have never seen a book that I would consider a book for expert linux users. By the time you reach that level your not reading books for education. You are reading them just for entertainment or you are writing them.

Re:Actually it's not a bad book

[transient]

Try apropos:

% apropos schedule
cron (8) - daemon to execute scheduled commands (Vixie Cron)
cron [crond] (8) - daemon to execute scheduled commands (Vixie Cron)

What about Debian books?

[ngunton]

I've asked this question before, but it is still bugging me, since I am about to switch my server and workstation from RedHat 7.3 (RIP) to Debian (just as soon as I'm clear about what I'll be losing by going back to Debian "stable" from RH 7.3, or what I'll be risking by going to "testing" or "unstable")... I'm afraid RedHat has used up all my trust by disenfranchising *paying* customers like me. So, good-bye Red Hat, hello ... what? At present, Debian looks like the most viable candidate. Everyone seems to think it'll be around for the duration, apt-get rocks, etc etc.

But for a while now I've been noticing that all the books on Debian seem to be out of print or else rather poorly rated. Why is this? Why does nobody seem to think it's worth writing new books on Debian, while there are tons on Red Hat? Is Debian becoming sidelined, or do people think that it has a really solid future alongside the "mainstream" distros such as RH, SuSe et al? Changing distros is a pain in the ass, all those little small tiny differences that eat up days when trying to get your box back to working the way it did before... I don't want to have to change again in a hurry. Debian sounds great, but I am at the same time a little disturbed by how long it seems to be taking to (e.g.) get a better installation program working. If I go with Debian, am I doomed to choosing between either extremely out-of-date packages (stable) or a newer-but-might-crash setup (testing), or spending a lot of time cobbling together a mishmash of my own from both?

I've already heard the arguments about "everything you need to know is somewhere online", but the simple fact is it's often *convenient* to just have a reference all in one place for the common stuff you might want to do with a particular distro. Yes, of course everything is out there and Google is my friend etc, but I know from experience that it can take days to get together the right search query that comes up with the relevant posting or doc for a particular issue. Sometimes the thing you want to do is maddeningly simple, and yet it takes forever to track down. A good book on any distro can only help. Also, when new users are looking at switching to a distro (even relatively intermediate-level ones like me), they often look for a book that will put everything together on paper. It's just human nature. A lack of decent books on a particular distro only hurts that distro, imho.

Is it because a new release of Debian is relatively close? Is anyone aware of anyone else working on a new Debian book that is more specific to the new stuff in Sarge (the upcoming next "stable" version, I think)?

TIA, sorry if this is a little off-topic.

Re:What about Debian books?

[Anonymous Coward]

For Debian, the definitive guide is Peter Ganten's german book "Debian GNU Linux". A new edition covering woody should have appeared recently.

I have this book and found almost every administrative question answered. It saved me weeks that I otherwise would have spent reading howto's etc.

Re:What about Debian books?

[Daytona955i]

don't forget make-kpkg!!!!!

I love debian mostly for the dpkg and related tools. I tried the latest red hat recently just for kicks and I really missed dpkg. I get great download speeds and it's easy to use.

For a really good debian resource check out http://www.debianplanet.org/

Re:What about Debian books?

[nestler]

There is a section on their website called Documentation with some good material in it. There is also a link to various books about Debian (I haven't read any of them though).

If you don't want to change things around a lot, Debian is good for you. While the initial install can be a bit difficult, you will only need to install it once in your life (upgrades are seamless; especially compared to Red Hat's). Also, they are doing significant work on Sarge's installer right now so it should be much improved when it comes out.

If Sarge were out (it was originally scheduled for this month, but it is behind schedule), I would recommend using it. The stable release is very stable, but can get old since they don't release frequently. Testing is as stable as most other distros (the scripts that generate it automatically prevent obviously broken things from creeping into it from unstable).

My advice would be to read the documentation about the install on their web site. It is less intimidating if you know exactly what to expect. Also, the best advice I can give is to skip dselect entirely during the install (if you get in there, just exist without installing any packages). Once you are up and running use apt-get (or aptitude or synaptic) instead.

After that, if you find things are too old for you (most people do for desktops since it is KDE 2 and Gnome 1), you should either upgrade to testing (Sarge) now or use backports of relevant packages that are targeted for Woody (KDE, Gnome, OpenOffice).

Once installed, maintenance is very easy. Security updates for stable releases will come for years (instead of the months Red Hat seems to be offering per stable release these days). Upgrades to the next stable releases will be very simple (my machine has been upgraded through three major releases at this point).

hahah...

[pb]

So tell me, what do you do when something goes wrong in Windows? Reinstall? Windows update? Run defrag? Look on the web for an answer?

Anyhow, there are HOWTOs on this sort of thing, and books as well, although I must say that "Linux in a Nutshell" is a very good introductory Linux book.

However, if you're a Windows and MS-DOS Expert and you Know What You're Doing(tm), then you should have no problems learning Linux. First, familiarize yourself with the commands and software packages that you have available; then, run from there! Most distributions have decent graphical help systems and package managers nowadays, and even if they don't, there's always man and man -k. :)

As to the rest, there's really no replacement for some good old Unix books, or for having a Unix wizard around. They can explain to you why "echo *" doesn't work the same way in Unix (the shell expands the *), and how you'd go about performing tasks by stringing commands together...

How many reboots have there been:
last | grep ^"reboot " | wc -l

Who logs in the most:
last | cut -d ' ' -f 1 | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn | head

On what day of the week have you logged in the most:
last | grep ^`whoami` | cut -c 40-43 | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn

What file types are the most common:
find -type f -exec file -i {} \; | cut -d : -f 2- | cut -d , -f 1 | sort -n | uniq -c | sort -rn | head

etc., etc.

Re:hahah...

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow, it is simply amazing to me how you can talk out of both sides of your mouth at the same time.

To directly imply that looking up answers to Windows problems on the Web is lowbrow and indicative of low technical skill while going on to refer someone to HowTo guides that are ALSO located on the (guess what!) WEB smacks of Eletism and an inconsistent or poorly thought out approach.

Why don't you dive back into your man pages and grep yourself a clue, and an attitude that doesn't smell like week old fish.

Re:Actually it's not a bad book

[cdefghijklmnop]

Isn't "man -k keyword" easier to remember than "apropos" even though both do exactly the same thing?

Re:Actually it's not a bad book

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, that would be the first thing a new administrator would guess to type at the command line for help.

Want to get good at Linux?

[Enonu]

Learn shell script and PERL, and then you are 50% of the way there. IMHO, The important distinction between distros is not the software that's included, but rather how the software is integrated. This integration is facilitated by the collection of scripts and configuration files that are littered throughout your installation. Thus, by learning the scripting languages used, you can then feel comfortable customizing your system. Otherwise, you might as well be a car mechanic who doesn't know how to use a wrench.

From there, learning how to combine all the small tools to automate your work as much as possible will put in a positition where you feel like you are in control. Nothing feels better than knowing you've setup a system perfectly so that it gets the job done exactly the way you want it.

A book or two may prove convenient in this learning process, but honestly 100% of the material is on the web, and you can always print out your dead tree copy for your reading leisure. Good luck.

Not An Introductory Book

[reallocate]

It's not an introductory book. The title, while not very helpful or decscriptive, is in keeping with a long line of 'power tools' titles targetting DOS and Windows users.

That quiblle aside, the book occupies a middle ground between the abundant "how to install Linux" books on one side of the spectrum and the myriad books for trained and wannabe admins on the other side of the spectrum. There's a market in that middle ground for books targetting Linux users who are neither newbies or admins, but simply people who want to learn a bit more.

Man pages

[mudimba]

Try man -k.

To continue with your example:

% man -k schedule

cron(8) - daemon to execute scheduled commands (Vixie Cron)
ualarm(3) - schedule signal after specified time
%

Re:Actually it's not a bad book

[Anonymous Coward]

Uh, if you've got an "Administrator" working for you who doesn't know how to use man -k then all hope is lost, and it really doesn't matter what they try to type first because they're completely fucking clueless about the system they're "administrating". At the very least someone should revoke their root password, break their fingers and poke both of their eyes out. Just to make sure.

Re:Actually it's not a bad book

[reallocate]

Not only is there no reason to expect people to type "man cron", there's no reason for them to know that they can schedule tasks to run automatically at certain times. I suppose you might stumble upon cron after repeated use of apropos, but why not have the chance to read about it in a book?

Man pages are written for developers. Developers are the mechanics of the computer world.

Re:Actually it's not a bad book

[Anonymous Coward]

Perhaps, if you only speak english...
If you speak french you know 'a propos' means 'about'. Just think of it as: 'tell me what you have about xxx'.
The non english speaking world has to cope with funky english names for everything. Is it to much expecting from you to remember ONE command that is not in your native language?

ok...

[Anonymous Coward]

Does this book cover MPlayer, mlnet and Mozilla? Or does it not?

Re:Actually it's not a bad book

[virid]

You do realize the irony of questioning the appropriateness of apropos, don't you? I'll assume that you do, and suggest you get modded up. =)

Dear Editors

[Letter]

Dear Editors,

Something is wrong with slashcode. Attached is the bug report:

Package: slashcode
Version 2.2.6
Severity: normal

When reading slashdot today, someone posted some
unix humor. Someone else responded with more
unix humor. Someone else responded to that with
more unix humor. I think there might be a
problem with the comment recursion prevention
filter.

Re:Nobel peace prize won by a muslim!

[Anonymous Coward]

You are living in the "The Land of Confusion", i understand!
So may the Master Of All Things save us all from this evil empire.......

Re:Actually it's not a bad book

[usrerco]

Man pages, schman pages. Yes, I'll go so far as to say: schman pages.

Yeah, I'd always wished all man pages had a section heading like DESCRIPTION and SYNOPSIS called TUTORIAL. ;)

I also wanted the EXAMPLES section to be mandatory in all man pages, instead of optional. A good page that has an EXAMPLES section is route(8). Many other commands really need it, like tar(1), sed(1) and tr(1). And sorry, but I really dislike info(1); I find it awkward and totally unfamiliar. You might as well use HTML pages and w3m(1) instead of man. And no thanks, I still prefer man for reference. info/w3m/lynx should be used for digressions, NOT a replacement for man. And some of the linux man pages (tar, make) are barely more useful than the command line --help.

Another thing: I would have read man pages more carefully a decade or two ago if all the OS's had this tool called 'manvi' which brings up man pages in VI so it's easy to read/search/save/grep. I drag it with me everywhere now.

Also, linux man pages in particular are often lacking or incomplete. They're getting better, but not up to the quality of, say, SGI man pages, which were policed regularly, and were the word of law on the sgi admin newsgroups. In SGI's case, since the source was closed, they had to have good man pages; RTSL was not an option.

Re:Nobel peace prize won by a muslim!

[Anonymous Coward]

WHAT???

A Peace Nobel Prize winner is against the war?

Oh my god! It's terrible!!!

Let's bomb them!

Re:Actually it's not a bad book

[shadow_slicer]

try

apropos schedule

Re:Actually it's not a bad book

[wobblie]

For instance, maybe I want help with setting schedules system events. How am I supposed to know to type man cron if I have never heard of cron before?

apropos schedule ?

My list of Power Tools

[axxackall]

I agree. Postfix is not a tool - it's a server software. Gnome is not a tool either - it's a windowing/desktop environment.

Tools is what you use to fix someting or to build something.

Here is my list of Linux Power Tools:

• bash - in Linux you really need it to choose other CLI tools;
• find - you need it to find what to fix;
• awk, sed - you need to filter what you found;
• emacs - you need it to edit config files in order to fix them;
• cvs - you need it to keep track of a history of your changes;
• lynx - that's how you find new software with fix patches;
• wget - that's the way you download new software;
• Perl, Tcl, Python - many scripts, you want to fix, are written on these languages;
• gcc, make, configure - you may or may not program on C, but you have to build lots of packages from their source;
• C - actually programming on C is always good to know;
• PostgreSQL, MySQL - it's not just a database server - it can serve your data;
• webmin, linuxconf, apt, rmp, Portage - some tools are prescripted already, chose what's better for yur system;
• iptables - protect yourself;
• Postfix, Apache, Squid, Zope, Samba, LDAP, Gnome, KDE, X11, CUPS - only now you are ready to learn not fixing tools, but what should be fixed;

Re:My list of Power Tools

[Wolfrider]

...don't forget "netcat"...

Text of the article in case it gets /.ed

[Anonymous Coward]

[Posting as AC so I can't be accused of karma whoring.]

Linux Power Tools

Posted by timothy on 12-10-03 11:05

Dan Clough writes "I found Linux Power Tools to be a useful book, although it does have some shortcomings. It's a 644-page, well-written book that covers almost all aspects of managing, administering, and optimizing a working Linux system. The book's cover claims the target audience as intermediate to advanced users, but I think that beginner to intermediate would be more accurate. More advanced users may find Linux Power Tools a little beneath their level." Read on for the rest of Dan's review. Linux Power Tools
author Roderick W. Smith
pages 644
publisher Sybex
rating 8 of 10
reviewer Dan Clough
ISBN 0782142265
summary Well-written introductory and intermediate material; a useful jumping off point for many tasks though not the definitive source for specialized ones.

The text doesn't cover installing a Linux system, but does point out some of the differences among the major distributions in common use today, specifically Debian, Mandrake, RedHat, Slackware, and SUSE. Much of the distro-specific information is contained in a chapter on package management (RPM, deb, tar.gz, and the GUI tools for the aforementioned distros). I found this book a good reference for a new user (and especially someone self-administering their Linux box for the first time), but most "expert" users will not find much here that they don't already know.

The author covers a wide range of software that is frequently used. This includes the major desktop environments KDE and Gnome (with a brief discussion of alternate window and file managers which can be used to create your own custom environment), and office application suites (fairly simple overviews of OpenOffice.org, KOffice, and Gnome Office). Also covered are the two most common bootloaders (LILO and GRUB), printer configuration options (LPRng and CUPS), and a pretty basic section on command-line shells and scripting. There are a couple of chapters that touch on the basics of doing backups (using tar), and some general methods of improving the security of a Linux system (such as using proper passwords and stopping unnecessary services). These topics are followed up by several sections on basic networking configuration (TCP/IP, DHCP, and DNS), and controlling network access with firewalls, TCP wrappers, and xinetd service restrictions.

The last few chapters cover setup and operation of various common server applications, including Apache, FTP, Sendmail, Postfix, SSH, and VNC. All of these server descriptions are of the "general overview" variety, and additional resources will be required by someone trying to configure them for the first time. The book includes a basic glossary aimed at beginners, and an excellent index. The inside front and back covers contain a nice list of essential Linux configuration files, with their default locations, although distro-specific variations are not included.

The two sections that I found the most useful are the kernel customization chapter, and the one on optimizing the X Window System configuration.

Although the kernel chapter contains information that can be found elsewhere, it offers a very understandable explanation, and should make the process of compiling a custom kernel (for performance optimization) achievable for someone who hasn't done it before. In short, everything I needed to know about was right there in one place, and eliminated the need to bounce back and forth between the numerous how-to documents available online. By following this book's guidelines, I was able to successfully compile a kernel optimized for my AthlonXP CPU, containing only the drivers I need, which resulted in noticeable improvements in bootup time, application loading times, and desktop responsiveness.

In the X Window System chapter, the use of options in the XF86Config(-4) config file was well explained, including how to set custom modelines useful for a non-standard screen

Re:Nobel peace prize won by a muslim!

[Anonymous Coward]

Americans have given more rights to those countries than you have.

Distinction

[POds]

I think people find it hard to estimate what actualy is intermediate or advanced. The linux version means a different thing to Windows and also it means something different when you combine all OS's into the one category. "computing" and even then, everyone has his/her different opinions on what is a begginer/intermediate/advance... For example, linus might consider myself a beginer, but my mother will most likly consider me an expert, where as i would prolly describe my self as intermediate.

err, no.

[pb]

Way to miss the point, my friend. Which is, looking answers up on the web is a perfectly sane approach to take, so it's odd that someone would feel comfortable doing so in Windows, and yet, not in Linux. ...that is to say, unless he mastered Windows and MS-DOS solely through reading computer books, at which point someone should tell him about this "internet" thing.

Yawn. Nothing to see here, you can crawl back under your bridge now.

Re:Actually it's not a bad book

[crush]

For instance, maybe I want help with setting schedules system events. How am I supposed to know to type man cron if I have never heard of cron before?

Well, you could really take a risk and type:

man -k schedule

or even more snazzily:

apropos schedule

and watch in joy as the results pop out at you:

[worm@hole loser]# apropos manual
man (1) - format and display the on-line manual pages
man2html (1) - format a manual page in html
man [manpath] (1) - format and display the on-line manual pages
perlxs (1) - XS language reference manual
sed (1) - manual page for sed version 4.0.3
wget (1) - GNU Wget Manual
whereis (1) - locate the binary, source, and manual page files for a command

Re:Actually it's not a bad book

[crush]

Or even more relevantly ;-)

[worm@hole loser]# apropos schedule
cron (8) - daemon to execute scheduled commands (Vixie Cron)
cron [crond] (8) - daemon to execute scheduled commands (Vixie Cron)
gpilot-install-file (1) - gnome-pilot file conduit scheduler

Re:Nobel peace prize won by a muslim!

[Anonymous Coward]

Yep : they have the right to remain silent about your depleted Uranium.

Less typing

[Zirtix]

With a shell that does tab-completion "apropos" can usually be tabbed out after 3 characters ("apr"), for a total of 4 keypresses. "man -k" has to be typed out. 6 keypresses!

That and They Ripped Off the Title!!

[Black-Man]

O'reilly and Unix Power Tools (which now includes Linux) is the true Power Tools book. Don't be fooled by imitation!!

additional reviews for this book

[Anonymous Coward]

I found some additional reviews for this book at this site

For the MCSE reader.

[LesGrieve]

Remember that a "Power User" within a Microsoft operating environment is a user that can install their own software.