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Rating: 
Summary: A Good Start on Moving to Linux
Review: I find it strange to say that an eleven hundred page (plus) book is really only an introductory book. Unfortunately that's the truth. What you get here is a bunch of stuff. For one thing, you get the operating system itself. And while you can download the coftware free, you'd better be prepared for a pretty long wait, at 56K about a hundred hours for the four 650 MB image disks.
I say "introductory" because there are so many subsidiary packages included in the basic Linux distribution and these can be treated only superficially. For instance MySQL gets about 35 pages. This is enough to get the software up and running, and a little bit about the SQL language. But you're not going to be a power SQL programmer after just 35 pages, you've only touched the surface. And of course each other big area (Apache Web Server, Mail Server, LDAP and a whole lot of other sets of initials) has it's own set of books to expand on what's here.
But you've got to start somewhere, and here's a good place. Mr. Negus is a far better writer than many in the computer business. He's written this as a way to get started in moving to the Linux world. And at this he does a supurb job.
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Summary: Check motherboard compatibility before you buy!
Review: I've used Fedora before, and really liked it. I figured I'd order the book and cd set for my home computer. I went to install it, and it hung on the boot image, then rebooted. After playing with every setting in the book, altering settings in my BIOS, I went to the Red Hat support site and found that my motherboard, an ASUS P4P800, is incompatible with the version of the 2.6 kernel included in the distribution.I will be sticking with my SuSE install a bit longer, I think.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent starting point
Review: Since it helps to know the background of the author of an op ed, I'm the IT director for a medium size company (1500+ employees in eight different sites in three different cities) in charge of a mixed Windows/*nix environment. My subordinates and I deal with the lowest form of user (someone who can barely muddle through Windows XP) to power users/programmers/etc that can make a computer jump up and bark (literally, but that's another story).
There are two, what I consider, "myths" I'd like to address. First, "Micro$oft is better because a major corporation supports it." Yes and no. No: try and deal with Micro$oft directly if you aren't a Fortune 500 company and you have more than just some minor "silly" problem. Just try. I dare you. Yes: there's a lot of third party expertise for Micro$oft products (but there are more people who pretend to be and charge you for screwing up your network). Second: "Linux isn't 'there' yet for the desktop." It is. But if you want a Linux only network, you need to work for it (training, support, commitment, Linux friendly hardware, etc). In all likelihood, any "large" network will, and should, be a mix of Microso$t/*nix.
Negus' series of Red Hat/Fedora Bibles (I've bought almost all of them) are, in my humble opinion, the best and possibly only place to start ***for an outstanding overview of what Linux can do.*** You may need specialized books to flesh out a specific need: an apache book, a sendmail book, mySQL, whatever. Then again, there's a good chance you won't unless you want to do something tricky. Negus walks you through, step by step, how to configure Red Hat/Fedora for pretty much anything it's capable of doing, albeit a ***basic*** configuration.
Initially, I was a HUGE Red Hat fan. When Red Hat spun off Fedora, I hickuped on Red Hat and ramped up on Debian. I have since softened that stance: Red Hat/Fedora is still more than acceptable. (Not to say I wouldn't love to see a Debian and/or Gentoo book by Negus.)
Advice for beginners. Corporate: If you are a Micro$oft user, stay a Micro$oft user unless you have a compelling reason to change (money and stability are usually the two best reasons to change - and stability less so with XP running around), are comfortable with computers, are willing to read your butt off, and don't need specific applications that are only written for Micro$oft. Always remember: ***in general***, computers do not make your company money. They just don't. They ***usually*** just make doing whatever it is you do to make money easier, i.e., they save time/money. Home user: if you want to learn, this is a great book with which to start.
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Summary: In a word: wow
Review: This enormous book is nothing short of excellent!
You get the four CD's of Fedora Core 2 included.
The book is full of succinct explanations of how to do a huge number of basic and not so basic tasks in configuring Fedora. The explanantions are logical, ordered and actually work really well. In addition there are tips and windows how-tos for connecting windows to various Fedora provided services such as file servers, print servers and so on.
I am really impressed with this book because it just what the average tinkering user wishing to escape the grip of Microsoft needs to get underway and free from closed source, proprietary OS's that cost jumbo dollars...for $35 you get a really robust, excellent OS (I run it on 2 computers: 1 file/print/database server and 1 desktop) that is fun to play around with and explore as well as 1100 pages of explanations on how to do most of things you'll probably ever need to do (some linux documentation can be obscure and not overly useful if you have to wade thru masses and masses of HTML pages looking for an explanation). It's not guru depth stuff for the most part, but puts you well and truly on the correct path to guru-ness if you wanna go that way. or alternatively, is a just plain excellent if you wanna enjoy a life free of Microsoft (it's a good feeling...!) I have both this and running Linux, O'Reilly (isbn 0596002726), and personally I think this is significantly better value because of its clear content, breadth and depth, clarity in explaining how to do things and you get the OS with it!
So come on...buy it, try it, take control of your PC away from Microsoft and put it back into your hands. Christopher Negus has a lot to tell us and teach us...
This book assumes nothing about your prowess or familiarity with PC's. If you can read and follow 10 step procedures, then you're in business. Sure, there are some pages on linux games, the desktop,publishing and multimedia and such that I consider a bit obvious, but they still cater for the total newbie I guess. So they can't be bad...but the remainer is all good stuff: particularly the 200-400 page sections on administering fedora, network and server set up. Masterful!
Overall: an excellent book that is well written, clear, concise, intertesting and a gateway to opening up your vision to a truly fine OS: Fedora. It's even funny at times, in a dry sort of way.
Previous version was a 2003 Best Linux Book as voted by readers of Linux World Magazine (so it says on the front)...
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Summary: Great book for the latest Linux software
Review: When software doesn't work in Linux, everyone (who cares to) can see the code, debug the problem, and help get it fixed. A reviewer of this book described how a particular Fedora 2 install failed. Following up on how the problem was fixed illustrates the open source software model at its best. The bug the reviewer encountered was reported to Red Hat by others at bugzilla.redhat.com too late to make the final Fedora 2 release. Nearly 200 comments were entered on the bug, allowing a developer at Red Hat to provide a quick fix. (Search there for bug 121819 and see comment 122, if you have the same problem.) After Fedora is installed, the permanent fix is available to be downloaded with a single command (yum update kernel). Once you get past the installation (as most will without trouble), you'll see that this most recent version of the Red Hat Linux Bible (Fedora 2) reflects the latest features available today for Linux. Red Hat wasn't kidding when it said it wanted to do rapid development of cutting-edge Linux technology. Fedora Core 2 includes: * The latest Linux 2.6 kernel
* New desktop (X.org server, KDE, and GNOME)
* ALSA sound system
* New Security Enhanced Linux
* Many other new features Fedora Core 2 will run faster as a desktop and more securely as a server. If you want an edge learning the latest features slated for Red Hat's enterprise Linux products, this book includes the complete Fedora Core 2 distribution on four CDs and detailed instructions on how to use it as a desktop or server system. -- Chris Negus
Author, Red Hat Fedora Linux 2 Bible
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