unix

I came into this with DOS, OS/2 and Windows experience (but no UNIX/Linux). This book and it's simple exercises will get you familiar with the most common essential commands in UNIX. It's best to read cover to cover and do the exercises while you go.

This is not a book for UNIX experts. This book is for people that have little or no experience on LINUX/UNIX. It is concise and doesn't waste your time while still teaching you the basics. People looking for more advanced reading should move on to Essential System Administration and UNIX Power tools (also Orielly books.)

Learning UNIX will definately get the new UNIX user off on the right foot and get you working with the interface.

I remember my first look at a UNIX terminal. A little '%' with a flashing cursor. I don't remember how long I stared at the little prompt not knowing what to do. Then I pressed some keys and things became much worse.

Now I'm surfing around dizzying hierarchies of file structures, able to get to the root and back again and make and edit text files. I bite my thumb at weird commands that used to seem as comprehensible as medieval scholasticism.

I wouldn't have been able to accomplish any of that without this little book that's as intimidating as a ladybug.

The most difficult part of the book, in fact, is actually finding a UNIX environment to log into. If you're not at a University or a fairly good-sized corporation (and if you don't know UNIX they won't let you near a command line anyway) you may wonder where to go. Linux, in most cases, is a good substitute; or check the web for free UNIX (or Linux) shell accounts. Combine your new-found account with this book and UNIX will no longer be a gut-wrenching incomprehensible monolith.

Don't consider yourself an expert, however, and don't stop there. UNIX may not be as difficult as some like to think it is, but it's also not easily mastered. Take this book, digest it, then move on to bigger tomes (there is no shortage of tomes in the land of UNIX, as you will find).

Lastly, the owl on the cover rules.

This is a good first book on Unix. A reader of the book can decide which of the subjects covered in the book interests him, and go deeper by reading other books. Be sure to check the errata page at oreilly.com for mistakes in the book.