Comments about oreilly Running Linux, Third Edition:

This is an outstanding book on linux. I've been a Windows system admin for over 8 years and just started looking into linux because it interested me and because as a system admin you need to have a broad knowledgebase. We were in need of a bug tracking system and we didn't have the money or time to purchase one. It was suggested to me that we look into bugzilla and a little more than 1 week later with the help of this book and the bugzilla documentation I was able to setup redhat 7.3 running apache and bugzilla. This book was invaluable in my short learning process. While there is no way i can call myself a linux admin(YET!) I can say this operating system has found another convert. I can see myself using it in other mission critical areas. My favorite command from my last exploit with linux.

find bugzilla -print | xargs chown apache

Comments about oreilly Running Linux, Third Edition:

a quick refreshment for penguins! probably better than what i have learned so far.

Comments about oreilly Running Linux, Third Edition:

An excellent introductory book on Linux.

Three months ago, I didn't know much about computer and even doubted my ability to run Linux. Since then, I have read through the book ( with a lot of patience since many sections are very detailed. ) and at the same time, tried myself. As the authors put lots of effort in explaining what is happening, how to config, how to use the most useful commands and tools, I can follow most as the authors wrote in the book.

But the road was not royal, in fact, quite painful. Since I tried to install Red Hat 6.2 on the IBM Thinkpad, I found many problems : No USB support in Red Hat 6.2 (so, no USB mouse can be used), the video chipset too new for the X Windows System in RH6.2 ( so I have to download an newer version from the Web and config it ) , etc . With the author's precise and detailed explanations, I tried to solve the problems and after a few failure, I succeeded.

Although Linux is not as user-friendly as MS Windows, it is wonderful. There are so many open source projects available in the web. And Linux is a road to this world. And hopefully, RUNNING LINUX is a road to Linux.

Comments about oreilly Running Linux, Third Edition:

I bought this book because I thought it would help me

to run my linux-PC. At least that is what the title

suggests. However, for this purpose, it was an absolute

waste of money.

Comments about oreilly Running Linux, Third Edition:

Have had this book for well over a year now and continue to find it usefull. Between this and the nutshell book most of what anybody will do is covered. The only other books that are as usefull are the Walnut Creek paper versions of the online documentation.

The real bonus of the book was it's readability. With most books you look up what you need. But with this one I found my self reading it like a novel. I have heard this comment for others also. Why would you do this you ask? It is so much easier to look up a solution when I have a good idea where to start looking.

Comments about oreilly Running Linux, Third Edition:

I picked this one up at the library. Overall I think it's quite useful, but I feel that it could be written on a more practical level. In many cases I think it uses 2 pages to explain what could be done in only one.

Comments about oreilly Running Linux, Third Edition:

I have at least 50 O'Reilly books purchased over the last 7 years. Some of the earliest were my first introduction to Unix and are quite well-worn, e.g. Unix in a Nutshell, sed & awk, Learning the Korn Shell. Their worn quality is as endearing as old comfortable jeans. Since then a few other books, e.g. Programming Perl, have proven just as useful and are now just as well worn and just as appreciated. I had sort of gotten where I expected all O'Reilly books to be like this, and to become sort of instant, well-worn classics. But over the last few years I've gotten some disappointments, books that just didn't have that combination of information, clarity, depth that I'd come to expect (however unrealistically).

Well, finally to get to the point, Running Linux is a book in the classic O'Reilly tradition: informative, clear, occasionally humorous, and perhaps most importantly deep in its coverage of topics. I think I've had it less than 6 months but it looks and feels like I've had it years. That's how much I've read and reread it. Anyone who runs Linux should be thankful for this book.

Keep up this kind of good work!

Comments about oreilly Running Linux, Third Edition:

This book is great!!! I have been using UNIX and Solaris for a couple of years and making the transition to LINUX was easy. Anyone who wants to use LINUX should buy this book.

Reasons for purchase



Reasonable price

Lots of information

Distro neutral; the authors cover the general aspects of LINUX for any distrobution.

Covers other areas of LINUX such as commands, system admin., editors, and trouble shooting.

Comments about oreilly Running Linux, Third Edition:

This is the first Oreilly I had ever read, not the mention the first book I had ever read about Linux, and it was all I needed to get started. Really an excellent and useful book. Thanks!

Comments about oreilly Running Linux, Third Edition:

Running Linux is by far the best intro book for Linux that I have found. The strong points of this book are many; here are a few:



Not distribution specific - the book covers the topics in a way that applies to any and all distributions. The authors have somehow managed to avoid the pitfall of being too general to apply. They give a very good discussion to the topics as well as specific examples for the most popular distributions, showing where they differ. The result is a thorough understanding of the principles, enabling the user to apply their knowledge immediately while providing a strong foundation for future learning.

Diverse and thorough range of topics - I was amazed to find such a vast diversity of topics covered in one book. Before reading this book, there were some noteworthy gaps in my knowledge of a Linux system. I found that most of these were filled upon completion of the book. For example, I had only a vague idea how to use a Makefile, let alone hack one or write my own. I was surprised to find a strong introduction to Makefiles in Running Linux. I was also surprised to find topics covered in the book that I was completely unaware of before reading the book (e.g. TEX and groff text processing).

Accessible to the average user - this book begins each topic from the ground, assuming nothing about your current knowledge level. It does not, however, attempt to "dumb-down" the topics, teaching you why you do things as well as how. This happy medium is often missing from books as thorough as this one.



I would recommend this book to anyone interested in learning about their Linux system. It is useful as both an introduction and installation guide to Linux and as a comprehensive presentation of a wide variety of topics.