Unix for Dummies - Softcover

John R. Levine & Margaret Levine Young

3.29

90 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1568849052 ISBN 13: 9781568849058

Publisher: IDG Books, 1995

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While popular attention focuses on Windows 95 and its Mac-like graphical user interface, UNIX (the world's least-intuitive operating system) hums in the background, its interface nothing more than a command line prompt awaiting cryptic commands, operators, switches, and arguments. Nevertheless, UNIX is by far the leading operating system of Internet and World Wide Web servers -- and is therefore a must-know for Webmasters and Web site developers. And UNIX is helpful-to-know for even casual Internet users who are taking advantage of Telnet, FTP, and other interface-indifferent areas of the Internet. This book provides a practical, easy-to-understand guide to UNIX for non-wireheads. In UNIX For Dummies, 2nd Edition, you can find answers to all your UNIX questions -- from how to set up and use the popular Linux implementation of UNIX to how to send and receive e-mail and post and read newsgroup messages with Pine. Best-selling authors John R. Levine and Margaret Levine Young even show you how to customize your UNIX shell and do things with Vi you thought possible only in a word processing program like Microsoft Word.

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Review:

The title of this book invites comment. "Some things weren't meant for dummies and Unix is one of them," you might say. Wrong! Levine and Young take advantage of the Dummies format's strength with command-line operating systems. They flatten the learning curve and have even the greenest beginner doing useful work with Unix in mere hours.

Once you get past a couple of pointless chapters about offering pizza to Unix experts in exchange for help, you'll find conceptual explanations of files, directories, permissions, and redirection. Command explanations take a hybrid form; they mix "type this verbatim" statements with tables showing switches and parameters.

Much of Unix for Dummies is task-oriented. You'll find a whole chapter on printing, for example, that covers the commands you'll need to know to format and print a document on the right printer. Other chapters cover file searches, software installation, and X Windows navigation. The book also provides cursory coverage of four text editors--ED, vi, Emacs, and pico--but you learn little more than how to enter and save text in each.

Levine and Young include an eminently useful "DOS-to-Unix Rosetta Stone" that immediately tells you, for example, that the approximate Unix equivalent of DOS's copy is cp. DOS experts who are new transplants to a Unix environment will appreciate this translation guide. The authors wrap up with a wealth of basic troubleshooting information and a command reference.

This book, along with its companion, More Unix for Dummies, is the perfect choice for those who have no knowledge of Unix and need to learn it quickly.

From the Back Cover:

Administer UNIX on a LAN and use the newest utilities

Understand the UNIX shell, go online with new browser options, and get things doneSo you’re using UNIX these days? Sure, it can be a little tricky, but this friendly guide will lead you through all its peculiarities. Soon you’ll understand the GNOMETM and KDETM desktops, know the secret names of your Web files, Samba with the file server, and most importantly, know how to sidestep common problems.

The Dummies Way