Author: Tammy Fox
Format: Paperback, 624 pages
Publisher: Sams (April 20, 2007)
ISBN-10: 0672328925
ISBN-13: 978-0672328923
Review by James Pyles
April 29, 2007
Normally, I see "Unleashed" books with titles Like Fedora Core 6 Unleashed or OpenSUSE 10.2 Unleashed, not something like Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Administration Unleashed. An "administration" Unleashed book? Very interesting...and written by a single (and very highly qualified) author to boot. A peek at the Intro assured me that this book was written as much for Linux administration in general as for RHEL 5 administration. Fox said her focus was to help admins who oversee from one to a thousand systems, so I started to think "big".
I departed from my usual pattern in reviewing a book and first took a look at Fox's site www.linuxheadquarters.com. Actually, there's only one page on the site for the RHEL 5 Admin Book, but I wanted to see what else the author was up to. Turns out that she and her husband Brent (who "has served as a programming consultant, Linux courseware developers, Linux trainer, Linux developer, and Linux technical account manager" according to the site's About page) are the site owners and use it to provide a variety of tutorial information regarding Linux. The page specifically about the book has most of the usual information plus download files for the book available as a tarball or zip file.
So what about the book? It started out like any other Linux book with the installation chapter, then moved onto basic configuration and managing updates. I had to blink when I went through Chapter 4, Understanding Linux Concepts. It was true...there were pages on how to start a shell session, how to navigate the filesystem and how to switch to the root user. I went back to the beginning to read about the target audience for the book. To quote from Who Should Read This Book found on page 2, "The core audience is Linux system administrators for small-to-medium businesses...". I know it's difficult to write any book on operating Linux without throwing in the "newbie" chapters but if this is a book for Linux system admins, can't we assume they know a few things?
Something I had only glanced at on the Fox website clicked in and I went back for another look. It was Tammy Fox's motivation for writing this text. Here's the quote: "Why another Linux book you might ask? I have been writing about Linux for years and reading Linux books for longer. When I first started learning Linux, I was frustrated with the lack of detail in most books. I would look up a topic, read all the theory and conceptual sections, and then turn the page expecting to see the actual instructions for implementing what I had read about. To my disappointment, most books didn't give these instructions. If there were instructions, they were overview steps without examples to guide me along the way, and steps were often not explained adequately. So, I finally decided to write the Linux book I always wanted while learning Linux system administration". I can agree with that. I'm very detail oriented and I want to know both how something works and why. I still couldn't figure out why she included so many very basic steps in Chapter 4, though.
Daunted but determined, I read on. The book started to move into more "administrative" tasks. I've reviewed Linux administration books before so I have a pretty good idea of what to look for. Given Fox's background and experience, I was waiting for her to start presenting concepts and tasks that would rocket well beyond my understanding. I did and didn't get there which isn't necessarily a bad thing.
If the book were too complex, perhaps even some admins wouldn't get it. Nah...that can't be it. If she's writing to Linux admins, even Tammy Fox would be hard pressed to write over their heads. On the other hand, why write a book that you have to struggle with all your professional might to comprehend. After all, she did say that "I finally decided to write the Linux book I always wanted while learning Linux administration" That's the key to some and maybe most of the book. It's not meant to be for Linux admin ubergeeks but for the person learning Linux "administration". She's talking to someone experienced with Linux systems and who is a systems administration student. That still didn't explain Chapter 4, but it did explain most of what else I experienced.
Don't get me wrong. It's not like I breezed through this book telling myself that I knew all the material already and that it was pretty basic stuff. Quite the contrary...this isn't a book I could have written...not by a long shot. What this book does is express concepts and tasks in a way that they reader will be able to understand and grasp as an admin or someone on the road to that destination. I guess the title threw me off a little. It might have been more accurate if it had been something like Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Administration Study Guide Unleashed. Ok, it's a lousy title, but it gets the intent of the book across a little better.
RHEL 5 Administration Unleashed is a mix of system administration in general, Linux system administration, and RHEL 5 system administration. It says a lot of things that other books do but includes details that a lot of them don't. I'd have to sit down with books like Linux Administration Handbook and Linux Administration: A Beginners Guide and get more into how they compare to Fox's new book. I like the two titles I just mentioned, although they are organized very differently. Having gone through this "Unleashed" title, I suspect it will earn a place next to these other well regarded and classic books. Only next time, either leave out Chapter 4 or put it in the Introduction as a "primer" for the ambitious newbie.
