Book Review - Running Linux (5th Edition) by Matthias Kalle Dalheimer and Matt Welsh
Category Book Reviews
Matthias Kalle Dalheimer and Matt Welsh have done an excellent job with Running Linux (5th Edition). It's one of the few Linux books that strikes a nice balance between overview and in-depth, novice and guru...
Contents:
Part 1 - Enjoying and Being Productive on Linux: Introduction to Linux; Preinstallation and Installation; Desktop Environments; Basic Unix Commands and Concepts; Web Browsers and Instant Messaging; Electronic Mail Clients; Games; Office Suites and Personal Productivity; Multimedia
Part 2 - System Administration: System Administration Basics; Managing Users, Groups, and Permissions; Installing, Updating, and Compiling Programs; Networking; Printing; File Sharing; The X Window System; System Start and Shutdown; Configuring and Building the Kernel; Text Editing; Text Processing
Part 3 - Programming: Programming Tools; Running a Web Server; Transporting and Handling Email Messages; Running an FTP Server
Part 4 - Network Services: Running Web Applications with MySQL and PHP; Running a Secure System; Backup and Recovery; Heterogeneous Networking and Running Windows Programs
Appendix: Sources of Linux Information; Index
There are a couple of things that I really like in this book. First is the "distribution-neutral" approach. It's easy to get hung up in the Fedora/Ubuntu/SuSE/etc wars, and there are definitely books that cater to each specific distro. But often you really just want to understand Linux as a whole (or perhaps you use a variety of distros). Running Linux covers the core material common to all Linux installations, so you won't find yourself dealing with large chunks of the book that are irrelevant to you. The other feature I liked is their balance of coverage, and that's hard to do. You can either go for in-depth coverage and end up with a 2000 page book, or you can try to breeze through everything, and it's worthless once you use the feature. Dalheimer and Welsh were able to keep it under 1000 pages, touch on both desktop and server, and do it in such a way that both newbies and experienced Linux users can get something out of the book. It's not a highly graphical, handholding approach to the subject matter, so there tends to be more words packed in to the pages. But the flow and content is such that even someone brand new to Linux, if motivated, can go a long, long way with nothing more than their computer and this book...
Definitely one of the better "single volume" Linux books that can get you started down that road, as well as hang around on the bookshelf and be useful during the entire journey.
Matthias Kalle Dalheimer and Matt Welsh have done an excellent job with Running Linux (5th Edition). It's one of the few Linux books that strikes a nice balance between overview and in-depth, novice and guru...
Contents:
Part 1 - Enjoying and Being Productive on Linux: Introduction to Linux; Preinstallation and Installation; Desktop Environments; Basic Unix Commands and Concepts; Web Browsers and Instant Messaging; Electronic Mail Clients; Games; Office Suites and Personal Productivity; Multimedia
Part 2 - System Administration: System Administration Basics; Managing Users, Groups, and Permissions; Installing, Updating, and Compiling Programs; Networking; Printing; File Sharing; The X Window System; System Start and Shutdown; Configuring and Building the Kernel; Text Editing; Text Processing
Part 3 - Programming: Programming Tools; Running a Web Server; Transporting and Handling Email Messages; Running an FTP Server
Part 4 - Network Services: Running Web Applications with MySQL and PHP; Running a Secure System; Backup and Recovery; Heterogeneous Networking and Running Windows Programs
Appendix: Sources of Linux Information; Index
There are a couple of things that I really like in this book. First is the "distribution-neutral" approach. It's easy to get hung up in the Fedora/Ubuntu/SuSE/etc wars, and there are definitely books that cater to each specific distro. But often you really just want to understand Linux as a whole (or perhaps you use a variety of distros). Running Linux covers the core material common to all Linux installations, so you won't find yourself dealing with large chunks of the book that are irrelevant to you. The other feature I liked is their balance of coverage, and that's hard to do. You can either go for in-depth coverage and end up with a 2000 page book, or you can try to breeze through everything, and it's worthless once you use the feature. Dalheimer and Welsh were able to keep it under 1000 pages, touch on both desktop and server, and do it in such a way that both newbies and experienced Linux users can get something out of the book. It's not a highly graphical, handholding approach to the subject matter, so there tends to be more words packed in to the pages. But the flow and content is such that even someone brand new to Linux, if motivated, can go a long, long way with nothing more than their computer and this book...
Definitely one of the better "single volume" Linux books that can get you started down that road, as well as hang around on the bookshelf and be useful during the entire journey.
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