One thing I love about Linux is the rapid development and frequent updates that allow me to run the latest versions of all my favorite software packages. My favorite distributions make it simple to always have the latest and greatest. In fact the distros themselves roll out new version regularly and I am always excited to see what new packages and features will be included. For book publishers this must be a little less exciting. Anything tied to a specific product that is under active development is going to quickly be behind the times. Mark Sobell’s A Practical Guide to Ubuntu Linux managed to avoid the worst of this by providing a lot of information that is useful for any Linux user running any distro. But still things move forward and almost exactly a year later we have A Practical Guide to Ubuntu Linux 2nd ed.. I was very pleased with the first edition and I think they’ve managed to really improve what was already a solid resource.

Let’s kick things off with a rough diff on the two editions. There have been improvements made in content and some added tools to rapidly get at what one needs. With the size of the book and the amount covered, these rapid access improvements are significant. The inside of the cover on the second edition has a utility index, so that a reader searching for help with any specific utility can find it quickly. This is followed up with two tables of contents, one a brief summary and the second much more detailed and taking up twenty-two pages. The new edition is about sixty pages longer than the first, but is slightly thinner and shorter. It is still a beefy book, but this is a nice direction to move.

After the tables of contents there is a list of JumpStarts. These are new to the second edition. They are short guides to getting started with key clients and servers. They come at the beginning of sections that will deal with the topic in more detail, but up front the focus is just on getting things up and running. The JumpStarts cover APT, CUPS, OpenSSH, FTP, exim4, NFS, Samba, DNS, firestarter and Apache. These are nice, as often just getting things going is the biggest hurdle and fine tuning is rather easy once that is past.

Like the first edition a DVD is included. As I mentioned Linux is a quick moving target and the dvd contains Ubuntu 8.1. It can be used as a live dvd or to do an install. Last time I checked the Canonical store, this was still the most recent version available on DVD. Ubuntu and Kubuntu 9.04 are available online and on CD. I did an install from the book’s dvd and the upgrade to 9.04 was completely painless. I don’t really see the DVD as a necessary addition but it could be a nice plus for anyone that wants to get Ubuntu up and running but can’t get the bandwidth to download it.

The section Programming the Bourne Again Shell has been removed from the Digging Into Ubuntu Linux section and placed in its own section, Programming Tools which also includes a new chapter on Perl. The chapters on Linux utilitie and the Linux file system have also been extended. Coverage of ufw was added to the firewall chapter. The appendices remain the same but three new indices have been added to cover JumpStarts, the file tree and utilities. The main index is huge, offering excellent access to everything in the book. This book shows excellent forethought from start to finish aimed at making it a natural choice to grab from the shelf whenever an Ubuntu user has a question.

This did leave me wondering though, why no database server is included in the coverage. It seemed odd to cover Apache but not the rest of the LAMP stack. Installing MySQL and PHP are simple with Ubuntus package manager, but knowing the basics of caring for them is just as important as it is with Apache, which is also easy to install. I realize that the book is already large, but I’d have liked to see this included. That said, configuring services is covered and indexed in mulitple places. This means if one did install MySQL, PostgreSQL or some other database and were looking for how to go about starting, stopping, etc. the information is there.

As before, this is still a nice guide to Linux in general. While it is most applicable to Ubuntu, much of the information is accurate regardless of the distro in question. The style is understandable and there are many examples with code or illustrations as appropriate. This entire book is a real boon to any neophyte that does not have a solid handle on getting their own answers. That group is the one that I think will benefit the most from A Practical Guide to Ubuntu Linux. Random access is easy, but reading cover to cover would also give one a nice foundational understanding of getting the most out of their machine and even enough guidance to get their feet wet in the sysadmin world. Anyone thrown into owning an Ubuntu server may find this to be a handy lifeline. More experienced users, even if they are moving from another distro may find that there is just too much material that they don’t need and already know. This really is a basic Linux guide first and an Ubuntu book second.

I thought the first edition was a solid value and the second edition offers welcome improvements with no real missteps. That they managed to put more in, not take a lot out and get it into a smaller package is quite a plus. I don’t think anyone will be throwing this in a bag and carrying it with them any time soon, but it’s a great office shelf resource for a quick refresher or getting launched. This is the kind of guide that can make the difference between frustrated failure and passion for anyone just starting out with Linux.

Title: A Practical Guide to Ubuntu 2nd ed.
Author: Mark G. Sobell
Publisher: Prentice Hall
Pages: 1244
ISBN: 978-0-13-700388-4
Rating: 9/10

The curriculum, according to the site, arose out of a desire to deal with three problems.

1. Excessive time spent by young people playing computer games on the internet.
2. Young people committing digital crimes on the internet.
3. A lack of professionals who work with networks and computer security.

To deal with these issues they teach, “computer security…, entrepreneurship and hacker ethics.” This graphic novel is a reflection of the desire to communicate all of those values through a fictional story about Yago, a high-school junior who transitions from compulsive gaming to becoming a skilled member of the Hackerteen team.

Part of the mission for the book is introducing a wide array of issues and terms to the reader. Often a topic will or word will be accompanied by an footnote with a url for a hackerteen page holding an article containing relevant information. A couple good examples are http://www.hackerteen.com/ballotbox.php and http://www.hackerteen.com/openoffice.php. Not all the links are as informational though, with many linking to a graphic without much information. Hopefully these are placeholders for articles like the two that I’ve referenced here. A number of interesting topics are brought up, and a reader could research them on their own, or they would allow for good discussion points in a teaching setting. The only issue is that sometimes the placement of topics is a bit forced. A humorous example of this is when a teen-age girl who needed help choosing a web-cam, just a few pages later asks her aunt for money to attend a course on the Creative Commons.

The artwork is acceptable. It is at times a bit awkward, at others pretty solid. I think that it as at least as good as much of what I read when I was a teen, probably better than much of it. What is exceptional compared to the illustrated works of my youth are the materials and production quality. The cover is glossy, the colors are vibrant and the pages are going to stand up for a long time. Of course the flip side of this is that quality like this does not come cheap. The cover price is $19.99 and that’s a bit steep for young kids today.

I think though that this has the potential to be a useful educational tool. I am hoping that some schools are willing to pick up that cost to allow their students access to this material, but a part of me thinks that may be a bit optimistic. I would suggest that for those of us who may hold some of these issues dear to our hearts, and who are sometimes dismayed at the attempts by many to influence the populace in a different direction, this may be a worthwhile investment. I think buying a copy or two, for relatives, a local school or library may pay dividends in the future. It is quite possible that for many this will be their first introduction to many of the issues presented in the book.

I loaned my copy to a co-worker. He and his kids read it. For them the introduction to Linux, the ideas of FOSS and others were brand new. When he returned the book my co-worker told me that he had never heard of the creative commons and I explained what it was. His boys he said were interested to see how the story would develop moving forward.

It’s not easy making issues of freedom and safety exciting. The story is sometimes a bit over the top and the writing is sometimes weak. Internet savvy kids are going to struggle with some of the events, not due to glaring technical problems, but because some of the events are just a bit silly. That said, the options I’ve seen explaining these topics wouldn’t just be ‘o.k.’ to a teen, they would be downright painful. So should we wait until the kids grow up to start teaching them what matters? I’d say this is definitely worthwhile and hopefully as the series moves forward it will only get better.

I think it is worth noting that while Marcelo Marques is the author, the book does list the full team who created it. They are Hugo Moss (story supervisor), Joao Felipe Munhoz (artist), Fabio Pontes Ramon Felin (colorist), Rafael Kirschner (colorist),and Ricardo Bomfim (colorist).

The slashdot review guidelines describe a 7 as “A good book; better than merely adequate, though not outstanding.” The price, short length and acceptable but not great artwork put it there in my mind. It is good, and has great potential for impact. With a little bit better artwork, some stronger writing and if possible a bit lower price point this could be really fantastic. I’m looking forward to seeing how Volume 2 turns out.

Title: Hackerteen Volume 1: Internet Blackout
Author: Marcelo Marques and the Hackerteen Team
Publisher: O’Reilly Media, Inc.
Pages: 101
ISBN: 978-0-596-51647-5
Rating: 7/10
Tagline: You have a choice: be a victim of the skeezers or be part of the solution. Fight back with Hackerteen!

When I first started working with Linux just a short 10 years or so ago, it was a little more difficult than now to get going. I remember the difficulty I had, wrestling with my first Slackware install and getting all the floppies together to get the packages that I needed. Today, a person who has never set on eyes on Linux before can have it installed on it’s own system or alongside another OS in almost no time with a very nice graphical installer walking them through the process. I also remember the hours I spent looking for the little piece of knowledge that I needed to conquer my next problem. Now, someone new to the community has a vast array of resources available on the web, or if they are inclined to begin with Ubuntu, they can literally find almost every single thing they will need in the single volume of Mark Sobell’s “A Practical Guide to Ubuntu Linux.”

I’m sure this sounds a bit like hyperbole. Every thing a person would need to know? Obviously not everything but this book, weighing in at just under 1200 pages covers so much, so thoroughly that there wont be much left out. From install to admin, networking, security, shell scripting, package management and a host of other topics, it is all there. GUI and command line tools are covered. There is not really any wasted space or fluff, just a huge amount of information. There are screen shots when appropriate but they do not take up an inordinate amount of space. This book is information dense.

A lot of that information is very basic. The experienced Linux user or sysadmin is going to find that there is a huge amount of material here that is very foundational. There are advanced topics covered but they are spread out through all the basic material that leads up to them. I think the battle hardened Linux user with a solid understanding of how and why things work would probably be better off with something that doesn’t spend as much time building from the bottom up. But for the others, those new to Linux or those who’ve been using it but have always felt like they were winging it or just holding on, this book could be a ticket to a much higher level of proficiency and a much deeper understanding.

This is an Ubuntu book. It’s in the title and so it will not teach everything about Linux, yet at the same time it is so deep that it will cover topics that are common across all distros. The chapter on Bash and shell scripting are solid and would help any Linux user whatever flavor they prefer. On the other hand, KDE gets covered but to a much lesser extent than Gnome. The book can’t be faulted for this, it is an example of getting what the title says is there. But I would say that by and large the widely applicable outweighs the specific by a great margin. The ls command is ls on any distro. Learning how to work with sudo is valuable even outside of Linux and on Unix systems.

The style is very straightforward. Sobell is not trying to entertain with wacky humor or stories. No religious zealotry here by and large. It is just straightforward explanations of commands, tools and examples of how they are used. And the reader is given a nice set of tools to help them find what they want. The index is 72 pages long. There are 2 tables of contents. The first is the “Brief Contents” and the second takes 23 pages to break down every chapter and section. The book also comes with 45 days of free access to the book electronically through Safari. (I didn’t know there are non-O’Reilly books on Safari, but apparently there are.) I’m guessing that these reference tools will be important as most people will not read this monster from cover to cover, but rather read sections as they are needed, or use the book as a reference when they are stuck.

As I mentioned, everything is explained from the most basic level for gui and command line interfaces. This is what I think would be frustrating for more experienced users. But it is what makes this such a strong title for anyone else. The only other exception might be the new Linux user who is not interested in digging beyond the surface. The person who has possibly moved away from windows but wants something that just works. They would have no need either for the in depth explanations of administration, setting up servers, networking, etc. I think that this book really hits the sweet spot for the reader who would like to move from novice to expert. If they master all the material in the book they will have a very solid grasp of what Linux is about and how it works. Then when they do work with it, they will be able to learn from their successes and failures and gain the experience that will take them to the next level. As opposed to just flailing in the dark, getting things to go their way on occasion, but never knowing exactly why or how things did or did not work.

In fact the book is written primarily as a text book and even includes exercises at the end of each chapter. Often there are regular and advanced exercises. Answers to the even numbered exercises are available at sobell.com. It would be nice if all the exercises had answers available. I hate to think that some person may think they have answered a problem correctly when in fact they have not.

The book comes with a dvd containing everything needed for a full install of Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon). I guess this might make the title more appealing to the bandwidth challenged, though the ease of getting a free cd or being able to purchase a dvd through Amazon for less than $15 makes this less enticing. If it were used as a textbook in a classroom setting, this would make sense though as every student would be assured of having everything they need in a single package. The text itself focuses on this version of Ubuntu. With 8.04 out now in Beta and coming soon in its final form, the rapid development of Ubuntu does serve to highlight the difference in relative speed as compared to the publishing industry. Fortunately for the book, it’s emphasis on foundational concepts, commands and tools means that it wont be completely useless when the next version rolls out. This is good news also for anyone who invests in a copy of the text.

The server section is a bit short I thought, focusing on mail, nis, nfs, samba, dns, iptables and apache. I guess I’m biased, being a dba, but I do think throwing in something on MySQL and/or PostgreSQL would have been nice. I know the book is already huge but a few more pages wouldn’t have meant too much. Or maybe they could have been swapped out for the appendix defining free software. There are 5 appendixes covering Regular Expressions, Help, Security, the definition of free software and working with the 2.6 kernel. There is also a very nice glossary.

If I ever had to teach a class on linux, get someone up to speed on using linux who had little or no experience, or just wanted a reference with broad and thorough coverage, I wouldn’t hesitate to use this book. The information is current, accurate and understandable. Commands are introduced and revisited later as they fit in with topics. The excellent index keeps this from being a usability issue. Rather than being frustrating it fits in nicely with the overall learning curve of the text. There is a lot here that I learned by trial and error or watching over the shoulder of a more experienced co-worker. Someone looking to accelerate their learning would certainly find this to be an excellent guide rather than waiting on that much longer method of picking it up as it comes along.

So I consider the book to be a 9/10. Giving it a 9 only because it is somewhat tied to a specific version of a specific distribution. It may seem to many right now that Ubuntu is unix but there are a lot of other options out there. And even for the Ubuntu user 7.10 wont be around forever. But the information is so solid and covers things so well from front to back that I consider this to be a very strong book. If I had had something like this when I first started using Linux, who knows? At least newcomers to Linux now don’t have to wonder.

Title: A Practical Guide to Ubuntu Linux
Author: Mark G. Sobell
Publisher: Prentice Hall
Pages: 1186
ISBN: 013236039X
Rating: 9/10

The X Window System has been around for over twenty years and is the display system for an incredibly wide range of operating systems. With the number of Linux users growing, there are more people working with X than ever before. Most modern desktop environments provide user friendly interfaces that make modifying X rather simple. There is not so much need to dig into config files and settings as in the past but for those environments without such tools or for the user who loves to dig deep into their environment this book can be a simple way to understanding how X works and how to tweak it in any number of ways. If you want things that ‘just work’ and have no interest in digging around below the surface this book is not for you. On the other hand, if you think the best thing to do with a shiny new tool is to take it apart, well “X Power Tools” by Chris Tyler may be just for you.

The author, Chris Tyler, is a professor at Seneca College in Toronto as well as a programmer and Linux user. His first book published by O’Reilly was “Fedora Linux: A Complete Guide to Red Hat’s Community Distribution”, published in 2006. He cites the growth in X users, combined with active development and the lack of existing books that address X as the motivation for writing “X Power Tools.”

X is the windowing system on a wide range of Unix and Unix like systems. Chris is obviously most familiar with Linux and so the material is heavily Linux oriented. This is most apparent when the book deals with Session Managers, Desktop Environments and Window Managers. The material focuses on Gnome, KDE and Xfce and their associated components in regards to X. For the Linux user this could be a valuable resource.

When I’ve had issues in working with X locally and over the network, I’ve found that while what I need is available on the web, getting just what I need can be very labor intensive at times. Usually just what I want is spread across tutorials, on-line man pages and forum posts. Sorting out what applies to my situation can be especially difficult when I’m not even sure just how things work for my setup. Chris makes this kind of guessing unnecessary and provides the locations and function of key files. He also spells out how the most important files and tools can be best used.

For the sysadmin on another platform, these Linux specific sections are not going to be much help. Most of the book though, deals with X itself. I’ve already loaned my copy to one of our AIX admins more than once and I think he plans on picking up a copy of his own.

When Gnome and KDE provide an interface for modifying or customizing X functionality, the book gives at least the name of the program and sometimes screen shots and explanations of how the tool works. This is always after an illustration of how to get the job done with the tools that are a part of X itself. From fonts to keyboard layouts, multi-display to kiosks, everything required is laid out in straight forward terms.

For me, as a Fedora user myself, this means that having read this book I approach my work environment with a new level of confidence. Behaviors that used to puzzle me, now make complete sense. Quirks that bothered me, no longer need to be tolerated as I know have the tools to get things working just the way I want, rather than using defaults.

The book has just come out, so it was being written before the release of KDE 4. I’ve looked through the documentation and I don’t think any of the changes to programs like KDM or KWin make the information in the book out of date. In fact, according to the KWin release notes, when discussing KWins new compositing support, “…manual configuration of X may be required for proper results…” So if you are a KDE user that likes to live on the edge, this book may come in handy.

O’Reilly says that their “Power Tool” books are comprised of a series of stand-alone articles that are cross-referenced to one another. To be honest, it didn’t feel much different from reading any other tech book. Topics flowed naturally and the articles are analogous to sections that divide up chapters in other books. One nice navigation feature is that page numbers are on the bottom of the pages while chapter and article numbers are at the top corner in a decimal notations. For example at the top of page 58 there is a grey square containing the number 3.13 which means that it is the 13th article in chapter 3.

The book has a thorough index. It also comes with 45 days free access to an electronic version through O’Reilly Safari.

For me the only real weakness of the book is that I would like to have seen more information on working with X on Unix. When reference is made to specific implementation of X it is almost always in regards to Linux. I wouldn’t want to lose that, but I think a mixed environment of Unix, Linux and Windows is more the rule than the exception today. It would be more work to include other operating systems, but it would have also made the book much more valuable.

All tech books face the danger of becoming quickly useless as progress marches forward. X is actively being developed, but at the same time, looking back on its history I think this book will be useful for sysadmin and user for some time to come.

Title: X Power Tools
Author: Chris Tyler
Publisher: O’Reilly Media Inc.
Pages: 270
ISBN: 0596101953
Rating: 9/10

The book follows a consistent format throughout the chapters. It truly is a cook book with the recipes taking the form of problems and solutions. There are eighteen chapters containing these recipes, the first chapter is a brief overview of networking in general. I think that Schroder’s experience in implementing Linux networks or working with Linux in heterogenous networks really shows in the types of solutions and scenarios presented in the book.

Often as I worked through exercises, I kept thinking that what this book gave me was what I would have after hours of Googling and sifting through the results. Schroder has boiled that kind of hunting down to the necessary steps from installation, through configuration and use. For the person who values their time, or is not sure where to start searching for answers, this is a great resource.

The limitation of a recipe format is that modifying the solution or moving away from the detailed plan requires more experience and knowledge the further the reader departs from the given formula. Schroder has dealt with this issue in many chapters by giving instructions appropriate to Fedora and Debian. There are a couple exceptions to this which I will explain below.

I think that a strength of the book is that Schroder has not limited herself to desktop PC hardware. She is presenting a true overview of networking and so if the reader intends to work through every solution in the book, they are going to need to purchase some hardware. Some may object to this, and it is not absolutely necessary. Someone with enough experience or willing to do the research could shift things around and use say, an old desktop machine, but at that point they would be really doing things on their own and not needing the book.

There are 2 chapters that focus on building network devices with Pyramid Linux on a Single-Board computer. The hardware Schroder uses to write the solutions is a Soekris 4521, which retails for about $150. I think it is good that a person who might want to use this book knows that up front. To me, this is a much more economical solution than suggesting that one get their hands on a commercial device, and allows much more flexibility. Schroder could have shied away from asking for the reader to go to this step, but I think the choice reflects her commitment to making the book useful in real world situations.

The chapter on building an Asterisk VoIP system would probably also work best with some nice headphone/microphone sets that may be a necessary purchase for many. They are not required, a soundcard, microphone and speakers would work as well.

Having parallel solutions for Fedora and Debian side by side is very nice. After each solution there is also discussion of pertinent issues and reference to applicable resources. The other resources include pointing out appropriate man pages, web sites and other books. Schroder’s style throughout is relaxed and very succinct. The nineteen chapters do cover such a wide array of technologies and issues, this book could easily be twice as large if she were wordy, instead it is very portable.

The chapters on network devices, routing, network monitoring and using linux to manage a network would be most valuable I think to network administrators or the person wearing that hat in a smaller shop. The chapters that revolve around connecting to systems remotely and using linux to manage windows machines could be a real boon to anyone who works in a mixed environment that includes more than just Linux machines. I’ve found all of it to be of value because I interact with all these pieces every day. It is nice to have a better grasp of how subnets are built and how routers work. I look forward to not relying on a gui or searching endless forums to get a good grasp on managing my iptables firewall.

Following the body, the book has three appendices. The first is a list of other resources. This is primarily other O’Reilly books, but there are books from other publishers and some resources available on the web. The second is a glossary of networking terms. The most useful to me was the third, a kernel building reference. I found the index to be decent. It isn’t great, but it isn’t bad either. The book comes with free access to it through Safari for 45 days, I thought that was a nice plus. O’Reilly has all of the examples available for download and the author’s website is also a good launch point for related articles and information.

This book is a great way for the self learner to have a relatively unobtrusive guide while they gain direct experience in networking. Reading it alone wont do it, and there is still much to learn after completing each exercise, but a large part of the core competencies are there and thoroughly covered. I think there is also a lot here for that reader who has lobbied to get Linux in the door and now faces the task of getting their Linux machine to play nice with the rest of the network.

Title: Linux Networking Cookbook
Author: Carla Schroder
Pages: 615
Publisher: O’Reilly Media, Inc.
Rating: 9/10
ISBN: 0-596-10248-8
Tagline: From asterisk to zebra with easy to use recipes.