Rating: 
Summary: The much-vaunted Unix "philosophy" in practice
Review: This book is one of the cornerstones of the Unix philosophy. "There's a philosophy?" I hear you ask. Ohhh yessss. Unix gives you the tools to build whatever you want and asks only that you behave nicely, reading standard input and writing to stdout. Problem is, the tools sometimes seem too small to get anything useful done. What can you do with tiddlers like ls, cp and diff after all?This book answers those concerns by a series of examples. My favorite is the version control system implemented in diff. Yes, it's dated, but the quality still shows. I prefer to think of it as "old-school"; it shows just how much can be accomplished with talent and an understanding of the Unix Way.
Rating: 
Summary: good but very outdated...
Review: This book might be a very good book 10-15 years a go, but now most of the stuff is outdated. Don't waste your money on this book, instead buy another book. I especially recommend books from Richard Stevens. They are really well written and answer the needs of programmers and/or users of the present.
Rating: 
Summary: An old friend, returned from the dead.
Review: This book was my formal introduction to UNIX when it was originally published in 1984. I'd already been a UNIX user and programmer for 2 years, but this book helped cement my relationship with the UNIX operating system and community. UNIX is as much a technical philosophy as an operating system, and this book remains one of the best introductions to the UNIX philosophy. It is also a good introduction to basic UNIX tools, if a bit dated.
Rating:
Summary: Classic
Review: This is a really neat book because of who wrote it and it's value to the history of Unix. It's a good read and very informative. However, if you want to learn or get up to speed on Unix/Linux, this is not the book unless you are into Unix programming. Yes Unix is basically the same now as then but it has gone through some major evolving with different tools and servers. Check out my list of Unix books for learning Unix.
Rating:
Summary: My favorite book on the Unix environment
Review: This is my favorite book on the Unix environment. It starts at a very basic level, and gets quite involved by the end (for example, it includes a desktop calculator implemented in lex and yacc -- this example was very helpful to me in getting a handle on how to do "real" things using lex and yacc). The book is a tad dated; for example, it doesn't discuss Perl. But it's still the best "intro to unix" book you can buy.
Rating:
Summary: Makes you think, which creates understanding
Review: This is my favorite book on Unix tools. It is written in a readable style, but it is not easy. The exercises really challenge your understanding. You will be pushed to develop more than just a mediocre grasp. The grep exercise is a good example. It does not stand on its own because of its age and the older tools that are used. ed is a good example. The book uses ed as its text editor and even has a chapter on ed. I have never met an ed user. It would be easy to conclude that there is no reason to bother with ed. But because the Unix system evolved around ed, learning ed syntax is directly applicable to vi, sed, and perl.
Rating:
Summary: A classic exposition of Unix philosophy and practice.
Review: This is one of the best Unix books ever. It conveys not just the "how-to" details of the
Unix environment, but its "why-to"; its philosophy
and aesthetics. I rate it less than a 10 only
because it shows its age a bit, not covering some tools such as Perl and TCL that have become
important parts of the Unix toolkit since it was
written. Within its scope it is absolutely solid
and still an extremely valuable introduction.
Rating:
Summary: Yes its great
Review: This is the book I wish I had as an undergrad. I only purchased the book out of curiosity but was delighted with its content. If you are new to *nix programming then this book is a must! If this book demonstrates anything it reveals the true strength of Unix -- timeless. After all, the book was published in 1984. I always judge a technical book by its cover and this book is no exception (the less flashy the cover, the better the content). Eventually you'll need this book so you might as well buy it now.
Rating:
Summary: wonderful book, but dated
Review: This is the book that turned me on to UNIX. Actually at the time I read this book, I was burned out on computer programming in general and was thinking about moving into physics. Then I read this book. It illustrated very clearly the power and elegance of UNIX. As a result I regained my interest in computers, which in retrospect, turned out to be a very good thing. Unfortunately this book is System V-centric and doesn't say much about the improvements introduced by BSD, let alone gnu tools or linux. It was actually out of date at the time I bought it back in 1990. I'm still giving it 5 stars though because it's one of the best books I have read.
Rating:
Summary: Great book, but very confusing examples(code)
Review: This is very good book to begin with. It gives you all you need to know about UNIX to start with (requires C and some *NIX knowledge). It covers most of the areas of C and shell programming, however I don't think this book will be sufficient for all your needs and code is very-very confusing it takes a lot of time to figure it out...
I would highly recommend this book for someone that has some basic knowledge in UNIX and need fast intro (also great as the text book). This book will give you a good idea about everything in *NIX, but ones you done with it, you will want to buy another book.
P.S: I would give it a 5 stars if code would be written in less confusing manner.
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