Baslinux mailing list

["Greg Mayman" <gmone AT tpg.com.au>]

On Fri, 16 Feb 2007 13:51:23 +0000, Lee Forrest wrote:

> So? You aren't experienced enough to judge the quality of a linux
> book.

I _do_ have sufficient general experience to judge whether the
stuff they are writing makes sense. And whether it is aimed at
the dumbo or the thinking person.

What I mentioned the book for was to see if anyone with more
Linux experience knew of it, and get their opinion.

> I don't mean that as an insult. It's just a fact. You are a
> newbie.

Yes, to Linux most certainly.

And some parts of the book are strange to me, and will remain so
until I get more experience.

But the further I read, the more of it is making sense.

> 9. Linux - I didn't know you could do that...
> ISBN: 0-7821-2612-X
> [62]http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/078212612X
> Worst book ever. Very little technical substance.

I suspect the reviewer didn't read it. Or couldn't understand it.
Or was looking for something else.

I am nearly 1/4 of the way through it and it is obvious that it
has a LOT of technical substance.

> 10. For dummies - Linux Programming
> ISBN: 0-7645-0691-9
> [63]http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0764506919
> Second worst book ever. Very basic shell scripting guide.

I don't know that one. But I am suspicious of any of the "for
dummies" books. I would expect them to be quite boring to anyone
above the dummy level, who needed some technicalities.

> On the Amazon page, someone calling theirself "Mike Smith" gives
> the book a glowing review. Someone who appears to be a different
> person slaughters it.

Differences of opinion are quite common <GGGGGG>

> Whether any of the above reviewers know anything about linux or
> even looked at the book, I couldn't tell you.

It does make one wonder.....

> "Talk is cheap" is an expression I never really understood until
> I discovered the internet.

Ha! You are right on with that one!

> There is no single book or collection of books that will make
> someone a successful linux runner. It takes study and practice
> and experience.

Agreed. But a good book can help you a lot.

> You have Rute, and, IIRC, Running Linux.

Running Linux hasn't arrived yet. But they did say 4 to 6 weeks,
and it is only just 5 weeks and a few days.

This was a commercial online seller, but I have not been able to
contact them. Messages left on their help page get an automatic
response that an email has been sent to me.

But all emails from that site are being rejected by my ISP, They
say it doesn't ping as a genuine sending address, so their mail
system automatically rejects them as spam.

That may be some peculiarity of their setup, or it may be a sign
of something worse.

And they have no means of making contact apart from that help
page. No email addresses, no snail mail addresses, no phone
number.

So I am looking around for another copy, preferrably within
Australia to keep the postage down.

> Everything foundational you need to know, and much more, can
> be found in those books, even as dated as Rute and the earlier
> (editions 1-3) of Running Linux _seem_ to be.

Rute is good.

And BTW you don't need to tell me the benefits of commandline
working. I have been doing it for preference, whenever possible,
for the last 35 years.

.   ,-./\
.  /     \     from Greg Mayman, in Adelaide, South Australia
.  \_,-*_/     "Queen City of The South"    34:55 S  138:36 E
.       v