Rating: 
Summary: YOU CAN HAVE MY COPY!
Review: A really __BAD__ computer book. You can have my copy, but I would like to keep the CD-ROM, since that is the __ONLY__ value that I see in this publication. At least by keeping the CD-ROM I get to keep the Caldera OpenLinux distribution.
Rating:
Summary: A waste of time and money!
Review: A thoroughly confusing book that tries to make a complex subject simple by the use of a "glitzy" front cover and humorous comments. The only thing funny about this book is the fact that it is so poorly written. For example, the constant reference to material in other chapters violates one of the most basic rules of technical writing. I think that the publisher included the CD-ROM with the book in an attempt to ease a guilty conscience for putting such a book on the shelves.
Rating: 
Summary: Total trash
Review: 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).
Rating:
Summary: Incomplete, badly arrainged and occasionally inaccurate
Review: As a former Technical Writer, I am somewhat amazed that the author of this book, who is billed as one, would let it go in the condition it's in. The book, while a good concept, is fatally flawed in a number of ways, and I am surprised any Tech Writer would approve the galleys.The first thing we noticed were typos; in regular usage, they are annoying enough. When they are in command line arguments, they're intolerable. Installation went poorly, as the info on using Disk Druid to configure your HD was very sketchy. We wound up with only 900KB usable on a 1.6MB HD due to a paucity of information on how to nuke the DOS partition and reclaim it for Linux. We managed to lurch through the first chapters and get Linux 5.0 installed, but hit a brick wall when it came to getting X-Windows to run. Also, the X-configurator that comes with RH 5.0 is very buggy (as is RH 5.0 itself, we found; 5.2 is better), and we had to resort to an older, XFree86 configurator that was in a different directory. We found out about this from an associate, no thanks to Sams! Additionally, the book was very aggravating in that, in trying to teach you something, it constantly made references to future chapters. Nothing like having to skip back and forth through the book to get through one chapter! But the real blow came when it was time to close the book and shut the system down. Nowhere in this manual was there an instruction on how to turn the system off and shut it down properly. I suppose Linux is so great you never WANT to shut it down! This sort of error would be comical, if it was not so deadly. Finally, we found that many of the commands, documents and files referred to in the book are simply not where they should be on the system. It made the whole unpleasant business even more aggravating. For me and my associates, a new book and Linux 5.2 seems to be in order. As a tutorial, this book is worse than useless, it's a waste of time, the most precious human commodity.
Rating: 
Summary: Why are all these reviewers moaning?
Review: First of all, several of the reviews I have read here are about the wrong book or by someone who doesn't even have the book, nor have they read it (how does that work?). Many of the reviewers complain about the authors writing... I don't see a problem! Are these people all post-grads in a literature department or what? Although I didn't find the book to be the hottest thing since sliced bread (who said it should be?), I did find that it was informative and did its job. I knew nothing about linux before the book, I am competent with linux after the book (no, I can't answer all the questions that the linux geeks can answer, so?). Isn't that what an introductory book is for? It seems that some of the reviewers expected to become a "linux Einstein" after reading this book. Well, I'm afraid that this ain't gonna happen no matter which 2000 page "guru in 2 minutes" book you read. This book is an OK introduction to linux... period.
Rating:
Summary: Worthless: Do Not Buy
Review: First of all, this book looks like a nice general reference from the outside (on Linux), but in truth its worthless unless you use its out of date included caldera Linux CD (which sucks in itself, and the accompanying tools crash with use.) Honestly this book should be called 'Teach Yourself Caldera Linux in 24 Hours' I use a different distro and after reading a specific distro book and 'Running Linux' I was good to go, with excellent knowledge of configuration files, how to do 'stuff' and have fun with the OS. None of this came from this book. My reccomendation? Dont buy this!
Rating:
Summary: Worthless: Do Not Buy
Review: First of all, this book looks like a nice general reference from the outside (on Linux), but in truth its worthless unless you use its out of date included caldera Linux CD (which [stinks] in itself, and the accompanying tools crash with use.) Honestly this book should be called 'Teach Yourself Caldera Linux in 24 Hours' I use a different distro and after reading a specific distro book and 'Running Linux' I was good to go, with excellent knowledge of configuration files, how to do 'stuff' and have fun with the OS. None of this came from this book. My reccomendation? Dont buy this!
Rating:
Summary: Poorly Organized & Outdated
Review: Here's another example that supports the opinions of the last couple reviewers (with whom I vehemently agree!). The quick reference card in the front cross references things you might want to do (compress files) with the linux commands (gzip). Useful. Trouble is the list is alphabetized by command. SO unless you already know the name of the command, you cannot find it on the list. Do not buy this book, unless you love expensive doorstops.
Rating:
Summary: Good introductory for someone with limited/no experience
Review: I actually have a copy of the first edition, but the material is basically the same. The first edition doesn't include the CD-ROM. I am surprised to many people trash this book. I didn't read any reviews before I bought it (now I read reviews unless I know the authors work), but flipped through a few dozens pages before I bought it. I found it pretty helpful. My background is DOS. I know DOS inside out and backwards, and even with that, Linux is still fairly confusing. More commands, less forgiving command line, MANY more configuration files, and so forth. The only negative thing I can say about his book is he tries to stuff too much into a 24 hour book. I wasn't overly impressed with the chapter on connecting to the internet. I don't feel that has a place in a book this short. If you want to learn how to use a new operating system and get it online, install Windows and use an ISP with a plug in CD to set it up for you. There is much you need to know before connecting to the internet. Aside from that, I actually thought it was helpful. If you have NO DOS experience, it will be harder to learn, and the syntax is pretty much the same, but that doesn't mean you can't learn it. It's hard to say how long it will take you to pick it up, as everyone learns at a different pace. When I got my copy, I hadn't used Linux in about 2 years. I briefly used Slackware (never again), but I only remembered a few commands. Once I had this book, I was starting to remember what I had learned before. Remember, this book is NOT a comprehensive reference. Just how could you write a reference book to be completed in 24 hours?? I guess I should say that if you are contemplating buying this book, but have seen all the negative reviews, find a copy and just thumb through it. Personally, I thought it was helpful. It's not the Black Book of Linux, but for the price and content, it does pretty good. Definitely for beginners only. If you need something to give you a foundation to build from, this book might be what your looking for. If you are after more complex topics such as DNS, hooking up hosts, DSL, GNOME, network protocols, and the like, this isn't your book. That's because those aren't introductory topics. Just like you wouldn't expect to find OpenGL programming in a "learn C in 21 days" book. Form your own opinion. Since when do other readers decide what you will and will not buy?
Rating:
Summary: What is going on?
Review: I don't understand why Amazon allows viewers to post reviews or comments about books that aren't even published? what's going on?
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