BKRDHTLX.RVW   980117

"Red Hat Linux Unleashed, Second Edition", David Pitts, 1998,
0-672-31173-9, U$39.99/C$56.95/UK#37.50
%A   David Pitts et al dpitts@mk.net dpitts@bestnet.com
%C   201 W. 103rd Street, Indianapolis, IN   46290
%D   1998
%G   0-672-31173-9
%I   MacMillan Computer Publishing (MCP)
%O   U$39.99/C$56.95/UK#37.50 fax: 317-581-4669 pr@mcp.com
%P   684 p. + CD-ROM
%T   "Red Hat Linux Unleashed, Second Edition"

If you are not already using it, you might have some difficulty in
unleashing Linux with this book as your only guide.  The text tries to
cover all the bases, but does so by shortening many important
sections.

Chapter one is basically an advertisement for Linux, and the Red Hat
installation of it.  Installation on your system is discussed very
briefly in chapter two.  The brevity of the instructions could be a
fairly serious failing, given that chapter one suggests that the
strength of Red Hat lies in the ease of installation.  In many places
the instructions, for example, suggest that you can continue "if your
[equipment] is supported," but do not list supported equipment.  The
final word in the chapter is that you may obtain additional
explanation from the HOWTO documents on the CD-ROM, and this may very
well be the most helpful comment in the chapter.  Chapter three talks
about using LILO, the Linux Loader, or LOADLIN.EXE from DOS.  Overall,
Part one fails to provide explanations at a number of points, failing
to give the reader a good understanding of what is going on in the
installation process.

The logic of part two is a bit difficult to understand.  It is
entitled "Configuring Other Servers," but chapters four (system
startup and shutdown), five (configuring and building kernels), and
six (Common Desktop Environment), while they do deal with server
processes, seem more logically to fit under installation.  Chapters
seven (SMTP and POP), eight (ftp), and nine (Apache Web server) are
more logically distinct, and these chapters also start to provide a
more suitable level of detail to the tasks.  Chapter ten, on the X
server windowing system, may be seen as more central to Linux
operation.  This latter chapter, while containing some detail, is
still quite terse.

Part three looks at hardware and devices.  Filesystems are an
important part of any operating system, and chapter eleven does a good
job of providing an overview of how to use them.  This is particularly
important in Linux on Intel platforms, since most users will want to
read FAT (DOS File Allocation Table) and related disks.  Chapter
twelve, dealing with printers, covers a number of issues, but jumps
from topic to topic abruptly, leaving some confusion in the mind of
the reader.  Chapter thirteen covers most of the bases in TCP/IP
setup.  However, a PPP (Point to Point Protocol) connection through an
ISP, the easiest and likely the most desired connection for home
users, is covered last.

Part four is supposed to cover system administration, but chapter
fourteen, "Getting Started with Red Hat Linux," appears to deal with
more installation procedures, albeit from an upgrade perspective. 
"Essential System Administration," in chapter fifteen, seems to be a
grab bag of tools and resources, while chapter sixteen's "Advanced
System Administration" is decidedly advanced, and short to boot. 
Chapter seventeen gives a quick once-over of the GNU project
utilities.  The coverage of backup in chapter eighteen is decidedly
brief for such an important topic.

Part five, entitled "Dealing with Others," again seems to have a topic
out of place.  "User Accounts and Logins," in chapter nineteen, covers
the basics quickly but reasonably.  Chapter twenty's "System Security"
contains a few too many personal reminiscences having nothing to do
with the topic, but is otherwise a good start for non-specialists. 
"Shell Programming" is very handy, but chapter twenty one doesn't seem
to relate to "others."

Part six is for the programming crowd, with chapters twenty two
through twenty eight covering "Automating Tasks" (mostly a quick
revisit of shell programming), C and C++, Perl, tcl and tk, Motif,
gawk, and network programming.  Appendices include an brief look at
the Linux Documentation Project, and a list of fifty commands and
utilities.

In the end, the shortcomings caused by brevity in the material can
probably be overcome by the fact that the CD-ROM contains the Linux
Documentation Project HOWTO files: essentially another whole book. 
This package therefore contains the software and two books on how to
use Linux.

copyright Robert M. Slade, 1998   BKRDHTLX.RVW   980117