Sams Teach Yourself Linux in 24 Hours [With CDROM]

I have consulted this book probably more than any of thecomputer books on my shelf and am surprised at times of how useful itis in those crucial moments. Stuff which I though was missing in the begining was always there. I hadn't read properly.One has to read the book carefully since there is lots of information for the reader. This was my first introduction to the Linux world and really think that the book has helped me a great deal.The caldera Cd that comes with it has been a pleasure to have too. As I mentioned I didn't even know how to install linux. The book helped. I got the book a few weeks before the actual computer so I went over the pages again and again. It is not the same as having a computer and the book together. One tends to be lazy and rather try 100 things before sitting down and consulting the book properly. It makes a difference.I am surprised at the bad coments. Just scanning someone had complained that nowhere is a mention of "shutdown -h 0". Well look at page 38.

~~~ I have "Sams Teach Yourself Linux in 24 Hours, Starter Kit, 2nd Edition" and as a Linux "Newbie" I find it an EXCELLENT book in all regards. Simply put: it WORKS! For those who would criticize it, I recommend that YOU go ahead and write a better one. In the meantime I will be enjoying Linux and all it's powerhouse programs with the help of Mr. Bill Ball's book. Thank you Mr. Ball!! ~~~ Lloyd W. Cary

Anyone who wants a copy of this book for free can come by and pick it out of my trashcan, but my advice is to just leave it there where it belongs. The fact that it never occurred to the author that someone might want to know how to shutdown the system (try "shutdown -h now"), and that Sams was in such a hurry to get this book out the door that no editor caught the omission, speaks volumes about their operation. I would not buy another Sams book just on principle. Try something from O'Reilly instead (I found the shutdown command in "Linux In a Nutshell," btw).

The negative reviews are all for the first (Red Hat) edition. The second (Caldera) version isn't out yet. By the way, I bought the shrink wrapped version of the Caldera OpenLinux 2.2 and installed it. It was fairly painless, but a few choices made at installattion time makes my installation less useful than it could be. I'm hoping this book will help me fix my mistakes, and help others avoid them. Still, Linux peacefully co-exists with Windows 95 on my computer (which is now dual-boot). Caldera's OpenLinux 2.2 isn't yet going to kick Windows off most desktops, but for anyone at all interested in Linux, it is an awesome package.