Beginning UNIX

This review first appeared in the AZTCS journal. When I glanced at this book, my first question was, "Who are these guys on the cover?" Before scanning the contents and index, my usual first step in examining a new book, I searched for the cover credits. I found none. I use the term Unix as the authors use the term, to designate all Unix based systems including Linux, Solaris, OSX, and the BSDs as well as Unix. The 400+ page paperback book is divided into 21 chapters. Each chapter ends with exercises; the solutions are found at the end of the book. The book's copyright is 2005 but the fundamentals of the Unix based operating systems don't change much so this book is by no means out of date. Included is a CD of KNOPPIX 3.7. This is an old version of KNOPPIX but very usable for the authors' purpose of learning Unix. By using the live CD, it is possible to study Unix without installing it. The book begins with introductory material giving a, thankfully, very brief history of Unix and its evolution. Next "Beginning Unix" explains how the Unix system is set up and what the major components are. Logging in is covered. Logging out and shutting down the computer, if you have permission, are explained. Logging in and out properly is well detailed. The book explains files in a very thorough and informative manner. As the whole strategy of Unix is based on files, creating, removing, copying, moving and organizing files are important functions. File permissions and their importance receive thorough and clear discussion. With a thorough understanding of permissions many potentially frustrating problems can be avoided or solved quickly. Commands are introduced as needed for completing simple to very complex exercises. The functions of the shell are explored. Simple and advanced scripting is explained and several examples are presented. Besides shell scripts, there is a brief introduction to PHP. Piping, using the output of one program as input for another program, is illustrated with several meaningful examples. There is a chapter on customizing your personal environment. Customizing the prompt, creating aliases, and organizing your work are explained in detail. This is much different than the usual customizing instructions focusing on the desktop. Full chapters cover securing the system, using log files, understanding and controlling jobs and processes, backing up information, and automating tasks using cron. These chapters are useful in administering your Unix system. Administration on a desktop Unix system is important as the user is usually the administrator. Network connections are explained, both in theory and by example. As Unix originated as a network environment, there are many tasks to be accomplished over the network. This information is important in connecting to the Internet. There is a chapter covering installing programs from source code. Although this was necessary in early Linux distributions, the repositor

i'me new to unix. when i started reading this book i thought what a waste of money but after completing chapter 2 and reading through chapter 3 i realized that it was a gem in disguise. i still haven't finished reading it because i'me reviewing it about 3 weeks after i got it, but i have been messing around knoppix and now, i installed FreeBsd and currently all the examples in the book work. i feel comfortable. By the way, the examples at the end of the book make it somewhat of a school text and it gives u a little challenge at times but they are not gravely difficult.

Great book for beginners to the Unix/Linux or Mac OS X operating system. The two appendices with the conversion from Mac (both Mac OS X and Mac OS 9) to Unix and Windows to Unix is helpful for those who are used to working with Windows or Mac and want to transfer their knowledge of those operating systems to the Unix/Linux world. These sections identify the fundamentals of the operating systems and how they are similar to Unix/Linux. There is also information on the different programs that are similar between the systems. The rest of the book assumes the reader has no knowledge of Unix/Linux and progresses from the basics of the operating system to more in-depth topics as the book continues to later chapters. The inclusion of the Knoppix Linux operating system allows the reader to follow the book while using a complete Unix environment (with no changes to the thier installed operating system).

This is the third book that I have bought on Unix and by far the best. It not only gives you the UNIX commands, it also goes into a brief and concise background to the commands, which is very practical. I found the explication on cron very clear and thorough which I could not find anywhere else. Keep up the good work and let me know when you finish your next book.

It is nice , useful book. I found it to be the nice match to the Linux and UNIX for a beginner training suite, 4DVDs + 2CDs includes 4 Unix Academy Certifications ed.2008. They supplement one another very nicely and helpfully. I liked the style of writing, to the point, minimum water. It was my second book of the bunch and I liked it. It is easy to read and follow.