Red Hat Linux 7 Bible

I have some experience with UNIX, largely from my early-1990's college discovery of the Internet, but I did not make the switch to Linux until a few months ago (primarily because a friend who works for Microsoft kept telling me that Windows "can't do that"). Upon following the instructions of a co-worker and installing Red Hat 6.2 on my PC, I found that my knowledge of Linux was more limited than I had thought - I could not, for example, figure out how to configure my sound card. That's when I bought the "bible."This book will walk you through installation, configuration, and the use of various system utilities. It includes chapters that explain how to set up an Apache web server and install downloaded software like Xemacs. It is very thorough and the tone is geared toward folks like me who have some experience, but are not experts.However, the information is not always presented in a logical fashion. Often, I find myself scrutinizing the index repeatedly while looking for information on a particular topic. Further, the author assumes that you are using Gnome or KDE, and there are few examples for true command-line geeks.I still recommend this book to anybody who is making the switch from Windows to Red Hat (did I mention that the book *includes* Red Hat 6.1?). The introductory chapters will get you up and running, and by then, you'll have a good reference book at your disposal.

I am not a 20-year Unix veteran, I've just been working with Linux and Solaris for about 4 years. I was Webmaster for a site that was hacked via an FTP misconfiguration. And I just got a dedicated RH Linux server, and wanted to secure it. I have a Unix Bible, and a few O'Reilly books on Unix stuff, but all of them skimped on security in general and FTP in particular.So when I found the RH Linux Bible, with a full chapter on FTP servers, with info on limiting anonymous access and guest access and so on, I was pleased. And the information worked, my FTP access is now very restricted. Also useful for security is the Understanding System Administration chapter, and the Computer Security Issues chapter -- which not only told me how to disable certain services in the inetd.conf file, but told me which ones in particular were probably not needed (I've always known how to comment out daemons in inetd.conf, but never knew which ones were safe to disable).This is not primarily a security book, though, so it offers more information. The early chapters (4-9) are primarily about X-windows desktop stuff, such as installing a word processor, playing Doom, setting up a CD player app and a Web browser, and so on. I mostly skipped that stuff, although chapter 9 has lots of talk about rsh, rlogin, and rcp (which can be a security hazard, so I read about it).Chapters 15 and 16, about home networking and the Internet, I thought were pretty good. It walked me through setting up a Linux box as a router, proxy, firewall, and talked about star topologies, all the stuff a beginner needs to know.The only drawback I have to this book is the typos. For instance, on page 406 a chart says that typing "at now + 2 minutes" at a prompt will schedule the job to run "15 minutes from the current time." I don't know about you, but my thought was, hey, I didn't know the at command has a 15 minute minimum for scheduling jobs. Turns out it doesn't. It's a bad typo. Also, in the section on linuxconf, the book refers to it as "linixconf" a couple times. Any beginner typing "linixconf" will get no results and be confused. And I found other typos, and ended up marking them with a highlighter so I wouldn't get tripped up. I take one star off for that, leaving this book with a four-star rating.

I bought RedHat Linux 5.2 when it first came out a couple of years ago. All it had was a 96 page installation guide. Anyway, it wasn't a very good experience. I did something wrong and lost everything on my hard drive. *Gasp!* I've stayed away from Linux ever since then...But now not anymore! I wanted to give Linux another try and I shopped around for a good basic guide to Red Hat Linux. From the fair and honest reviews that this book, Red Hat Linux Bible, received on this page, I thought that this would be the best book to help me install the operating system and be able to configure and work with it.Installation was much easier this time around. I think it was due more to my previous experience and being super cautious, but Mr. Negus' explanations and advice on what to expect during installation and the various types of installations helped out a bit.But what is the most helpful feature of Red Hat Linux Bible is that it's an extremely good reference. There are so many features in Linux and the amount of programs included as part of the Red Hat Linux distribution, that I'm quite amazed that the author was able to cover as much as he did! The layout of the book is quite easy on the eyes. He gave good descriptions to many of the programs and features of Linux, and provided some of the most useful commands for each program or feature to get the beginner started. Of course, if he went on into an indepth treatise on *each* and *every* program or feature, the book would no longer be a "bible", but more like an encyclopedia, so he points the reader to the corresponding man pages (Linux' manual or information system) or web sites (so far I haven't found any dead links!) for more information on a particular package and for downloading newer versions.I have to admit, though, that sometimes it IS a bit hard to find the information that you're looking for. But if you persist in your research, you WILL find it. It IS there! For example, I had a hard time finding out how to change the resolution of my monitor. I find the index at the back of the book quite helpful for the most part, but didn't find that particular topic there. As it turns out, Xconfigurator is the program you need to execute to change your resolution anytime after installation, but I found this information hidden away in Appendix A, which is the section on the programs (RPM packages) that come on the CD.But other than that, I think Red Hat Linux Bible is a wonderful reference! I'm no longer intimidated by the technicalities associated with Linux and this book freed me to try out many of the packages that came on the CD without fear of messing up my computer.Right now, I'm downloading Red Hat Linux 6.2 free and can't wait to install it! The book is worth buying!

I loved this book. The step-by-step instructions are great. I used this book to set-up my first Linux server - an old 486dx100 machine. It runs the network in my house - 3 machines - all connected to a cable modem. My computer, my girlfriend's, my kid's. All thru the Red Hat/Apache server. Great book, and the software is included. Free! This is a no brainer. $80 for Red Hat direct OR . . . $40 for a good manual AND Red Hat - DUH! Buy it.

I have had the privilege of working with the author and receiving an advanced peek at much of this book. I found Chris's writing style to be enjoyable and easy to understand. He makes complex subjects very accessible to Linux newcomers. I highly recommend this book.