Unix: The Textbook,   ISBN:9780201612608

Customer Rating: 

My one pedantic complaint: The overwhelming majority of the examples in this book are done on linux and there is some coverage of bsd. Putting UNIX in the title is a bit misleading.

This book is full of errors (spelling, syntax, jargon). The content is what you would expect from an entry level UNIX book. They do a fair job of covering the basics although a high percentage of their syntax examples are amazingly wrong. It almost looks like an artist reviewed the book at the last minute and decided that all the '-' characters were too boring and decided to replace some of them with '+' characters instead. I cannot imagine how confusing and frustrating this would be to a beginner.

I was also sad to see that they spent 7 pages on telnet and only 2 on ssh. Never once did they mention the security implications of using telnet. Given that this book was published in 2005 there is no good reason to perpetuate the use of that wildly insecure connection method.

If you have to purchase this book for a class, I feel for you.

If you are trying to learn UNIX on your own, I'd advise you to keep looking.

Customer Rating: 

Another excellent book by the author team. I have used and taught UNIX and LINUX for over a decade and this is arguably the bext UNIX textbook for entry- and intermediate-level users. A lot of new material has been added in the second edition that makes the book current and much more interesting. The writing style is lucid and examples that work. For a change, this book contains shell scripts that actually work! One of the rare books that elegantly combines operating system concepts with UNIX examples. Simply a first-rate book. I give it two thumbs up and look forward to more books by the author team.

Customer Rating: 

I have been teaching UNIX for over 15 years. I have used many introductory books but this is by far the best. The authors seem gifted with the ability to explain difficult topics with ease.

Some of the salient features of the book that I particularly like are:
a. Topics are arranged in a very nice, ascending order of difficulty
b. The book is very comprehensive and I often use it
c. The book discusses important OS concepts not found in any other introductory book on UNIX
d. Shell scripting is explained very well and, unlike many other books in programming, ALL of the programs in the book actually work!
e. Nice intorductory chapter on X Window System

I look forward to more introductory books on computer science by the author team.

Customer Rating: 

This book will waste your time. The author can't explain basic staff.

Not even one script worked!! Here is exactly in the book on page 417:" We do not show the program headers...for the sake of saving space." If I can get it myself, why should I read your book?! There are a lots of similar non-sense stuff!

If you want to have headache, then buy this book. I will never buy any book from this author anymore.

I wish other people had written this before I bought it.

Customer Rating: 

This book is wonderful, it is a very usefull text/reference book. I never had any experience before with Unix. After reading this book, I found it to be very educational and entertaining. I give it two thumbs up. A++