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Rating: 
Summary: Alas in UNIX-land
Review: I found the fourth edition very helpful. The style is that modern "not-condescending but rather clear and informative" delivery. I do agree with the amazon.com review that it would have been more helpful to have arranged the book with more attention to tasks than to the commands themselves, especially since some of these, to a newcomer, are cryptic. Nevertheless, by taking notes, turning pages, and highlighting the index, it is easy to get around this rough corner. There is a listing of the major UNIX commands in the book's back. It covers "getting started" (logging on and off, etc.), file & directory basics, UNIX tools (basic 'vi' stuff - the text editor), command customization, C/Korn/Bash shells, multitasking, the Internet & e-mail, FTP, shell & C++ programming basics, and system administration. As the authors state, the book is kept brief (397 pages) to ensure simple delivery of what's most needed to get started pushing buttons. The format is similar to "Who's Afraid of C++?" in that it tries to be user-friendly, in this case by supplying small quizzes and simple tasks at each chapter's conclusion to ensure you've got down the few basic notions just delivered. I required this book for a class involving molecular orbital calculations involving UNIX navigation (C shell). I found it very useful, and the proverbial "life-saver". I do recommend this book to a newcomer like myself who wants a sympathetic and clear-cut introduction to UNIX. (It was the recommended text for the course, in any case.)
Rating: 
Summary: Geat Book...but Lacking
Review: This is a great book to introdce newbies to the world of Unix. However, due to the fact that it is a little old the Internet part is basically useless. Another thing is that all the complicated tasks are left unexplained. And they don't tell you how to configure X.
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