Rating: 
Summary: An excellent intro book, especially for students
Review:
This is a hell of book with its 1616 pages and two Red Hat 8 CDs included :-). And this is not a "blind date" type of the book. On his website the author provides the text of four chapters (Ch 5: The Shell I, Ch 7: GNOME Desktop Manager, Ch 9: Networking and the Internet, Ch 12: The Shell II: The Bourne Again Shell).
They give pretty accurate snapshot as for the quality of the rest of the book. What I really like about Mark Sobell's Unix books is that all of them contain two parts:
- The first part is tutorial. There are ~1K pages in this part, more than in many introductory books for the same price :-). What is especially good, each chapter contains "Exercises" and "Advanced exercises" at the end. They help learning a lot and should be considered an integral part of the book. That distinguishes this book positively from the bulk of similar books. IMHO the last chapter of this part is not the least: Sysadmin chapter (ch. 17 p 895) might help a lot those who installed Linux at home and are struggling with Linux administration. But of course it cannot replace a book on Unix administration (I would recommend Essential System Administration by Aeleen Frisch, you mileage may vary; see Softpanorama bookshelf for more recommendations) and was not intended to.
- The second part is reference. Starting from page 1081 there is a reference that contains ~300 pages. It could easily stand on its own as a separate book. It's actually pretty competitive with O'Reilly Unix in a Nutshell and I would prefer Sobell's second part to them because of the quality of examples. The book also has pretty usable index and five appendixes. Appendix A (regular expressions) actually deserves to be converted to a chapter. This edition is a result of polishing the material from four previous editions and that shows. For example in the Chapter 2 (p.38) the author mentions the problem of using Ctrl-Z by the beginners who attempt to undo some command line changes. But this is not a Windows environment and that actually postpone the program -- a very puzzling situation for beginners for which very few Unix beginner books authors provide a helpful advice. Useful tips can be found in almost any chapter and it is this attention to details that really make this book an outstanding example of the introductory Unix textbook.
Another interesting feature of the book is it can be used to study the command line environment after GUI (KDE/Gnome) environment. The author introduced GUI environment quite early and explains it very well. Such an approach is more modern than "command line first" approach and provides an opportunity for students immediately transfer their Windows-based skills to Linux and master command line after that, saving a lot of frustration (command line version of vi as the first Unix editor is a torture for Windows users, as a teacher I know that for sure :-), GUI version of vim is a much better starting point for beginners and I highly recommend to start with it, not with the command line version). In this case beginners can postpone struggling with vi until they get to speed with command line editing, classic Unix utilities and pipes. Actually this "reverse order" permits studying vi in more depth. We should not forget than most students now study Unix after they learn Windows and Sobell's book in one of the few that take into account this situation.
I used his previous Solaris-based book for several introductory Unix classes at the university and can attest that students grasp most material very easily. Exercises given after each chapter can serve as a basis of very useful homework assignments.
As for shortcomings there are very few of them and they generally does not diminish the high value of the book. For some reason gawk and sed are not covered in the main chapters, but only in the reference part. I would change this is a future edition(s). Grep and find probably also can be covered a small separate chapter (or the author may wish to swap it with the chapter 14 --the second shell (c shell) might be an overkill for the introductory book (bash is now "good enough") and it's better to move it into supplement :-). I would also convert the supplement about regular expressions into a regular chapter and devote some space to Perl (Z-shell can go to the supplement too; I doubt about wisdom of covering three shells in an introductory book.) It's really sad that Perl is not mentioned at all while the whole chapter is devoted to zsh: in reality Perl killed shell scripting in all but simple and special purpose (startup) cases. And although the decision whether to include Perl chapter or not should probably be better left to the author (it complicates the book and as such has some drawbacks too), I think that it makes sense at least to provide a supplement with the overview of Perl in future editions. Another minor thing: using pine as a newsreader as in Chapter 9 is fine if you are limited to the command line. If not, than Netscape Communicator (in its Mozilla incarnation) is much more user friendly and easier to use program. All-in-all I hope everybody who is trying to master Linux will appreciate the level of insight into this pretty complex environment that this book provides. It beats similar books not only by weight :-). IMHO this book is as close to a classic Linux book as one can get.
Rating:
Summary: An exhaustive guide accompanied by a CD-ROM
Review: A Practical Guide To Red Hat Linux 8 by Linux expert and consultant Mark G. Sobell is an extensive and comprehensive guide specifically written and intended for Linux 8 users of all skill and experience levels, ranging from the novice to the seasoned programmer. Carefully presented with step-by-step examples, and offering informative and "reader friendly" instructions for utilizing all of the basic Linux utilities, programming tools, system administration tasks, as well as new features specific to Red Hat Linux: Version 8, A Practical Guide To Red Hat Linux 8 is also a compendium of advice pertaining to security issues, enhanced a glossary of more than 500 words and phrases. An exhaustive guide accompanied by a CD-ROM containing Red Hat Linux version 8.0 itself, this 1565-page instructional reference is enthusiastically recommended for anyone with an interest in the latest form of Linux.
Rating:
Summary: Incredibly thorough reference
Review: As a Linux newbie, I didn't expect to read this book cover to cover as a 1500 page training course. But it's an excellent and very readable reference. I've found answers and insight to almost every question and problem I've encountered. And here's a real plus - the CD's actually work. I've installed both a desktop and laptop from the CD's and the installation went very smoothly. I ended up with a more usable install than I got with a $...Suse 8.1 Professional distro.
Rating:
Summary: Incredibly thorough reference
Review: As a Linux newbie, I didn't expect to read this book cover to cover as a 1500 page training course. But it's an excellent and very readable reference. I've found answers and insight to almost every question and problem I've encountered. And here's a real plus - the CD's actually work. I've installed both a desktop and laptop from the CD's and the installation went very smoothly. I ended up with a more usable install than I got with a $...Suse 8.1 Professional distro.
Rating:
Summary: Comprehensive and thoughtful
Review: Even better than Sobell's first Linux book, this book is extremely comprehensive. It delves appropriately into the command line interface, detailing the differences between bash, tcsh, and zsh. Sobell also covers GNOME and KDE, offering practical advice as to customization. A Practical Guide to Red Hat Linux 8 starts off slowly, bringing the reader along, and ramps up nicely to cover networking and system administration. I found that the section on the utility commands alone is worth the price of admission - covering many useful commands in man page fashion, but with better descriptions and more examples. I found the 60 page index to be thorough, although I did find it missing an item or two. I appreciated the many references to web sites that allowed me to stay up-to-the-minute on certain topics. All told, IMHO, this is the Linux book to buy.
Rating:
Summary: Overall, excellent!
Review: For my purposes, as a tech writer and intermediate-level user of Linux, this book has been very helpful. Certainly, some of the topics have been covered in other books I've purchased, and other books go more deeply into some of the topics. But overall, this has been the best of the bunch. The same goes for his Solaris book. I was especially pleased that he maintains a web site with answers to some of the exercises, posts errata, and actually answers users' questions via email!! AND--Marc Sobell writes grammatically correct English, which is a virtue not found in many computer books.
Rating: 
Summary: It does not look like a practical guide
Review: For the past several years, I have been using Mark Sobell's previous Linux book for an introductory UNIX class I teach, but it was getting out of date. So I'm very excited to have this new edition. But he has done more than just update it, he has added several new chapters and somewhat reorganized it. The first section, GNU/Linux Basics, is a perfect introduction to UNIX, everything you need to begin using it. Mark doesn't waste a lot of time getting started, but after a useful historical chapter to "set the stage" and give some idea why one would want UNIX rather than alternatives, he jumps right in with logging in, changing passwords, and getting documentation. Installation is left to way later (and mostly referring to web documentation, which will stay more up-to-date.) Pico is used to be able to do simple editing, without taking a lot of time learning vi(m) or emacs too soon (but he has references to the chapters on both those editors, if the reader already knows them.) Then the book covers many basic commands (I'd probably leave out gzip and tar this early, as well as write, talk, and mesg. I'd also choose one of who, finger, or w, so as to concentrate on more critical commands.) He introduces pipes very early, which I think is necessary (many books don't introduce them until a late chapter on shells). I'd also introduce redirection before he does, but it doesn't mean much without understanding files and the filesystem, which he covers next. These first 5 chapters really cover all one needs to get started. Each chapter also has a summary and some exercises, both basic and more advanced. The answers are (or will be) on Mark's web site. He includes sidebars with tips, warnings, security suggestions, and other things that would be missed if they were buried in the main text (or, sometimes, should be skipped.) He's good at defining terms, and there is a glossary in the back. The next chapters cover various topics, and cover them well. In my UNIX II class, I cover the Bash shell, how it works and how to write scripts, both covered in separate chapters here. The book also has a good chapter on Networking and the Internet, and a very complete chapter on System Administration (almost 200 pages!) Rather than taking up time with vi or emacs in class, I let my students choose which they want and read the appropriate chapter themselves. There are also three chapters, on X Windows, GNOME, and KDE which seem to be a complete coverage of three very useful items not usually covered in UNIX books, and which I don't like to cover directly in my class (not enough time), but think students should have access to. The final section of the book is a command reference manual in itself, with lots of examples. Due to the size of this book, I would have preferred it to be published separately, but this way allows Mark refer to details later instead of taking up space in the main text. In summary, I really like his previous "Practical Guide to Linux", and think this new version is even better. I wish it could be smaller (carrying this back and forth to classes will be backbreaking), but it is nice to have so much packed into a single book. Real value for the money!
Rating:
Summary: Terrific
Review: For the past several years, I have been using Mark Sobell's previous Linux book for an introductory UNIX class I teach, but it was getting out of date. So I'm very excited to have this new edition. But he has done more than just update it, he has added several new chapters and somewhat reorganized it. The first section, GNU/Linux Basics, is a perfect introduction to UNIX, everything you need to begin using it. Mark doesn't waste a lot of time getting started, but after a useful historical chapter to "set the stage" and give some idea why one would want UNIX rather than alternatives, he jumps right in with logging in, changing passwords, and getting documentation. Installation is left to way later (and mostly referring to web documentation, which will stay more up-to-date.) Pico is used to be able to do simple editing, without taking a lot of time learning vi(m) or emacs too soon (but he has references to the chapters on both those editors, if the reader already knows them.) Then the book covers many basic commands (I'd probably leave out gzip and tar this early, as well as write, talk, and mesg. I'd also choose one of who, finger, or w, so as to concentrate on more critical commands.) He introduces pipes very early, which I think is necessary (many books don't introduce them until a late chapter on shells). I'd also introduce redirection before he does, but it doesn't mean much without understanding files and the filesystem, which he covers next. These first 5 chapters really cover all one needs to get started. Each chapter also has a summary and some exercises, both basic and more advanced. The answers are (or will be) on Mark's web site. He includes sidebars with tips, warnings, security suggestions, and other things that would be missed if they were buried in the main text (or, sometimes, should be skipped.) He's good at defining terms, and there is a glossary in the back. The next chapters cover various topics, and cover them well. In my UNIX II class, I cover the Bash shell, how it works and how to write scripts, both covered in separate chapters here. The book also has a good chapter on Networking and the Internet, and a very complete chapter on System Administration (almost 200 pages!) Rather than taking up time with vi or emacs in class, I let my students choose which they want and read the appropriate chapter themselves. There are also three chapters, on X Windows, GNOME, and KDE which seem to be a complete coverage of three very useful items not usually covered in UNIX books, and which I don't like to cover directly in my class (not enough time), but think students should have access to. The final section of the book is a command reference manual in itself, with lots of examples. Due to the size of this book, I would have preferred it to be published separately, but this way allows Mark refer to details later instead of taking up space in the main text. In summary, I really like his previous "Practical Guide to Linux", and think this new version is even better. I wish it could be smaller (carrying this back and forth to classes will be backbreaking), but it is nice to have so much packed into a single book. Real value for the money!
Rating:
Summary: Finally, I'm enjoying Linux
Review: Having just worked through a class that used another book as text, and having "picked through" Sobell's chapters to supplement that material, I'm now going through chapter by chapter. I can only say that I'm enjoying Linux for the first time. Finally, a text that's well written (as well as having other virtues); an author who responds to questions sent via email. There's no one-size-fits-all in the textbook world (this from a former academic), but I give Sobell high praise from the student's point of view. There are other places to learn more advanced techniques and Perl programming.
Rating:
Summary: Finally, I'm enjoying Linux
Review: Having just worked through a class that used another book as text, and having "picked through" Sobell's chapters to supplement that material, I'm now going through chapter by chapter. I can only say that I'm enjoying Linux for the first time. Finally, a text that's well written (as well as having other virtues); an author who responds to questions sent via email. There's no one-size-fits-all in the textbook world (this from a former academic), but I give Sobell high praise from the student's point of view. There are other places to learn more advanced techniques and Perl programming.
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