2004.01_Books-Linux Toys and Learning Red Hat Linux.pdf

REVIEWS

Books

Book Reviews

Linux Toys

Linux Toys brings together a number of

projects designed to make your life more

interesting, or at least

add some fun to the

cold winter nights.

Some of the projects

you may have tackled

already. For instance,

many of us still play

music on our comput-

ers that we have

ripped from our CD

collections, simply

because we are too

lazy to keep on

changing the CDs or

because we only like

some of the songs on

each album.

On the other hand, other projects were

things that I had either never thought of

or would not attempt because of the

complexities involved. While I store digi-

tal photographs on the computer, I had

not thought of using an old dedicated

computer as a “picture frame” to display

an ever changing gallery of images,

equally I had been

put off trying to

build a Linux video

recorder as it seemed

to be very complex.

Both these tasks,

and more, are cov-

ered in step by step

detail and after read-

ing the chapters, I

was left feeling that

maybe this was

something I could

try after all, during

the next holiday

break.

There are 13 projects covered in the

book: Music jukebox, home video

archive, TV recorder, arcade game

player, home network server, home

broadcast center, temperature monitor,

telephone answering service, mini ISP,

web hosting, Linux on a floppy, with

BSD games, toy car controller and the

aforementioned digital picture frame.

Each project starts with a list of both

the hardware and the software needed,

most of the software is provided on the

accompanying CD. All the projects are

developed to run on Red Hat 9.0, but the

source code is included on the CD, so if

you wanted, you could compile to run

under other distributions.

Useful websites are listed at the end of

each chapter. I was disappointed to dis-

cover, when looking at the website for

the temperature sensor, that the kits are

no longer made, although information

on how to make your own sensors was

fully explained.

Overall the book was good fun, enter-

taining and thought provoking. One to

add to your Amazon wish list.

■

Christopher Negus and Chuck Wolber

360 pages plus CD

Wiley, 0-7645-2508-5

£27.95, US$ 29.99, EUR 44.40

Learning Red Hat Linux

Red Hat Linux is synonymous with

Linux for the majority of the world.

O’Reilly is synonymous with Linux

handbooks. This book therefore has

much to live up to.

It is aimed at those who wish to set up

a new Linux box and takes the reader

through basic installation to internet

connection and advanced shell scripts.

Now in its third edition, the book deals

with Red Hat 8.0 as its foundation, and

even supplies this on CDs, should you

need it. The style is what you would

expect from something that is now in its

third version – simply to follow but not

condescending. The reader is quickly

taken through the basics with little time

to become bored. Explainations on why

things operate are written in a more nor-

mal explanatory format, though it does

contain those little sidenotes so beloved

by publishers to

indicate a useful

tip, or where more

care is required.

The book is

exactly what you

would expect from

a guide to setting

up a new box. This

can be considered

the standard refer-

ence in its field.

Other authors aim-

ing to write similar

works should note that this will need

something exceptional to surpass it.

Once you have a system up and run-

ning, installation guides are rarely used.

Luckily this manual covers the use of

scripts and how to write them. This

chapter, along with the appendices, is

useful to have to hand

as it always manages to

produce something new

each time I read it.

It would be nice to see

the book updated some-

time next year to cover

the new changes, and

possible cover some of

the high availability

functions. Having said

that, even if you are

used to working with

Red Hat every day, you

should consider this as part of your

bookshelf.

■

Bill McCarty

336 pages plus CD

O’Reilly, 0-596-00469-9

£28.50, US$ 39.95, EUR 39.95

January 2004

www.linux-magazine.com

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