Once a little-known productivity boost for personal computers, Linux is now becoming a central part of computing environments everywhere. This operating system now serves as corporate hubs, Web servers, academic research platforms, and program development systems. All along it's also managed to keep its original role as an enjoyable environment for personal computing, learning system administration and programming skills, and all-around hacking. This book, now in its third edition, has been widely recognized for years in the Linux community as the getting-started book people need. It goes into depth about configuration issues that often trip up users but are glossed over by other books. A complete, UNIX-compatible operating system developed by volunteers on the Internet, Linux is distributed freely in electronic form and at a low cost from many vendors. Developed first on the PC, it has been ported to many other architectures and can now support such heavy-duty features as multiprocessing, RAID, and clustering. Software packages on Linux include the Samba file server and Apache Web server; the X Window System (X11R6); TCP/IP networking (including PPP, SSH, and NFS support); popular software tools such as Emacs and TeX; a complete software development environment including C, C++, Java, Perl, Tcl/Tk, and Python; libraries, debuggers, multimedia support, scientific and database applications, and much more. Commercial applications that run on Linux range from end-user tools like word processors and spreadsheets to mission-critical software like the Oracle, Sybase, Informix, and IBM DB/2 database management systems. Running Linux has all the information you need to understand, install, and start using the Linux operating system. This includes a comprehensive installation tutorial, complete information on system maintenance, tools for document development and programming, and guidelines for network, file, printer, and Web site administration. New topics in the third edition include:

• KDE, a desktop that brings the friendliness and ease-of-use of Windows or the Macintosh to Linux
• Samba, which turns Linux into an office hub that serves files and printers to Microsoft systems
• PPP, the most popular software for logging into remote systems over phone lines
• Revised instructions for installation and configuration, particularly covering the Red Hat, SuSE and Debian distributions

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Running Linux, 3rd Edition Review,  September 05 2001
Submitted by Karsten   [Respond | View]

I bought this book because I thought it would help me

to run my linux-PC. At least that is what the title

suggests. However, for this purpose, it was an absolute

waste of money.




Running Linux, 3rd Edition Review,  June 06 2001
Submitted by Dean   [Respond | View]

Have had this book for well over a year now and continue to find it usefull. Between this and the nutshell book most of what anybody will do is covered. The only other books that are as usefull are the Walnut Creek paper versions of the online documentation.
The real bonus of the book was it's readability. With most books you look up what you need. But with this one I found my self reading it like a novel. I have heard this comment for others also. Why would you do this you ask? It is so much easier to look up a solution when I have a good idea where to start looking.


Running Linux, 3rd Edition Review,  January 25 2001
Submitted by William Sherman   [Respond | View]

I picked this one up at the library. Overall I think it's quite useful, but I feel that it could be written on a more practical level. In many cases I think it uses 2 pages to explain what could be done in only one.


Running Linux, 3rd Edition Review,  December 22 2000
Submitted by Ken Januski   [Respond | View]

I have at least 50 O'Reilly books purchased over the last 7 years. Some of the earliest were my first introduction to Unix and are quite well-worn, e.g. Unix in a Nutshell, sed & awk, Learning the Korn Shell. Their worn quality is as endearing as old comfortable jeans. Since then a few other books, e.g. Programming Perl, have proven just as useful and are now just as well worn and just as appreciated. I had sort of gotten where I expected all O'Reilly books to be like this, and to become sort of instant, well-worn classics. But over the last few years I've gotten some disappointments, books that just didn't have that combination of information, clarity, depth that I'd come to expect (however unrealistically).

Well, finally to get to the point, Running Linux is a book in the classic O'Reilly tradition: informative, clear, occasionally humorous, and perhaps most importantly deep in its coverage of topics. I think I've had it less than 6 months but it looks and feels like I've had it years. That's how much I've read and reread it. Anyone who runs Linux should be thankful for this book.

Keep up this kind of good work!




Running Linux, 3rd Edition Review,  December 18 2000
Submitted by Chris   [Respond | View]



This book is great!!! I have been using UNIX and Solaris for a couple of years and making the transition to LINUX was easy. Anyone who wants to use LINUX should buy this book.

Reasons for purchase

• Reasonable price
  
  
• Lots of information
  
  
• Distro neutral; the authors cover the general aspects of LINUX for any distrobution.
  
  
• Covers other areas of LINUX such as commands, system admin., editors, and trouble shooting.
  
  

Running Linux, 3rd Edition Review,  November 01 2000
Submitted by Doug   [Respond | View]

This is the first Oreilly I had ever read, not the mention the first book I had ever read about Linux, and it was all I needed to get started. Really an excellent and useful book. Thanks!


Running Linux, 3rd Edition Review,  September 15 2000
Submitted by Justin Judd   [Respond | View]

Running Linux is by far the best intro book for Linux that I have found. The strong points of this book are many; here are a few:

• Not distribution specific - the book covers the topics in a way that applies to any and all distributions. The authors have somehow managed to avoid the pitfall of being too general to apply. They give a very good discussion to the topics as well as specific examples for the most popular distributions, showing where they differ. The result is a thorough understanding of the principles, enabling the user to apply their knowledge immediately while providing a strong foundation for future learning.
  
  
• Diverse and thorough range of topics - I was amazed to find such a vast diversity of topics covered in one book. Before reading this book, there were some noteworthy gaps in my knowledge of a Linux system. I found that most of these were filled upon completion of the book. For example, I had only a vague idea how to use a Makefile, let alone hack one or write my own. I was surprised to find a strong introduction to Makefiles in Running Linux. I was also surprised to find topics covered in the book that I was completely unaware of before reading the book (e.g. TEX and groff text processing).
  
  
• Accessible to the average user - this book begins each topic from the ground, assuming nothing about your current knowledge level. It does not, however, attempt to "dumb-down" the topics, teaching you why you do things as well as how. This happy medium is often missing from books as thorough as this one.
  
  

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in learning about their Linux system. It is useful as both an introduction and installation guide to Linux and as a comprehensive presentation of a wide variety of topics.


Running Linux, 3rd Edition Review,  May 31 2000
Submitted by Steve Wild   [Respond | View]

i cant say enough good things about O'Reilly books. They are easier to read, more thorough, and more useful than any others I've bought. my only problem is that some times I need info on something they dont cover and i have to grudgingly buy a book from another publisher. I've only half finished Running Linux and I've learned more from it than I did from the three Linux newbie books I read previously... Excellent book if your looking for a place to start with linux this is the one...



Running Linux, 3rd Edition Review,  October 26 1999
Submitted by Grant Kim   [Respond | View]



this is pretty good book for a linux newbie(like me!) the book covers various useful stuffs ranging from basic commands to linux sys administration Though i read just six chapters, i feel i can understand this wonderful os.


Running Linux, 3rd Edition Review,  June 05 1999
Submitted by Sinsen krysset   [Respond | View]



I have read the first edition (from 1994?). That one helped a lot.

What i liked about it was that it was not distribution specific.
Especially when i had problems with X, i turned to thist book and it told me how to write a configuration file for XFree86. I boorowed this book from a friend and i decided to by the second edition. But now i am confused. I would rather wait for the 3. edition but if that one is distribuiton specific then i'd rrather by the second edition.

I run either small ditribuitins like Trinux( www.trinux.org) for its security tools or Debian (www.debian.org).

I would find it sad if O'Reilly neglected Debian or made "Running Linux" ,3. edition valuable to only those distrubutions using RPM. As i said earlier : I would like a book that concentrated on "hacking" Linux, one that went under the hood, so that when things go wrong you could get the information you needed to edit configuration files for hand and compiling from sourcecode.




Running Linux, 3rd Edition Review,  March 11 1998
Submitted by Christopher Greene   [Respond | View]



This book is an absolute must for the administrator considering using Linux in the real world or the person wanting to begin to 'really' know the workings of Linux.

Taking the reader from the beginning, a non-Unix user is made to feel very at ease with Linux and comfortable in an understanding of how to use it.

By presenting the reader with the basics and an overall understanding of Linux, this book is an excellent step to more advanced and thorough literature on Linux. A job well done.

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