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Linux Unleashed
A comprehensive book for Linux users, programmers, and system administrators takes the reader through installation and configuration to advanced programming and administering/networking the system, and includes a CD-ROM with Slackware, a version of Linux, and popular tools. (Advanced).
1058 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
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February 2, 2018
I read this on the shitter over a period of four months. I think that's appropriate to mention since this book was probably written on the shitter over a period of four months.
I used to have a nostalgic feeling for this book since it was my introduction to Linux in the late 1990's. I held onto it because it's huge and I always felt there must be boat-loads of knowledge buried in its 1,200 pages. Knowledge I should know!
Well, I've now read this thing, and it turns out I need not have worried: this book is mostly full of shit.
Remember those big $50 "Learn to Write a Compiler in 3 Hours" books that used to jam the computer shelves at your local bookstore? Sams Publishing might have been the worst offender and "Linux Unleashed" is part of that grand legacy. These books were basically a series of articles written by multiple authors. None of it was proofread or checked for redundancy or omissions.
The chapter on Shell Programming was particularly awful because it is such an important topic. It's nothing but page after page of explanation without any examples. It's useless for a beginner to actually, you know, learn the subject.
The organization of the book is abysmal. The order makes no earthly sense. The sections are nonsensical ("Advanced Programming Topics" contains chapters on DOSemu, web browsers, and playing games...). It skips. It repeats. It's the worst thing you can imagine.
It's a waste of paper.
One of the authors, Kamran Husain has a real penchant for the Motif window manager. At the time the book was written, you had to send $150 by mail to a vendor to get a copy of Motif! So it's not like you were going to have it installed and sitting in front of you. Despite that, Sams figured we wouldn't mind having a nice, thick chapter on using Motif anyway. Oh, but if that wasn't enough, there is another 70+ page chapter about "Motif for Programmers" later in the book. Sams Publishing was just stealing money right out of your pocket. I paid full price for this book in the 1990's. They stole my money!
As an aside, the funniest thing in the whole book is this bit from the first Motif chapter:
Keep in mind that this sentence was still in the SECOND EDITION of the book!!!!
The chapter about Programming in C was actually about using debuggers...interesting, but tangential at best.
The chapter on the ELF executable format was probably the most interesting part of the book, but it was merely informative, not actionable.
Oh yeah, and then Kamran Husain managed to sneak in another chapter near the end about using Motif (surprise!) and something called PEX - a subject so obscure that it's actually hard to even find any information about it in a web search today!!!
I'll not be holding on my copy of this shit any longer and it feels good to put this behind me.
I used to have a nostalgic feeling for this book since it was my introduction to Linux in the late 1990's. I held onto it because it's huge and I always felt there must be boat-loads of knowledge buried in its 1,200 pages. Knowledge I should know!
Well, I've now read this thing, and it turns out I need not have worried: this book is mostly full of shit.
Remember those big $50 "Learn to Write a Compiler in 3 Hours" books that used to jam the computer shelves at your local bookstore? Sams Publishing might have been the worst offender and "Linux Unleashed" is part of that grand legacy. These books were basically a series of articles written by multiple authors. None of it was proofread or checked for redundancy or omissions.
The chapter on Shell Programming was particularly awful because it is such an important topic. It's nothing but page after page of explanation without any examples. It's useless for a beginner to actually, you know, learn the subject.
The organization of the book is abysmal. The order makes no earthly sense. The sections are nonsensical ("Advanced Programming Topics" contains chapters on DOSemu, web browsers, and playing games...). It skips. It repeats. It's the worst thing you can imagine.
It's a waste of paper.
One of the authors, Kamran Husain has a real penchant for the Motif window manager. At the time the book was written, you had to send $150 by mail to a vendor to get a copy of Motif! So it's not like you were going to have it installed and sitting in front of you. Despite that, Sams figured we wouldn't mind having a nice, thick chapter on using Motif anyway. Oh, but if that wasn't enough, there is another 70+ page chapter about "Motif for Programmers" later in the book. Sams Publishing was just stealing money right out of your pocket. I paid full price for this book in the 1990's. They stole my money!
As an aside, the funniest thing in the whole book is this bit from the first Motif chapter:
"Due to lack of time before going to press, there was no time to research other vendors [for Motif]..."
Keep in mind that this sentence was still in the SECOND EDITION of the book!!!!
The chapter about Programming in C was actually about using debuggers...interesting, but tangential at best.
The chapter on the ELF executable format was probably the most interesting part of the book, but it was merely informative, not actionable.
Oh yeah, and then Kamran Husain managed to sneak in another chapter near the end about using Motif (surprise!) and something called PEX - a subject so obscure that it's actually hard to even find any information about it in a web search today!!!
I'll not be holding on my copy of this shit any longer and it feels good to put this behind me.
Displaying 1 of 1 review