Unix for Dummies (Computing for Dummies)

Member Name: zOOm

Product:	Computing for Dummies
Date:	28/06/01 (46 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Funny, easy to read, some useful info

Disadvantages: loses its value very quickly

I bought this book because I had to work on a project that was runing on Unix machines.

The good points:

The book is relatively simple and fun to read (a computing book that is fun?). The authors seem to know exactly where you'll get into trouble and tell you how to get out of it.

As Unix has many different versions (K-shell, Borne-shell etc.) the book gives you examples and commands as used in different versions. Of course they do also show you how to find out which shell your machine is running.

They also highlight areas where you might be doing something that will get you into a lot of trouble with your network administrator!!! If you have enough rights in Unix you can do anything, hence I like the idea that they highlight the dangers to us "dummies".

Another good thing is that they also cover Linux. As Linux is rising in popularity this might make the book more useful (I look forward to the day when Linux will take a chunk out of Microsoft's market share).

A feature highlighted at the front is a quick reference guide. This has all the commands that you'll most likely use on a rather regular basis but are likely not to remember because Unix commands are so complicated! I did refer to this quite a few times to check about printing (printing in Unix is a mess!)

There is a "Unix for Dummies 2", but all the information I got on the book suggests that they have gone for too much dummy stuff and not much usefull information, hence I never bought it.

As I had to learn quickly (I became the Unix administrator) I found that the book passed its use by date rather quickly. The information provided becomes not useful after about a week or two if you are using Unix regularly and there is no point holding onto the book as a reference guide because it is too simplistic. The only thing you might want is the quick reference guide.

Overall, get it if you have NO experi
ence with Unix whatsoever!

Summary: