What are your favorite linux books? I am new to linux and I am interested in books on security, programming, and general topics like using linux and running and installing programs. I have seen a lot of books out there but it can be hard to tell what is worth the money and what is not. What books have you had luck with and think are worth a read? Please let me know. Thanks.

O'Reily's Running Linux is a good book and most of their others are excellent choices. I have their latest Perl and Apache books they have out, haven't gotten to the Perl book yet, but the Apache was good as far as I have read thru it.

i got Linux Systems Administration by vicki stanfield today. My first proper attempt at making linux into a career for me. As such, it's not too great, i was after pages and pages about iptables etc... which this aint got, but it's got a fair bit about more simple things, including 20 odd pages on lilo errors... Not what i was after, but quite useful all round

I absoletely love the Unleashed series from Sams. This link is for RedHat 7 but there are plenty of other linux unleashed books. They are so informative that they are the ones that spend the least amount of time on the bookshelf.
I would defintely not recomend Linux Complete. I thought that this would make a good desktop reference book. Boy was I wrong. So I went back to the much heavier (but better) uleashed series.

I'll have to agree with 'trickykid'.

I find the O'Reilly books extremely useful and they are always the first books I head for in the store. They manage to make the sections easy to follow and understand with plenty of examples (I really *hate* books that waffle without any examples) and are especially useful when you need to dive in at the deep end and don't have the time to read from cover to cover.

I have a number of them on many subjects, but the two I've got on the go at the moment are "Linux in a nutshell - 3rd Edition" and "Learning Perl - 3rd Edition". Both excellent reads.

I shall be adding a Linux system administration book to my collection in the not too distant future and I'd really like to get my hands on their CVS and BASH books, but the book stores don't seem to stock them. I don't fancy ordering them from their website as the postal charges to Malaysia will probably be hideous.

Its not a technical book, but I liked 'Rebel Code' by Glyn Moody. It is a history of Linux and the GPL software movement.

I don't know how accurate it is (it seemed to be true), but it did make me feel amazed how well the 'open source revolution' has come.

(and it does not need to be compiled from source!!)

Joe

I have a couple of books that are somewhat useful. But I find them going obsolete very rapidly.

The way things are moving and changing I am reluctant to buy any more linux books.

for the beginner though it is a good idea to read one of the O'Reilly books.

Again, what Trickykid said: Running Linux

Its about 2 years out of date with no new edition on their press calendar, but has been the most useful resource I've had. I didn't like the "Unleashed's" nearly as much. Overall, about the only O'Reilly that has been a letdown so far was the "Network Admin's guide". The Samba manual is excellent (and FREE as a giant PDF!). Heck, even the 'Bat book' (Sendmail) is useful. Also, "Linux in a Nutshell", which is basically the encyclopedia of every command. It might seem redundant in the face of man pages, but some of those man pages are so cryptic as to be useless. Others, like the man pages for dhcpd for instance, are hysterical and helpful. "Nutshell" just makes a nice supplement.

Luck,


Finegan