[tlug] Good Book?

["Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon" <ronfaxon@example.com>]

First - sorry to include the review of the book I'm asking about in 
total, but I'm doing so with the link to the originating site and under 
the condition that it is both short and of positive interest to the 
original publisher that it be seen.

That said - does anyone have any comments on this book?  I'm sure it's 
overly simple to the experts on the list, but do you think it would be a 
good book for those of us who use Linux all the time, but have a shallow 
knowledge of what's riding beneath the desktop?

Lyle


http://www.regdeveloper.co.uk/2005/12/14/linux_quick_fix_notebook_book_review/

Linux Quick Fix Notebook
For power users
By Pan Pantziarka
Published Wednesday 14th December 2005 07:02 GMT

Book review On the whole we're wary of books that promise instant 
wisdom. Generally those books that promise to make you a guru in 30 
seconds fail to deliver.

So we have to admit that we didn't have high hopes for Linux Quick Fix 
Notebook; the title is uninspiring and makes it sound like another book 
promising expertise without effort. But this is far from the truth and, 
contrary to what we expected, this is a book that can easily be recommended.

Aimed at the experienced user or IT professional, this is a book that 
provides a series of practical tutorials around common activities that 
require fixing or trouble shooting. While there's some exploration of 
underlying principles, the main emphasis is on getting things done. It's 
certainly not a book that is designed to 'teach Linux', and things like 
basic installation, configuring desktops, using open source office 
applications etc are not covered.

In other words this isn't a book for someone moving to Linux for the 
first time. Instead this is the sort of book that would appeal to a 
power user, would-be administrator or developer who already has some 
knowledge and experience of Linux.

Furthermore the book is geared around command-line use. This neatly 
avoids differences between desktops (KDE vs GNOME, for example), and 
provides a fairly generic set of tools. The book is also fairly agnostic 
as to which distribution to use, though Red Hat/Fedora are the reference 
distributions that are mentioned most often. However, users of Debian 
based systems should find the book just as useful as those using 
RPM-based distributions.

The book is organised into three sections: Linux file server project, 
Linux web site project and advanced topics. Don't be put off by the 
'project' headings for the first two sections of the book. The projects 
provide a convenient structure to cover core Linux skills in networking, 
file sharing using SAMBA, mail serving, FTP, controlling the boot 
process, security (including firewalls using iptables), wireless 
networking and so on.

The structure of the book is such that the topics become progressively 
more advanced as your work through the book. Not that it's necessary to 
read this one cover to cover from start through to finish. The topics 
are sign-posted and it's an easy process to navigate to the topic you're 
looking for. It makes for a great resource to have around for day to day 
use.

While the writing style is fairly terse, it's also very clear, easy to 
follow and provides sound explanations of what is going on. There are no 
magic incantations without explanations of what's being done and why. 
Troubleshooting and an emphasis on using the right tools to diagnose and 
correct problems is also a clear feature in all sections of the book.

The Linux book market remains a crowded one, and anyone looking for a 
practical book on solving problems is likely to have plenty of potential 
titles to choose from. However, this is a book that deserves to be high 
on the list, and it gets a very definite seal of approval.

Linux Quick Fix Notebook

Author: Peter Harrison

Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR

ISBN: 0131861506

Media: Book

Level: Intermediate/Advanced

Verdict: Highly recommended