Linux In A Nutshell, Sixth Edition
Authors: Ellen Siever, Stephen Figgins, Robert Love & Arnold Robbins
Published: September 2009, O'Reilly
Price: $49.95 at time of review
For more information: Linux in a Nutshell
Reviewed by: Rick Gatewood, MELUG Mid-Coast
The first thing that impresses you about Linux in a Nutshell, A Desktop Quick Reference is it's sheer bulk. Weighing in at more than nine hundred pages, this book is an amazing compilation of Gnu/Linux information.
An alphabetical listing of commands with description of use and options is provided to enable fast lookup of commands when you can't remember the proper syntax and options for a particular command. This is the major feature of this reference and is encyclopedic in its coverage.
I especially appreciate the additional sections that grouped commands used for specific functions or common programs. Just knowing the commands available for an system administration operation or a specific program can be a real time saver. Beginners will find this feature handy when they don't know what command they need.
The chapter covering package managers will be helpful for those who use one package manager routinely and need to refresh their knowledge of the the one they seldom use. For instance, I use Debian distributions most of the the time these days and when I do use a RPM based distribution this section will come in handy.
There are chapters that cover just about every aspect of system administration and development including boot loaders, the bash shell, different editors, gawk programming , version control and virtualization. In short something for everyone in a desktop reference!
