Mastering Red Hat Linux 9 by Michael
Jang
The Best Of Its Class
Written completely from scratch by Red Hat Certified Engineer and Linux
expert Michael Jang, Mastering Red Hat Linux 9 covers everything from
installation to networking. Comprehensive yet concise background
information ensures readers are fully prepped for success. Easy to follow
step-by-step instructions walk readers through tasks including installation,
customization, administration, network and Internet set-up and
configuration, and more. All the hottest topics are covered including Red
Hat Linuxs Kickstart utility, GUI tools and front ends, Internet and network
security, and data back up and recovery. In addition to key topics such as
the shell, X Windows and kernel recompilation, Mastering Red Hat Linux 9
offers advanced topics for budding power users. Readers wanting to take
their skills to the next level will learn how to set up and use remote access,
mail services, FTP clients and servers, the Network File System and the
Network Information Service, Samba, and Web services. As a bonus, the
two companion CDs contain the Publishers version of Red Hat Linux 9.

Personal Review: Mastering Red Hat Linux 9 by Michael Jang
Wow! Mastering Red Hat Linux 9 is a huge and very complete guide to
Red Hat Linux 9. It's over 900 pages, and includes the "Publisher's
Edition" of RH9 on 2 CD's. It is written in a style which should accomodate
Linux newcomers and more experienced users alike. There are a LOT of
examples, code snippets, and screenshots throughout the book. In fact
sometimes the abundance of these tend to make the material a little long
to wade through. Experts should have no trouble skipping over the
sections they don't need though. The book starts out with in an
introduction to Linux, and has a good chapter on preparing to install,
including hardware checklists. This is followed by a very detailed step by
step explanation of installing Red Hat, both locally and via network. A nice
part of this is a troubleshooting chapter for solving installation problems.
Part Two explains the basics of using the command line, how filesystems
work in Linux, and using the shell for various tasks. Part Three includes
chapters for administering users and groups on your new system, and how
the RPM software package management process works. Other chapters
in this part explain the bootup process and how to configure it, various
ways to perform system backups, and other common adminstration tasks
such as cron jobs and logs. Especially useful should be Chapter 12 which
explains how to update/compile your own kernel. There are very good
examples of the myriad kernel options, mostly by using the xconfig utility.
The next several chapters go over how to configure and use the
XWindows display system, including good examples from the XF86Config
file. This is followed by detailed explanations of configuring and using the
Gnome and KDE desktop environments. The KDE discussion is very
good, considering Red Hat is more known for it's use of Gnome as the
default desktop. Chapter 18 introduces many of the more commonly used
graphical applications in Linux, such as OpenOffice, Gnome Office, and
the KOffice suite. Chapter 19 should be very handy for Linux/RH new
users, as it outlines the Red Hat graphical configuration utilities which
allow customization of the desktop look-and-feel and other system
preferences. Chapters 20-22 cover basic Linux networking. The first part
of this section gives a very understandable primer on TCP/IP and network
terminology. This is followed up by excellent discussions on how to setup
and manage networking on your Linux computer, including security
recommendations and firewall/masquerading methods. Once you've got
your network running safely, there are additional chapters which cover
topics such as remote access and xinetd services, and various server
applications installation and operation. These include DNS, DHCP, CUPS
printing operations, FTP servers (and clients), NFS and NIS, and mail
servers (sendmail). Some of these services are probably more than most
home users would need, and the sendmail operation in particular is a little
difficult to understand. Chapter 29 (using Samba) will probably be a great
help for people desiring to integrate a Linux system with existing Windows
computers on a network. It offers an excellent tutorial on how to share files
and resources across the LAN, and includes an explanation of the SWAT
configuration utility which greatly simplifies initial setup for newcomers.

The final chapter in the book explains how to install and setup a basic
webserver using the Apache sofware. The Appendix of the book is a
relatively short section called the Linux Command Reference. There is
some handy information in this, although it seems to be organized
somewhat haphazardly. The book's Index seems to be very complete.
Overall I found this book to be a very useful reference tool. It is basic
enough for most beginners to get all the help they need, and has a good
amount of usable knowledge for more advanced Linux users. One thing I
have realized is that much of the information here is not necessarily
RedHat-specific, so can be helpful to users of other Linux distributions as
well. I would highly recommend this as a valuable addition to your
bookshelf.
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