Product: 0131478230

Sobell expands on his earlier books to give us this latest offering. Somewhat monumental in scope. Basically because the intended audience is quite diverse. He suggests that you could fall into any of these categories - system administrator, programmer, or new Linux user. And if you are a sysadmin or programmer, your prior experience with Linux might vary from none to considerable.

The book also attempts not to play favourites concerning the various Linux distributions that exist - from Red Hat, Novell/SUSE, Debian, Knoppix and others. These essentially have a commonality of functionality which the book documents. This approach may be better than trying to discern the comparative advantages of each distribution.

He also follows this when describing the two most common shells used in Linux - the Bourne shell and the T shell. Each is considered important enough to warrant its own chapter. You can take your pick as to which you prefer.

Yet again, this is done with the two text editors, vim and emacs. In the unix world, the debate between their proponents has spawned innumerable threads in newsgroups. Basically, vim is simpler to use but emacs is more powerful. Anyway, he gives each editor its own chapter, with enough details in both so that you can decide according to your own preferences. If you really can’t decide, just plump for one at random and stick to it. Both are good enough that you won’t go wrong.
Rating: 5
0131478230
Count: 46