Rating: 
Summary: Authors didn't make a serious effort
Review: Generally O'Reilly nutshell series are easy to be blamed as a printout of existing manuals. But still some are better in incorporating authors' experience. By reading UNIX in a Nutshell, you know examples in there are very carefully selected based on authors' experience. Other Nutshell books such as Java in a Nutshell, VB/VBA in a Nutshell contain a lot of author's own wisdom and tips accumulated over the years. However, Linux in a Nutshell is too close to a nicely-bound printout of manual pages. The author could've shown us useful examples of some important commands and given more detailed descriptions of Linux-specific issues. If that makes the book too big, don't include too much non-Linux stuff. I bought it because a Half Price Bookstore was selling it for 50% off and it saves me trouble printing out manuals. But the chapters on Perl, sed/awk etc. are a waste of paper for anyone who already has UNIX in a Nutshell (which I believe most of us do) and Perl books. In a nutshell, even a layman with a few months' learning can write (or compile) this book. Hey, you can make money fast! -- Seriously, this book is useful though. But they should've sold it for even less because there's not much work involved in producing it.
Rating: 
Summary: A First-rate First-line reference
Review: This is the best comprehensive first-line reference I've seen for Linux to date. It's most emphatically not a tutorial or a book on system administration, but when I want to know how _that_ command works, or what _this_ flag does, it's the book I pick up first. Its examples are quite good, and it's well organized.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent reference, better than the man pages
Review: This book was listed as an optional textbook for a Unix (Linux) class that I took, but I quickly realized that there was nothing optional about it. I had to have it. I use this book often since Linux's man pages can be somewhat cryptic to a new user like me. The author does an excellent job of explaining the commands and options in plain english.
Obviously since this is a reference book (basically a Linux dictionary) you will not read it cover to cover. Instead you will find yourself constantly referring back to it, looking up new things you haven't seen before or old things that you can't quite remember. Having this book on your shelf is sort of like having a good Webster's dictionary, it's a must.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Reference
Review: First off, this book is NOT for absolute beginners. It is not a book meant for someone who has zero experience with Linux. But, as a desktop reference for those who know how to use Linux, it is an excellent and handy book. It helps by saving time scanning through man pages for commands and GNU tools. The information on Emacs, vi and shell syntax for bash, csh and tcsh shells is extremely helpful.
Rating:
Summary: Highly Recommended
Review: ~~
Although not for "Newbies," of my dozen or so Linux books, "Linux In a Nutshell" is the most thourougly concise (is that a contradiction of terms?) of them all.
A virtual "Bible" of commands, options, and information.
This book will stay alongside your computer while the others will remain on your bookshelf. ~~ Lloyd W. Cary ~~
Rating:
Summary: A priceless book!
Review: It is hard to be enthusiastic sometimes about a book that seems to contain only commands and summaries of various programming tools. This book contains an excellent section on vi (which was easy to start with) and emacs (which really is complicated). The Emacs sections is reason enough for buying the book. It helped me to quickly figure out how to use this program to do basic functions. The other commands are well-organized into sections that make them easy to finds. It is a quality book.
Rating:
Summary: Good for every Linux user
Review: This book isn't for just experienced users. While the beginner won't find it to be a tutorial, it is a great book to have on the desk when you need to look up a command. For that use it is much easier than trying to find the information in that big tutorial book you just read ;)
Rating: 
Summary: Probably O'Reilly worst Reference
Review: It looks like a hastily and sloppily cranked out nut to capitalize on public interest in Linux, and to force you to buy other books (which are pushed on you throughout the book). The first part (400 pages) contains a dry list of commands. It is complete but has no examples and no sense or purpose. The second part (400 pages) is a hodge-podge of chapters on how to use Linux, which are written by different people, which have no overall logic or guiding theme, and which are often trivial and repetitious. O'Reilly's sloppiness is evidenced by the presence of forty identical pages appearing twice at the end of the book. This book is a waste of money. It is a shell with no meat in it. All this can be found on line where it is better written.
Rating:
Summary: well-written, and to the point
Review: I picked up this book about three and a half years ago, and have found it to be extremely useful. It covers many of the basic editors and utilities (vi, emacs, etc), plus has a bit on shell programming (all I've needed, actually) for bash and tcsh. I refer to this book constantly, as it's easier to read than man pages, while keeping the succint, to-the-point feel that they provide. An excellent reference.
Rating:
Summary: Dry to the bone reference book.
Review: This is a great book for linux commands. It will not teach you linux. It is for linux users to use as a reference for commands. It also breifly covers Boot Methods, Package Managers, shells, Pattern Mathcing, Emacs, Vi, sed, gawk, CVS and RCS, GNOME, KDE and fvwm2.
| 
