Author: Mark G. Sobell

Format: Paperback, 1168 pages

Published: Prentice Hall PTR; 3 edition (June 27, 2006)

ISBN: 0132280272



Review by James Pyles

July 18, 2006



To say the least...I’m impressed...and that’s without even opening up the book. Phrases like a “must have” book and “simply the best book on Fedora Core and Red Hat Enterprise Linux” jump out at you from the cover like hyperactive pinballs (You do remember pinball machines, don’t you?). The little bio blurb on the back cover for Mark Sobell announces that he’s “the author of many best-selling books...” and “President of Sobell Associates, Inc”. I hadn’t even looked at the table of contents and already I was expecting to read the next Tom Clancy novel.



It doesn’t help that this tome weighs in at over 1100 pages. It must cover everything from the creation of the Linux kernel by “you-know-who” to how Linux will power the next generation coffee maker. On the other hand, I’ve been a big fan of Red Hat and Fedora (Debian is still my first love) and I was kind of curious about the changes to be found in FC5 and RHEL so I thought I’d go ahead and steel myself, become prepared to get past the marketing hype, open the cover, and see if this book really meets expectations.



To put it mildly, everything that you’d ever want to know about Red Hat, Fedora, and Linux in general is in this book including the kitchen sink, the coffee maker and this morning’s breakfast. If Sobell left a stone unturned, I’ve yet to find it.



The TOC contains 7 huge parts which as a whole encapsulate 28 chapters, 5 appendices, the Glossary, and the Index (and a partridge in a pear tree...just kidding). I might be able to read it all in a reasonable amount of time (I read rather fast) but fully absorbing and comprehending the material might take a little longer.



When I started getting into the book, I realized that significant portions cover what almost all Linux books cover. If you’ve read one chapter on GNU/Linux, Introduction to the Bourne Again Shell, or Working with Files, you’ve read them all. This is not to say that these portions were not written well or that they don’t have a place in this book. If I knew nothing about Fedora Core, RHEL, and Linux, these would be vital areas of study. However, they don’t stand out from the herd, so to speak. If you are already very familiar with those areas, they won’t tell you anymore here than in a book about Debian or SUSE (of course, you’d have to be well experienced in working with Linux to ignore them).



What really makes this book stand out then is how it presents as a completely comprehensive book on Linux in general. If I had nothing but Sobell’s book, the FC5 installation disk included, a computer, and time, knowing little about Linux, I could still become very well versed in how to install, configure, and administer Red Hat Linux and its variants. The true strength of this book is that it can stand alone without requiring the reader to seek supplementary sources to fill in information gaps. It’s “How to do Linux” with a Red Hat spin. Let’s look at some examples.



I was pleasantly surprised while still in the Preface. Since this is a 3rd Edition, the author outlined what was new in this book. That means if you are familiar with prior editions, you can zero in on just the new subjects (Sobell references the page numbers where the new material can be found).



The first chapter, “Welcome to Linux” isn’t the start of Part I of the book. Part I doesn’t start until Chapter 2. “Welcome to Linux” stands apart in the book and takes you though the “history lesson”, the structure of the file system, basic information about “the shell”, and so on. It also touches on the 2.6 kernel and on the history of UNIX and C programming. The chapter ends with a summary and an “exercises” section (some chapters also have an “Advanced Exercises” portion). If you are curious and know little of Linux, it’s an interesting chapter. If not, move on to the next chapter.



As I began to explore Chapter 2 which covers installing RHEL/FC, I realized that the education the author was providing included basics on partitioning, RAID, LVM (Logical Volume Manager) and other subjects that are non-Linux specific. You might not get a full education on basic hardware management in this book, but you’d be off to a fine start.



Sobell doesn’t leave the reader high and dry in this chapter. He tells you right where to go to download the ISOs for Fedora (even though the book comes with its own install DVD), how to burn CDs and DVDs and where to find installation manuals online (even though the book contains a “Step-by-Step” manual in Chapter 3).



Speaking of which, the installation instructions are exquisitely detailed, leaving nothing to chance...even for the Linux newbie. Sobell spends much time on how to partition a drive and set it up as a dual-boot since (I imagine) most newbies start out with such a setup. The 3rd chapter and Part I end after 78 pages but the reader would have learned volumes (no pun intended) by this time.



Like Linus Torvalds, Sobell favors KDE and the installation and subsequent instructions include only that desktop choice for much of this book, which is interesting since the default desktop for Red Hat and FC is Gnome. Well, we all have different tastes.



Chapter 4 offers the official introduction to Red Hat. The author doesn’t assume the reader knows the smaller details such as what a man page is and includes everything you’d ever need to know to get Red Hat up and running for the first time. This goes for the subsequent chapters that cover all of the details of working with the system including in-depth descriptions of shell commands and how to use them and covering many other CLI utilities.



After mentioning the file system previously, Sobell devotes Chapter 6 to the subject, allowing him to explain more of the details about the Linux file structure, file names, working with directories, permissions and more.



At this point, you may be wondering if the book is that detailed, is it interesting? Fortunately, Sobell not only knows his material, but he can write in an easy going, conversational style, without sacrificing technical accuracy. I could say that this is the sort of book you could read for hours curled up in bed, but that would only be true if you had your FC5 laptop with you to practice what you’re reading.



While the author’s preference for KDE is obvious, he does introduce Gnome in Chapter 8 when he presents Linux GUIs and the X window system. While the shell is covered in Chapter 7, Chapter 9 is devoted to the Bourne Again Shell (bash) specifically.



Chapter 10 “Networking and the Internet” is a network class in and of itself. The chapter covers network types, point-to-point, switched networks LANs, WANs, gateways and routers and actually never gets to the point of showing the reader how to network Red Hat...at least as far as the nuts-and-bolts of using the GUI and CLI utilities Linux has to offer (That’s covered in Chapter 17, Configuring a LAN).



Part IV is dedicated to System Administration, launching with Chapter 11, System Administration: Core Concepts. For those of you who think Linux is immune to viruses and other malware, Sobell includes tips on how to avoid a Trojan House executing with root permissions. The first three parts of the book give you what you need to know to competently use a Linux personal computer. From here on in, you learn how to administer servers and networks.



Software package management, printing with CUPS, rebuilding the Linux kernel are all covered with the same attention to detail and abundantly comprehensible style as the material previously presented. The chapters in Part V contain all the information about managing the various server roles and Part VI rounds out the formal part of the text with programming tools such as C and shell scripting in bash.



I was a little disappointed that Sobell used CVS as his example of a software version control utility (I prefer Subversion) but you can’t have it all...and CVS has been a standard for quite a while.



The final portion of the book contains 5 appendices where the “leftovers” are stored, Here you can find information on how to get help (help files, newsgroups, and so on), Regular Expressions, Security, the 2.6 kernel and of course, the definition of “free software”. Ok, we’re not quite done. There is a Glossary and an Index at the very back and last but not least, the Fedora Core 5 installation DVD.



Summary



It’s tough to summarize this book. I feel like this review is almost as long as the text itself. This is a book that strives to be all that it can be to anyone who wants to know “everything” about Red Hat, Fedora Core, and Linux. Information contained therein covers a range of skill levels from the newbie to the advanced administrator. If you wanted to create your own network of Red Hat servers and clients, this book (and some computers) would be all you would need to get the job done.



Conclusion



I hate to give a “perfect score” to any book. It makes me feel like I’ve missed something and I don’t believe anything is perfect. Having said that, the whole five stars goes to Mark Sobell for “A Practical Guide to Red Hat Linux”. So many newbies want to learn Linux and learn it all. With this book, they’d have a shot. While experienced sysadmins may not care to read this one cover to cover, it would be a fine reference book for their shelf at work. No one remembers everything and when you forget some much needed command or procedure, chances are it would be here. The only thing I would have changed is that I’d have added many more practical step-by-step exercises for the reader to use to hone their skills. Other than that, it’s an excellent text. Well done.

Title: A Practical Guide to Red Hat Linux: Fedora Core and Red Hat Enterprise Linux (3rd Edition)
Category: Linux
Sub-Category: Linux Books
Author: James Pyles
Related Link: Find it here.
Added: July 18th 2006
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