Linux in a Nutshell, 5th Edition
by Aaron Weber, Arnold Robbins, Ellen Siever, Robert Love, Stephen Figgins
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Book Reviews of Linux in a Nutshell, 5th Edition
Book Review: An excellent refresh of a classic Linux text.
Summary: 5 Stars
Linux in a Nutshell, now in it's fifth edition, is one of the classic works of Linux documentation. Much has changed with Linux in the two years since the fourth edition was published, and Linux in a Nutshell reflects those changes with several major changes to the book, while keeping the parts that worked from previous editions.
What's new?
Linux in an Nutshell has grown since the early days of the first edition, not the least of which is the number of pages the book comprises of (924 pages). Linux in an Nutshell reflects the constantly evolving and morphing changes that comprise the Linux distributions of today. Both GNOME and KDE are radically different from their 2003 versions, so the authors wisely decided to remove those chapters from this edition. They also removed the chapter dealing with FVWM. (I've never understood why GUIs are documented in a Linux book anyways, as the GUI is the component most succeptible to change.) TCSH is no longer covered in this edition, favoring expanded coverage of both bash and ksh. Reflecting the changing needs of revision control in the Linux community, the authors also decided to drop the chapter on RCS in favor of a new chapter on Subversion. Not all changes involve deletions, though. The chapter for package management now includes yum and up2date (both methods for keeping a Linux machine updated from a remote repository), as well as updates for the newer versions of RPM and apt. Many of the commands have also been updated to reflect new functionality (one useful command I found as a result of this book is diff3, which compares three different files at the same time), while others have been removed because they're not generally useful (imake, anyone? :) ).
What's good?
Linux in a Nutshell is quite simply an excellent reference for useful commands in Linux. The layout makes it easy to find a command in a hurry. The command descriptions are informative, and the command line options are well balanced to provide just the right amount of information without overloading the reader with useless functionality. The specialized chapters for vi, Emacs, sed, awk, bash/ksh, CVS and Subversion go into more depth than the other commands, and give an excellent insight into the methods, capabilities, and pitfalls of each of these commands.
What's the verdict?
If you're currently using an older edition of Linux in a Nutshell, it's time to upgrade. Linux in a Nutshell remains true to the original spirit of the Nutshell series, while expanding to reflect the realities of the current Linux distributions. Beginners and experts alike will find this book informative, useful, and well-thumbed. It's a difficult task to take Linux and distill it into under a thousand pages, but the authors have once again risen to the task to make a reference that everyone will enjoy using.
Book Review: VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED QUICK REFERENCE GUIDE
Summary: 5 Stars
Do you need quick access to information on a wide range of tools? Well, you're in luck! Authors Ellen Siever, Aaron Weber, Stephen Figgins, Robert Love and Arnold Robbins, have done an outstanding job of writing the fifth edition of a book about Linux. This is a freely available clone of the Unix operating system whose uses range from embedded systems and PDAs to corporate servers, web servers, and massive clusters that perform some of the world's most difficult computations.
Siever, Weber, Figgins, Love and Robbins begin by explaining Linux's strengths and the key aspects of working with Linux, and lay out the scope of this book. Next, the authors introduce TCP/IP networking and the Linux commands used for system administration and network management. Then, they present a reference listing of hundreds of the most important shell commands available on Linux. The authors continue by covering the commands used to control booting on Linux and dual-booting, particularly LILO, GRUB, and initrd. In addition, the authors next explain the apt series of commands that manage updating and installation on Debian, and the RPM system used by Red Hat/Fedora, Novell/SUSE, and several other distributions of Linux. They also document the default command-line interpreter on Linux, Bash, and another popular interpreter, ksh. Next, the authors introduce regular expressions and explain how different tools interpret these powerful tools for searching and text processing. Then, they provide reference information on Emacs, a text editor and full-featured development environment. The authors continue by describing the classic vi editor that is the most popular text-manipulation tool on Linux. In addition, the authors then describe the Stream editor that is useful for processing files in standardized ways. They also document another valuable tool for processing text files, the GNU version of awk that is the default on Linux systems. Next, the authors provide the background for understanding CVS and Subversion, which are valuable tools for tracking changes to files and projects. Then, they provide a description of a popular source code management and version-control tool. Finally, they describe what is generally considered the next generation of CVS.
With the preceding in mind, the authors have also done an excellent job of writing a quick reference guide for the basic commands and features of the Linux operating system. So, at the end of the day, with this book, you'll know what you want to do and how to do it with the correct command or option!
Book Review: Linux in a Nutshell
Summary: 2 Stars
Buying a book on the internet is like getting Christmas presents from distant relatives at times. They rely on word-of-mouth to get the choice right; occasionally you luck in, and sometimes you luck out.
After installing Ubuntu on 2 systems in August 08, as the eldest male in the house it tends to fall to me to fix all PC problems, from "why isn't the mouse working?" (change the batteries AGAIN) to "What does 'formatting c:' mean, Dad?" I bought this book to give me a better look at Linux.
The help system on Linux is extensive, and the apropos, man and info commands are familiar friends by now. However, documentation in Linux is often more challenging to find, and I was looking for something that pulled it all together. For my purposes, this book wasn't it.
"Linux in a nutshell" is not designed for the prospective or brand new user; the lack of anything in the title suggesting that was one of the reasons I bought it. However, it lacks a systematic approach to the topic. At 925 pages, it's a big nutshell too. However, fully 499 pages amount to a printout of the man pages, so there's a lot of redundant information for anyone with access to a Linux terminal. The other chapters are a mix of topics; 100 pages on version control (no mention of bazaar), 50 on emacs and vi, a worthwhile section on regex/awk/sed and bash, others on bootloaders and package managers, and various others. However, many of these pages are again a printout of the man pages.
My major complaint is that most of the book is a printout of man pages. Linux, as a rule, is reasonably well documented. What is missing is a metapackage that enables the user to know which command to use; this book doesn't fill that gap. For example, sound is only mentioned in the man page listings, and the directories to find documentation for installed packages are not mentioned at all.
It should also be mentioned that there are significant changes in the Linux kernel since this version of the book(copyright 2005), and understandably there is no mention of these- for instance, HAL as the manager for input devices isn't listed in the index. Setting up multiple displays- another common task in my experience- doesn't get a mention at all.
In summary, this book would help if the PC was completely messed up. With access to a terminal, it provides little benefit, although the chapters on bash, sed and gawk have excellent introductions.
Book Review: A very big nutshell!
Summary: 4 Stars
This book is as it promises, lots of information in a very (relatively) small space. The chapters are organized on topics that the newbie (read: me!) needs to know about and the explanations are thorough and well-written. While the old hand will understand the material covered easily and without much review, the newbie will have to read and re-read to get it all. Chapter 3 lists the most common LINUX commands and details arguments that go with them. The index and the fact that the commands lists are alphabetical make it very easy to look up a specific command or function and find out what you need to know to make it work on the spot. The chapters on Shells and on the VIM Editor are very informative and make two tough topics easy to understand. Reading through the VIM editor chapter as I did a lab practical made the process almost fun. For me, the best part was that I could understand the book, and my way experienced friend also finds it a useful reference for his more advanced work. So, I'll be able to use it while I grow into it as a LINUX user.Book Review: O'Reilly Advocates on the lose
Summary: 1 Stars
Hiya!
this book is a waste of money and space. what kind of an idiot would carry this book around? when all the information is in the linux system itself?? MAN pages and INFO pages.
observe. you can search for utilities in the Linux system by using APROPOS. can you automatically search for the utility you want in this thick thick book? lets say i want to use an editor. all you do from the command line is...
x@y:/$ apropos editor
the linux system automatically searches the database and man pages for the keyword "editor" and you get a whole list of editors you can choose from. try that with this book, all the utilities in this book are listed alphebetically... very good filtering / indexing system indeed *sarcasm*
you have to have pretty good knowledge and know the command and what you're looking for from the beginning to find this book useful. the irony of this is that once your knowledge level is at that level all you really need are the MAN pages.