Rating: 
Summary: VERY GOOD BOOK
Review: I bought this book (oct-2001) & I never have oracle experiance before so this book put me on the road.All what you need is some linux basics make sure to install ORACLE8i which it comes with this book under RedHat 6.2 .I treid 7.1 but it did not work I treid to install (compat glib , compat lib ..) and change the variable ASSUME_KERNAL=2.2.4...But it did not work fine in the end of installation...the frist 3 chapters are verty easy and staight but when it comes to java programing for oralce here is the diffecult part you need to have JAVA exp. espacialy with JDBC
Thats why I rated this book 4/5. Thanks Steve for your great book!
Rating: 
Summary: Not much new info
Review: I bought this book during my second install of Linux/Oracle hoping to get more indepth knowledge of Oracle's interoperation with Linux.However, along with the disappointement at not receiving the CD (I did not order this from Amazon), I was also disappointed that some of the printed examples didn't work; after I had spent the time keying them in. In the end, I got better, more accurate installation help from comp.databases.oracle.server, jordan.fortwayne.com and technet.oracle.com.
Rating: 
Summary: Also Having trouble with this book
Review: I can't get passed page 21 of the book. I've tried the Oracle Installer on Suse 7.2, Red Hat 7.2, and Mandrake, and the Oracle Universal Installer just won't work. I wish I could get my money back for this book. Use a different resource.
Rating: 
Summary: Gave up on Red Hat and went with SuSE
Review: I gave up on Red Hat and went with SuSE LINUX to get the install done. The install was smooth, but SuSE has preexisting oracle user, oinstall group, and dba group, so I had to fiddle with it a little. (Hey, it worked for me.) I've got the instructions if anybody knows where I can post them. Until then just email me at mattdegurse@hotmail.com and I'll get them out to you ASAP. This book is certainly basic but is an easy to read, and more importantly understand, work on getting a simple 8i instance and database running on Linux. Now I can start pursuing a DBA OCP at home!
Rating:
Summary: Good for the CD and Exercises, but too little explanation
Review: I have wanted to get my own copy of Oracle for some time. I looked at the Oracle web site back in May 2000 and noticed that Oracle for Linux was available at a price of several hundred dollars. As much as I wanted a copy, I thought the price was a little steep, so I gave the idea away. I was therefore, very pleasantly surprised when I came across this book at a far lower price, offering essentially the same deal. The book consists of 12 Chapters grouped into 3 Sections. These are Getting Started, Fundamentals of Application Development, and Basic Database Administration. Part 1 covers the installation and configuration of Oracle. If you follow the instructions carefully you shouldn't have any problems installing Oracle. In particular, if you read the System Requirements Section in Chapter 2 you will quickly find out if your system is able to handle the job of running Oracle. In my case I found that I needed a memory upgrade, which I duly carried out before installation. The installation instructions are very detailed and well laid out. Part 2 of the book deals with Introductory SQL, PL/SQL, Using Java and extending Oracl;e Objects. Part 3 deals with Securing Database Access, Managing Database Space, Database Protection and Basic Tuning. Each chapter,(except for Chapter 1) consists of 1 to 3 paragraphs of text, possibly with a screen shot or diagram, followed by an exercise based on the previous text. This is followed by some more text followed by an exercise , and so on. Some Chapters have close to 30 exercises. In a lot of cases you cannot really move onto the later exercises till you've done the earlier ones. Even the Installation of Oracle is presented as an exercise. The typeface used in the book is quite large, and there are nearly 200 Exercises altogether. As a result the explanatory material is quite terse. A little too terse for my liking. Leaving aside the fact that the book is a bargain for the CD alone, it's best described as an Assignment Book for people learning the Basics of Oracle.Using the book by itself, is the Oracle equivalent of trying to teach yourself C programming by using Kernighan and Ritchie by itself. (Yes I know it can probably be done ... but would would you want to do it that way?) If you were attending a formal course of lectures in introductory Oracle, this book would be perfect for a bunch of assignments to go with the course. Basically, what the book needs is far more explanation. The explanations given in the book are OK, but they are a little too brief. I am now looking at buying one or more other books on Oracle to give me a little more background so I don't just know the "how" of Oracle but the "why" as well. (One book I looked at was Oracle Development Unleashed ... that seems to be on the other side of the spectrum ...all chat with very little practical material ... but I digress... ) I am not going to throw this book away, but I badly need some other material to supplement it. There are a couple of minor errors in the chapters 3 and 4 as well. For example, the location of the initialization file on page 43. It says ... /usr/oraInventory......./initoralin. Thats not where mine was installed. Also there is a minor typo on page 80 where it explains how to use @ command. Also I think there's a bug in the oraenv script in the downloadable zip file. There may well be other errors further on. At the moment I'm reading other Oracle books to try and find out what schemas and instances and user rights etc etc are. I plan to work my way through the remaining chapters when I have a little more background knowledge. One nice touch is the inclusion of a script so that you can get Oracle to start up with the other system programs when you boot up and shut down nicely when you shutdown. Notwithstanding its shortcomings I think the book is well worth purchasing. The CD is worth getting and the Exercises, although they are badly in need of some supplementary explanation, have at least given me a list of activities to do with Oracle. OK so, how do I rate this book ? I am rating it in three parts, each worth a maximum of 5. I give it 5 out of 5 for value for money (mainly because of the CD), I give it 5 out of 5 for the exercises, and I give it 2 out of 5 for its explanation of what is actually happening with all the commands and assignments. I'm not criticizing the quality of the explanations, just the quantity. OK that's 5 plus 5 plus 2 which is 12. Divide by 3 gives an overall rating of 4.
Rating:
Summary: Mr MC's Review
Review: I tried several PC's and it always failed on installation at the same point. At the very last stage initalizing the Database, it just sits there for ever at 80% for Database creation in progress. Furthermore, where do you go to for help? It's a pitty because the book looks very good at explaining Oracle, if only I could get to use it.
Rating: 
Summary: Can't get Oracle to install
Review: I've been sitting here for 2 days trying to get the Oracle that was shipped with the book to install. I've read and re-read the instructions and various README files, but nothing works. I am running RedHat 7.0 Linux kernel 2.2.16 and I run Oracle on Solaris at work, so I pretty much know what I'm doing. The Oracle Universal Installer hangs at Database Creation Progress, at 92%, the logs show nothing. Once in a while, I get an ORA-03113, but usually it just hangs. So I thought I would send an email to the Steve Bobrowski, but alas, his email address is nowhere to be found, or maybe I'm just missing it somewhere. This book looked good in the bookstore, but a simple problem like failing to load the provided software will force me to return it. I can not suggest buying this book.
Rating:
Summary: Comment from the Author
Review: In response to the many reviews citing that the installation procedure does not work for ...(whatever)... distribution of Linux. The book states that the published installation procedure for Oracle8i is written for Red Hat 6.x, the version of Red Hat Linux that Oracle Corp. certified for Oracle8i and the preferred setup. If you need help with the installation on other distributions, please visit the following page at my company's web site, where you will find installation instructions for various releases of Oracle on various distributions of Linux -> (http://www.dbdomain.com/news_a4.htm). Hope this helps, and thanks for supporting my book.
Steve Bobrowski
Rating:
Summary: Indeed a Starter-Kit
Review: Just like this book present as a Starter-Kit, this book covers all newbies-need-to-know for oracle. The Oracle package Oracle816 is the most easiest package to install on Linux (RH62) with no additional patch for both. As this book has some minor on the learning guidance methods which needs you to start all over per chapter, still it worth to buy to start your Oracle career. If you plan to buy this for your OCP, you should consider a more in-depth explanation from other book.
Rating:
Summary: Great Comprehensive Introduction to Oracle
Review: NOTE: RED HAT USERS SHOULD READ THIS BEFORE BUYING Overall I really liked this book. I have a lot of industry experience but not much experience with Oracle and this book was a perfect introduction. The material was extremely well organized and presented in an easy to read format. The strength of this book is that it will give you enough information to get up and running without bogging you down with too much details that you won't initially need. The chapter on PL/SQL is very helpful for a person with SQL knowledge. Once you work through the compatibility issues (see below) you should have the database installed in no time at all. Now the reason this book lost a star. After buying the book I realized that the Oracle installer (Oracle Bug) will not run on Red Hat 7.0. It should run fine on version 6.2 so you may not want to upgrade. If you want to upgrade make sure you move directly to Red Hat 7.1 which was released with new compatibility libraries which are backwards compatible. I did not use the version of Oracle which came with the book but instead downloaded 8.1.7 from Oracle's web site and successfully installed it on Red Hat 7.1. To find the neccessary information to install under version 7.1, go to Red Hat's site and search for "7.1 last minute oracle".
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