Red Hat Fedora 5 Unleashed

When I was a Solaris trainer a few years ago, the one thing that I always told the students was, 'If I would go over in any detail everything that Solaris can do right out of the box, this course would take over a month.' Linux has fallen into the same quandary. Because so many functions, utilities, and applications are available, to find a compilation that explains everything that it can do would be impossible. Red Hat Fedora 5 Unleashed does a good job at covering a lot of topics, though. This massive book consists of one thousand pages covering hundreds of topics in almost forty chapters. It also includes Fedora Core 5 on DVD so that you can start working with it immediately - assuming that you have a system on which you can install it, of course. I can't possibly go into all of the topics here, but I will say that as a systems administrator there is nothing that I could think of for a basic server that I did not find listed in this book. You name it, and it will probably be there. Installation, user management, X windows selection and configuration, Samba, DNS, FTP, sendmail, networking, Perl, PHP, Python, Apache, compiling, security, package management, and a lot of other topics that most system administrators would probably want to know are covered, at least briefly. The one thing about this book is that it is primarily a 'get your feet wet' reference book. There are hundreds of screen shots, but none of the topics really go into any depth. This certainly is to be expected, though. If all of the topics in this book discussed intricate details, this would end up being a multi-volume encyclopedia. There is enough information to get you started on a particular topic, but you'll have to find more informative resources if you want to know any of the topics in any type of detail. Although this review so far might imply that this book is geared towards the system administrator, RHF5 Unleashed is just as geared towards the more casual user. Topics such as CD/DVD writing, TV tuning, photo manipulation, digital cameras, webcams, printers, dial-up Internet access, and even gaming are discussed. The big catch with this book is that it's not meant for your Aunt Bertha in Sheboygan who does nothing but write letters to her sister Mabel in Tuscaloosa. If you're going to read this book, you must be a power user before you open the front cover. You don't necessarily need to be a UNIX administrator to understand it, but a fundamental knowledge of how operating systems work beyond the Start button or a keen grasp of technical details is definitely required for this book to be worthwhile. This book only mentions the various topics with basic information; but depending on what you want to do with Fedora 5 the basics might be all that you need. Quite simply, this is a really good book. If you want to give Fedora 5 a try but you don't want to 'go it alone' with just a downloaded DVD image, I highly recommend Red Hat Fedora 5 Unleashed.

As the title suggests, this is a book about the latest release of Fedora Core Linux distribution. Thanks to its correct approach, however, it would be accurate to claim that this is a book that can train you appropriately in the ways of Linux Operating System using Fedora Core distribution as a reference, instead of being just an other shallow distribution-specific manual. GNU/Linux (usually referred to simply as "Linux") is a completely free Operating System that can be used for a wide variety of tasks. Fedora is a community-driven distribution of Linux, sponsored by Red Hat, one of the leading and oldest organizations in the field. Contrary to popular belief, Linux is not a specialized OS that can only be found as part of network infrastructures. Through the last 15 years it has evolved to a modern general-purpose OS that can be used for almost any task you can think of: from office workstations to WAN backbone routers and even for some that you probably hadn't considered, like voice machines, PBX, televisions, compact multimedia devices and much more! Most importantly, Linux's software for such applications has reached production-level quality, is free to use, modify and redistribute and supports every open standard. Also, it performs well on commodity hardware, even old Personal Computers that cost less than 50$ can be more than enough for most jobs. As one would expect, however, an operating system of such flexibility unavoidably has a certain degree of complexity in its roots, and configuring it appropriately can prove challenging even to experienced users and IT professionals. Official software documentation, while detailed, often seems too specific for a user that lacks the technological context to comprehend it, especially in complex tasks where the tight collaboration of more than one piece of software is required. This is where "Fedora Core 5 Unleashed" comes in. It is essentially a training guide written with the completely inexperienced user in mind, however, it also manages to extend its information to an advanced level for most of the subjects. The "Unleashed" book series from SAMS is known for its thoroughness and detailed coverage of each topic. Fedora Core 5 Unleashed, counting 6 well-balanced parts in more than 1000 pages, stands up to this legacy. Each part contains numerous Chapters, at the end of each chapter there is a reference section containing links to web resources for related subjects. This is a very good idea that increases the book's value. The same applies for the gray tags that mark each chapter on the side of the book, making browsing each part easy and the comprehensive appendix in the end which contains a thematic index of all the material based on keywords. Inside the book there is also a DVD containing the complete Fedora Core 5 Linux distribution so that you can get started right away. The material covered is organized as follows: Part I is the introduction. It covers the procedure of installation,

Fedora Core 5 was released in March of 2006 so getting this book to press in June was a huge undertaking and the author's have done an excellent job of including tons of information into this book. The Step-by-Step installation chapters include screen shots of the whole process. These are always a great addition to any instructional book. Post installation configuration includes information on configuring keyboards and mice which is done during the installation process and shouldn't need to be repeated unless the user changes something. Additional screen shots are used throughout the book which add the connection between the material talked about in the book and what the user sees on the screen. This book refers to several excellent applications (pirut, yumex) which are a part of Fedora Core 5 but not shown in the Menu's by default. Although this book attempts to bring the history of Linux, Step-by-Step installation, a plethora of information for beginners and experienced user alike. I don't believe a beginner would be able to use this book as a guide. The heavy use of computer industry acronyms would only serve to confuse the beginner. This book should definitely be purchased by experienced computer users who want to break into the daily use of Linux and experienced Linux users as a resource for troubleshooting and configuration. An overall excellent resource for every Linux enthusiasts bookshelf.

As with the other books of the "Unleashed" series, this book does not disappoint. From installation through recompiling the kernel, each chapter gives clear and concise instructions. Great for beginners and those already familiar with linux. If you want to learn the basics and beyond with one of the best open source distributions, this book is the one. Comes with a DVD packed with programs.