Guide to UNIX Using Linux, Second Edition
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Spotlight Customer Reviews
Average Customer Rating: 2.94Customer Rating: 4
Summary: Revised Edition .... Much Better
Comment: I too was leery of using this textbook in a Unix workshop that I sometimes teach for a graduate program at IUPUI. After reading the negative comments I contacted Course Technology and tracked down the editor for this title. She admitted that there were some serious typos which made the exercises difficult to complete successfully. She told me that they had hired a Linux expert to re-edit the book and it would hopefully be available in time for my class the summer of 2001. It was ready in time and it worked very well for my class. BE AWARE that the ISBN number wasn't changed and the only indication that you have the revised version is the word UPDATED in a gold star in the upper right side of the text cover. Instructors can get a CD with solution files, Powerpoint slides, Test Manager, and an Electronic Instructors Manual. I would agree that perhaps less GUI content and more of the omitted topics noted in other reviews would make this a 5-star textbook.
Customer Rating: 1
Summary: Author more worried about Credit then proofreading
Comment: Hi i am an I.T student from Texas and an MCSAx2 (W2K/Windows 2003) and I have the misfortune of having to use this book.
If the author is more concerned about receiving credit for this book, then for having it proof read, that might be a problem.
I don't expect perfectly proof read college books, but it appears very little effort has been made to proofread this one.
Why this book bundles Redhat with it is beyond me. The book never examines that OS in any of its pages, much to my chagrin.
Perhaps it should be retitled "Unix using Linux (and not including the attached OS CD Rom").
It is extremely hard to follow along with screen print outs printed in the books, since they are extremely fuzzy and unclear and i am not sure if they were placed in the book to enlighten the students or to frustrate them. The instructor's slides cannot be seen farther then a foot away from the board, for the same reason.
You think this is a five star book? You must be an instructor with prior knowledge of unix, because as you may have noticed all students on here complain about not being able to read large portions of the book.
A book that is mostly unreadable I cannot learn from. Look at this book BEFORE you purchase it. And if you do- as a previous reviewer suggested-make sure you have some back up Linux/Redhat books available, as a reference to explain the things the author doesn't.
Customer Rating: 2
Summary: Still typos and bad screen prints in 2nd edition!
Comment: The screen prints in this book are so poorly reproduced as to be completely unreadable and there are many, many typos. I am taking a class using this book as a text, and I spend more time trying to figure out what the typos are in the commands than I do learning how to use the software. I sent an email to the publisher regarding the fact that the screen prints, which are white characters of low resolution on a dark background, are nearly invisible; I received a reply that said they were sorry I was having trouble reading the graphics - nothing else - no apology - no statement that this is a recognized problem they would correct in a subsequent edition.
My advice - find a book you can read that you won't have to waste your time proofreading and leave this one on the shelf!