The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Linux Power Tools - for the bookshelf Major Keary |
Linux Power Tools is an essential resource for intermediate-to-advanced users. It is not a book for raw novices, or a tutorial in the sense of presenting a collection of step-by-step how-to items. The reader is not sent away with no more than a bare-bones recipe for doing this or that, but will also have a sound understanding of the particular issues.
Having read the book - and applying its "tips, tricks, and techniques" - users will find it a valuable ongoing reference. Anyone who mans a Linux help desk, or who teaches Linux, will find this a particularly useful resource.
A noteworthy feature of the book is its list of 'essential Linux files' that occupy the inside front and back covers. These are grouped under convenient headings (such as boot loader configuration files, and disk mount points) with chapter references and the respective directories in which the files are to be found.
An especially helpful feature is the coverage of multiple distributions (Debian, Mandrake, Red Hat, Slackware, and SuSE), and their respective idiosyncrasies.
The book is in five parts: Hardware Tools, User Tools, System Administration Tools, Networking Tools, and Server Tools.
Hardware Tools covers optimising system architecture usage, improving disk performance, and using external peripherals (including scanners). User Tools has chapters on shell scripting, the command line, GUI options (including advice on creating a desktop environment "that's just right"), "office productivity" (the kind of applications that deliver word processing, spreadsheets, etc.), and other tools (digital camera packages, sound, image manipulation with the GIMP, web browsers, and email clients). System Administration Tools occupies a substantial part of the book and includes chapters on how to bypass automatic configuration, handle multiple operating systems, manage packages (such as RPM), choose the right filesystem, manage printers, maintain system security, and how to create a custom kernel.
A must-have book for serious users of Linux. Deserves a place in libraries with Linux holdings.
|
Roderick Smith: Linux Power Tools ISBN 0-7821-4226-5 Published by Sybex, 644 pp., RRP $99.95 incl. GST |
 |
Reprinted from the May 2004 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
 |