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Summary: Perfect for newbies
Review: I have been looking for a beginner's book for Linux for a long time. This is the third book on Linux I have purchased. I wish I had bought this one first. This book has everything for someone who is new to Linux. It gives detailed descriptions of the utilities, the shells, how to use different text editors as well as networking. It doesn't go over the installation process; you can get instructions for your version on the web. I found this book to be very helpful for someone like myself who is new to Linux. I would recommend this nook to anyone who is new to Linux.
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Summary: You need this
Review: I have found this to be one of the best books I own on Linux. It has many examples, clear descriptions, and very useful information. I do hope he comes out with another edition within a year or so - and I only say that because there are so many changes in the Linux world. the basics seem to live on but smaller yet important things do change on a daily basis. Plus many readers do look at copyright dates and make their decisions that way (unfortunately). Anyway, bottom line: GET IT - You need this
Rating:
Summary: You need this
Review: I have found this to be one of the best books I own on Linux. It has many examples, clear descriptions, and very useful information. I do hope he comes out with another edition within a year or so - and I only say that because there are so many changes in the Linux world. the basics seem to live on but smaller yet important things do change on a daily basis. Plus many readers do look at copyright dates and make their decisions that way (unfortunately). Anyway, bottom line: GET IT - You need this
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Summary: See www.sobell.com for more info on Linux and this book.
Review: I welcome feedback. Let me know what you think of the book after you read it. Thank
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Summary: Best I've Seen So Far.
Review: I would not have written this review if I didn't see the review by j.guy@soandso (The cute penguin) but after reading this book and thinking it was great I went back to the book and looked up his complaints. By golly he was right! But unfortunately he missed one important point that even the 5 star reviewers did. This book is not the first Linux book you should read! Sobell's book went as smooth as silk for me, but that was after reading both the Red Hat 6.0 manuals front to back and then Linux for Dummies (ok hold on, it only took me 2.5 hours to read so stop laughing). So this book is truely a 5 star book, but probably won't be alot of help to you until you've read about and experimented with some really basic features of the OS. This book should be on your bookshelf and after I read a couple other ones (this level and up) I may come back and review it again just to make sure I'm 100% right.
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Summary: valuable book for any Linux enthusiast
Review: I wrote the following review when I was the chair of the Linux Users' Group at the University of Illinois. "When I was the chair of the Linux Users' Group at the University of Illinois, and even before, I was interested in what publications there were out there about Linux. I would look at the books from time to time and find that I knew everything in them or that they were written in a "Step 1 do this. Step 2 do this." format. None of them really taught you Linux in specific and UNIX in general. (In my view, part of being taught something is the understanding of why, not a step by step instruction manual. That's what "For Dummies" books are for.) Mark Sobell's book is a nice change of pace from this. A quick description of the content in the book will hopefully start to get you interested. It starts with a forward by Linus Torvalds, the father of Linux, that reveals that Mark Sobell had written one of the first UNIX books that Linus had been exposed to. With that powerful start the book takes off running with a quick description of the history of Linux and how the Linux community has come together over the Internet to create a widely used OS. From there the next few chapters explain everything from logging in to writing shell scripts, basically tasks that will become a part of everyday Linux life. The second part of the book is a reference of Linux commands, and other needed Linux information from regular expressions to the POSIX standards. There are a few things in the layout of this book that I believe place it above most other Linux books. The two most notable layout designs are the "Caution" and "Optional" passages. The "Cautions" usually warn you away from actions that are particularly dangerous and try to keep you from stepping on your own toes. (The most important caution is first given on page 20 when you're told NOT to play around as root.) The reason I point out the caution passages is not because its particularly unique to this book, but the way in which it was done. It is very clear what is a caution passages since it is usually in a grayed box. The rest of the text in the book is done on a white background. This makes it very apparent that it is important to read and draws your eyes towards it. The "Optional" passages are great for those who are looking to learn a little more then just what is needed to get by. A good example of this is on page 178 and 179 where there is an explanation of many system daemons that a normal user never touches. It gives a nice explanation of what they do, and why one might run into them. This information about in.nntpd and named, for example, is not essential to run your Linux box at home, but one day you might want to set up one of those handy utilities. For example, when I moved over to ISDN at school, and later to a 33.6 after graduation, I found I wanted to set up a caching only DNS. If not for information like this, some people might not know where to look. If you are one of those people, named is a daemon that is in charge of DNS. The other thing that makes this book a valuable item for any Linux enthusiast is the reference section I mentioned before. The information on the commands is in a quick, man-page like format, however they contain examples that allows everyone from the inexperienced user to the guru to become quick acquainted (or reacquainted) with the commands so they can get back to work. It lives up to its reference name, and that should be attractive to the experienced users. All in all this book has something for everyone and I highly recommend it. On a scale from 1 to 10, this book gets a 9.5!"
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Summary: best linux teaching book there is
Review: I've been working on linux for more than a year, and this was a book assigned for a class. Since then, I've bought four other linux books. But this one is usually the first book I will consult regardless.
The problems with the book are: that the book is very old, and that it doesn't discuss newer versions of Netscape and Red Hat and other tools. Linux has gotten a lot more user friendly, and this book won't provide a lot of help about using the most modern window manager. The book does not discuss apache and possibly not even samba (i don't remember). It doesn't really adequately describe dual booting with windows (which is an important thing to discuss). On the other hand, it gives a more than adequate explanation of vi, emacs and cvs. Also this book is unparalleled is discussing how to use the command line interface and explaining the underworkings of the linux/unix OS. The best thing about the book is that it gives an exceptional index to the bash commands and utility commands and it gives two or three pages of explanations and EXAMPLES for each one. At first glance, it may resemble a man page, but it gives much more than that. It gives actual situations, and prompts, user input and results. These examples easily explain the functions and the powers and the niceties of the command switches. Particularly helpful were the discussion of sed, awk, regular expressions and other low level commands. It doesn't discuss networking as much as it should, but its unwavering focus on the command line more than makes up for this deficiency. Other books I would recommend include LINUX, Second Edition: Installation, Configuration, and Use and Oreilley's Running Linux or Network Administrator's Guide. But I still go back to this book more often than all three of these books combined. When this book comes out in a later edition (and I feel sure it will), it will undoubtedly be the best guide for newbies and pro's alike.
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Summary: A perfect combination of textbook and reference guide!
Review: If you have installed Linux, and need a coherent, step by step method to show you how to use it, this is a great book. This book is not designed to walk you through the Linux installation process. For that, any number of other books are available. It is not a disassociated compilation of how-tos. It is part tutorial and part reference guide. I am a new Linux user, and am currently taking a class in Unix. I wish the instructor had chosen this book. I am using it rather than the assigned textbook and I find that I am not only keeping up with the class, but my understanding of the material is considerably enhanced. At the end of each chapter, there are questions relating to the material presented in that chapter. If you can answer the questions, you can be sure that you understand the material. The explanations of the utilities are excellent; they provide enough theoretical information to give you an understanding of how they are integrated with the OS, and clear examples, which allow you to use them instantly. The book is designed for the intermediate to advanced user who may have little or no experience with Linux and wants a thorough introduction. The format is well thought out and, if you choose to move through the book chapter by chapter, you will find it well designed and challenging. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.
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Summary: Forthright, clear, concise, organized . . .
Review: Perhaps it's Mark Sobell's writing style or perhaps it's the nature of Linux. I've found so much knowledge here--written so clearly, concisely, and in such an organized manner--that I had to stop learning and write this review. I'm using this book as a text by reading it chapter by chapter. And I'm also using its index to search for answers to questions while I play with Linux on my PC. Both uses are paying off because I'm learning Linux to my satisfaction and pleasure. Thanks, Mark, for your efforts.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent book - contains "must know" information
Review: The author says right off the bat that this isn't a book that will help you install Linux. He refers you elsewhere. This book contains information that, in my opinion, everyone needs to know if their goal is to be a master user in Linux. Other books concentrate on things that are specific to a certain distribution. This book concentrates mostly on things that should be done from the command-line, and different command-line programs. If you want to be good at Linux, or even aspire to be a Linux admin, you need to know this stuff. I would like to see the author make an updated version of this book, and cover things like ssh, and remote administration. This is an excellent book! I gave it a 4-star rating because I think it should have covered other info, like the kernel, and ways to tweak your system.
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