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<title>Review of "A Practical Guide to Linux" by Mark Sobell Issue 25</title>
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<H4>
"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
</H4>
<P> <HR> <P>
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<H2>Review of "A Practical Guide to Linux" by Mark Sobell</H2>
<H4>By <a href="mailto:bernardd@wr.com.au">Bernard Doyle</a></H4>
</center>
<P> <HR> <P>
Several months ago, with some trepidation and the assistance of a friend who is
somewhat more knowledgeable than myself about computer hardware, I took the
plunge and installed Linux on my Pentium PC.
<p>
Soon after, I downloaded a pile of assorted How-To's, FAQS and Tutorials from
the Internet to start doing something useful with Linux. The downloaded
documentation was handy but I frequently had trouble finding answers to
important
questions. After a month I purchased 2 books - Running Linux by Welsh &
Kaufman and
A Practical Guide to Linux by Mark Sobell. Welsh & Kaufman's Book is a well
known,
highly regarded, authoritative book on Linux. It is fundamentally about how
to set
up the major Systems and Hardware and how they interact.
<p>
Sobell's book, by way of contrast, approaches Linux from a software perspective.
There is little, if any, overlap between the two books, even when they are
talking
about the same thing. The two books effectively work opposite sides of the Linux
street. There is also a contrast in the styles of the two books. Welsh and
Kaufman
are somewhat "chatty" while Sobell basically tells it like it is with little
or no
opinion thrown in.
<p>
Although there is a chapter on System Administration, Sobell's book
concentrates on
showing how to use the Linux variants of the standard Unix software
packages. There
are chapters on X-Windows, vi, emacs, Linux Internet and Networking
Software, bash
(2 chapters on this important subject), the TC Shell, the Z Shell and
Programming
Tools.
<p>
Learning the bash Shell by Cameron Newham and Bill Rosenblatt (published by
O'Reilly)
covers the use of bash in more detail than Sobell's book, but I suspect it
is a little
advanced for the beginner. Sobell's chapters on bash were the most
informative and useful
information that I have come across so far. Being something of a
scripting/batch
file afficianado the two chapters on bash provided just the information I
needed
to produce a host of useful custom scripts.
<p>
The Command Summary takes up about a third of the book and maintains the high
standards of the rest of the text. Sobell uses internal page references quite
freely. This often results in a lot of page turning. I assume this was done
to avoid
repetition of material, and given the vast amount of material that could be
included
in a book on Linux/Unix software this is a reasonable compromise as it
leaves more
room for additional material.
<p>
This is not a book for solving Linux hardware or installation problems. If
you are
looking for that sort of information then get Welsh and Kaufman's book, or
download
the relevant "How-Tos" (or both). This is the book to use if you want to do
learn how
to do useful things with the software. The book manages to cover almost all
the major
software topics, and it covers them well.
<p>
I do have some quibbles with the book. The Table of Contents uses a
typeface that
is much too large, As a result it runs from page xvii to page xlvii. (That's
31 pages
for the Roman numerally challenged) Hopefully, the next edition will address
this
issue.
<p>
One notable Linux/Unix Utility not mentioned at all is Perl. A short 5-6 page
reference to it in the Linux Utility Program Section or an Appendix would
have been
nice. Summarising Perl in 5-6 pages is possibly a tall order, but I would have
liked some mention or reference to it.
<p>
Although the book gives a good rundown on accessing Linux Documentation and
Software
from the Internet, a Bibliography of Linux/Unix books would have been good.
"Running
Linux" does have a Bibliography, so if you have that book as well then I
guess you
have the information anyway (although it's a little out of date).
<p>
The book is an adaptation of Sobell's other Practical Guides to the Unix
System and
this shows, and it's not necessarily a bad thing either. However, given the
nature of
the Linux community, I doubt whether photographs of a mouse and keyboard are
necessary.
On the positive side, the book is professionally organized, indexed and
referenced. It
is substantially larger than the other Practical Guides to Unix by the same
author as
well.
<p>
In the light of the high quality of the book overall, all of the above
criticisms are
minor and easily overlooked. The book is far and away the best I have seen
on the
market for quickly and effectively using Linux software. If you have a copy
of A
Practical Guide to Linux and Running Linux along with a few appropriate
"How-Tos",
you should be able to get solutions to most of your Linux questions as well as
productively use your system.
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<P> <hr> <P>
<center><H5>Copyright © 1998, Bernard Doyle <BR>
Published in Issue 25 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, February 1998</H5></center>
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