Buying a book on the internet is like getting Christmas presents from distant relatives at times. They rely on word-of-mouth to get the choice right; occasionally you luck in, and sometimes you luck out.
After installing Ubuntu on 2 systems in August 08, as the eldest male in the house it tends to fall to me to fix all PC problems, from "why isn't the mouse working?" (change the batteries AGAIN) to "What does 'formatting c:' mean, Dad?" I bought this book to give me a better look at Linux.
The help system on Linux is extensive, and the apropos, man and info commands are familiar friends by now. However, documentation in Linux is often more challenging to find, and I was looking for something that pulled it all together. For my purposes, this book wasn't it.
"Linux in a nutshell" is not designed for the prospective or brand new user; the lack of anything in the title suggesting that was one of the reasons I bought it. However, it lacks a systematic approach to the topic. At 925 pages, it's a big nutshell too. However, fully 499 pages amount to a printout of the man pages, so there's a lot of redundant information for anyone with access to a Linux terminal. The other chapters are a mix of topics; 100 pages on version control (no mention of bazaar), 50 on emacs and vi, a worthwhile section on regex/awk/sed and bash, others on bootloaders and package managers, and various others. However, many of these pages are again a printout of the man pages.

My major complaint is that most of the book is a printout of man pages. Linux, as a rule, is reasonably well documented. What is missing is a metapackage that enables the user to know which command to use; this book doesn't fill that gap. For example, sound is only mentioned in the man page listings, and the directories to find documentation for installed packages are not mentioned at all.

It should also be mentioned that there are significant changes in the Linux kernel since this version of the book(copyright 2005), and understandably there is no mention of these- for instance, HAL as the manager for input devices isn't listed in the index. Setting up multiple displays- another common task in my experience- doesn't get a mention at all.

In summary, this book would help if the PC was completely messed up. With access to a terminal, it provides little benefit, although the chapters on bash, sed and gawk have excellent introductions.

This book consists of one large section that is mostly distilled man pages, along with more specialized chapters later on. Emacs, vi, bash, sed and gawk are all covered in detail. This book is my main reference for bash, vi, sed and gawk, as I am an Emacs and Z Shell user. Despite the material in the "Commands" chapter being redundant with the online documentation of any GNU/Linux system, I like having a printed book to view. This is usually the first thing I go for when I'm using `find'.

I recommend getting a used copy or a previous edition, because the sections of real value in this book will still be valuable, even if they are three or four years old.

Getting a bit long in tooth, but Linux hasn't changed that much since this was published in 2005. Much of it is a reprint of what you'll find in the MAN pages, with better tyography and formatting. Not particularly helpful for the rank beginner, unless used as a secondary source.

As a handy reference to Linux - truly Linux in a nutshell - it still has no equal in terms of comprehensiveness and ease of use.

Jerry

This book is a constant companion on my physical desktop....if you deal with Linux in anyway at all this book is a necessity.

This book is as it promises, lots of information in a very (relatively) small space. The chapters are organized on topics that the newbie (read: me!) needs to know about and the explanations are thorough and well-written. While the old hand will understand the material covered easily and without much review, the newbie will have to read and re-read to get it all. Chapter 3 lists the most common LINUX commands and details arguments that go with them. The index and the fact that the commands lists are alphabetical make it very easy to look up a specific command or function and find out what you need to know to make it work on the spot. The chapters on Shells and on the VIM Editor are very informative and make two tough topics easy to understand. Reading through the VIM editor chapter as I did a lab practical made the process almost fun. For me, the best part was that I could understand the book, and my way experienced friend also finds it a useful reference for his more advanced work. So, I'll be able to use it while I grow into it as a LINUX user.