An excellent introduction to the whole Unix family
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Dave Taylor has managed to produce an excellent book for everyone who wants to get to grips with not just Unix strictly defined, but any operating system of the Unix family, including GNU/Linux, BSD, etc.
For some time I have been trying to find a useful book to learn the essentials of using GNU/Linux. So many books fall into two categories: (1) books that assume you already know the basics of the system, and (2) books that patronisingly assume you are not really up to understanding the system, and try to fob you off with a watered down account. Often the second type of book takes the line "don't worry! it's just like Windows". Well, no it isn't just like Windows.
Here at last I have found a book which systematically works through all the main topic areas, covering the groundwork of each very clearly. The explanations are accompanied with useful examples to work through, all of which are there to give constructive practice, not just, as in some books, because they are supposed to make it more fun. That is not to say that I did not find the book enjoyable: I did, because learning a challenging subject clearly introduced is enjoyable, not because of gimmicky presentation.
Dave Taylor tells you all the essentials of the Unix file system and how to find your way around it, use of the shell both from command-line and in scripts, use of Perl, editing with vi and emacs, communications and remote login, control of printers, archiving, and more. He also provides a brief introduction to desktop GUIs, particularly GNOME. However, he does not give undue prominence to this area, as many beginners' books do. In each of these areas there is of course much more to learn than can be given in one or two chapters of a book, but in each case I feel I have gained enough understanding to get going, and am in a position to move forward if I want to know more.
My one small criticism is with the title. While it would no doubt be perfectly possible to read the book in 24 hours, it is totally unrealistic to imagine that anyone could really work through properly and absorb its content in 24 hours, unless of course you already know a good deal of the material. But frankly I would not want the book if it were otherwise: it would not be giving an adequate coverage of so large a field.
I am bewildered by the review by "griffph": the criticisms made there are simply not true: the author does not refer to things elsewhere in the book which are just not there; there are no sentences that disappear into whitespce half way through; and so on. Also I am an experienced programmer, (though not in Unix) but, contrary to what "griffph" claims, I did not feel patronised. As for P.Borer's criticism: "It does not have a lot of pictures", who said the book was for children?
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new to Unix/Linux? this is THE BOOK
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Dave Taylor's book is The Book you need if like me you have always wanted to start with Linux but have been unable to find the book which will teach you from scratch, taking you around the infamous black terminal browsing the many directories and files under /
Because once you leave Windows for Unix/Linux you want to be sure you will be able to find your way in your new system and make yourself at home, what you DON'T want is having to go back to Windows after failing to enjoy the great power and stability of the UNIX system (actually there is even more than just power and stability... you'll discover that yourself)
If like me you want to go further in depth, not just using the desktop icons and the mouse, but want to enter commands in the terminal, then SAMS Teach Yourself UNIX in 24 hours is The Book.
When most of the other books for beginners seem to ignore the beginner, Dave Taylor's book is taking you from scratch to the level of a power user.
You don't need to feel obliged to finish the book in 24 hours, you need to experiment on your terminal (black screen of happiness) and become familiar with the system using only the command, you will not only get more knowledge, but you will feel more clever....... Because discovering what's behind the hood and how it works is more exiting than just driving the car.
And then when you've finished this one, you are ready for SAM Teach Yourself UNIX System Administration in 24 hours, another book from Dave Taylor.
This is the fourth edition dated 2006 (printed 08/2005) the inside page on Amazon shows the third edition, not this one.
Somebody in the review, said 'it was full of errors, and I don't know what else, that experimented users would be bored', the person is obviously talking about another book, as this one is for beginners, and none of his descriptions does refer to this book at all.
This book is a great book for beginners!
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24Hrs!
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24 Hours, may be 24 days!
I brought this book going on some of the previous reviews, and am disappointed. It does not have a lot of pictures for you to follow, and does not cut to the chase. At a glance you can't even see how to do 'simple' tasks as install an application etc.
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Great book, makes good first book for a beginner.
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Unix has many levels to master and there is no one book that could possibly cover all of them.
I have quite formidable experience with different books on UNIX and related subjects and this one would be in the list of my favorites. It is very well written, very articulate; it goes into many subjects with great attention to details and so on.
As for now there are three major methods had been available: real course, book and knowledgeable friends. I have discovered another one and it is "UNIX Essentials" DVD that sells on Amazon.com (they do not ship to UK so I ordered from CustomFlix directly) and it is well worth mentioning. The DVD isn't complete as I said there is no way to cover everything in UNIX but, but it covers 90% of what one has to know to start work with UNIX independently. It is very nice compilation for someone who likes to learn UNIX but it has to be supplemented by a book like this one. Take both, work trough them for two weeks and there are few people around who could possibly recognize that you are novice. It provides VERY nice training altogether.
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One of the best books on computing I have used
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When I started working through this book I was able to do some things with Unix, but I lacked confidence and found the jargon of the man pages often quite confusing. This book has quickly brought me to a point where I feel confident enough in using programs such as grep, sed and awk to go beyond the examples given and combine these to write my own routines for searching and editing files. Initially I skipped the first few chapters as I felt I knew enough of the basics. I am now going back to these and learning the subtleties of some of the more basic commands. There will be other books I will need to become fully proficient, but this gives an excellent grounding.
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