A Practical Guide to Red Hat Linux 8
by
Mark G. Sobell
Addison-Wesley Professional
unknown edition
December 2002
1616 pages
Reviewed by Matthew Phillips, March 2003
(9 of 10)
I don't know if I would call a book that is over 1500 pages and weighs about 5 pounds practical, but this is a very good book. Whether you are new to Red Hat Linux or an expert looking for a good reference, you should check out this book. The book is easy to read and covers just about anything you need to know to become functional with Linux.
Part 1 of this book covered all the basics. By then end of the first section, I felt completely comfortable working from the Linux command line. Part 2 delved deeper into Linux and covered everything from writing shell scripts to basic system administration. Part 3 is a detailed command reference. It is probably the section I will refer to most as I continue to learn Linux.
Each chapter has exercises at the end, making this useful as a text book. The organization also leaned a little more to a text book style. Installation was covered lightly and pretty late in the book. As a self-studier, that annoyed me a little. But just when I reached a point where I felt that they really left something out early I generally found page reference for just what I thought was left out. Overall, it was a real pleasure learning Linux from this book.