eBook Sams Teach Yourself Linux in 24 Hours, Third Edition (3rd Edition) epub

The software will not install. My cd drive doesn't have the manufacturer on it. I had to open my computer and remove the drive but it still is not installing the software so that I can use the book. I had to sign up for a $2K class just to get the fundamentals.

I actually have a copy of the first edition, but the material is basically the same. The first edition doesn't include the CD-ROM.
I am surprised to many people trash this book. I didn't read any reviews before I bought it (now I read reviews unless I know the authors work), but flipped through a few dozens pages before I bought it. I found it pretty helpful.
My background is DOS. I know DOS inside out and backwards, and even with that, Linux is still fairly confusing. More commands, less forgiving command line, MANY more configuration files, and so forth.
The only negative thing I can say about his book is he tries to stuff too much into a 24 hour book. I wasn't overly impressed with the chapter on connecting to the internet. I don't feel that has a place in a book this short. If you want to learn how to use a new operating system and get it online, install Windows and use an ISP with a plug in CD to set it up for you. There is much you need to know before connecting to the internet.
Aside from that, I actually thought it was helpful. If you have NO DOS experience, it will be harder to learn, and the syntax is pretty much the same, but that doesn't mean you can't learn it. It's hard to say how long it will take you to pick it up, as everyone learns at a different pace.
When I got my copy, I hadn't used Linux in about 2 years. I briefly used Slackware (never again), but I only remembered a few commands. Once I had this book, I was starting to remember what I had learned before.
Remember, this book is NOT a comprehensive reference. Just how could you write a reference book to be completed in 24 hours??
I guess I should say that if you are contemplating buying this book, but have seen all the negative reviews, find a copy and just thumb through it. Personally, I thought it was helpful. It's not the Black Book of Linux, but for the price and content, it does pretty good. Definitely for beginners only.
If you need something to give you a foundation to build from, this book might be what your looking for. If you are after more complex topics such as DNS, hooking up hosts, DSL, GNOME, network protocols, and the like, this isn't your book. That's because those aren't introductory topics. Just like you wouldn't expect to find OpenGL programming in a "learn C in 21 days" book.
Form your own opinion. Since when do other readers decide what you will and will not buy?

First of all, several of the reviews I have read here are about the wrong book or by someone who doesn't even have the book, nor have they read it (how does that work?). Many of the reviewers complain about the authors writing... I don't see a problem! Are these people all post-grads in a literature department or what?
Although I didn't find the book to be the hottest thing since sliced bread (who said it should be?), I did find that it was informative and did its job. I knew nothing about linux before the book, I am competent with linux after the book (no, I can't answer all the questions that the linux geeks can answer, so?). Isn't that what an introductory book is for? It seems that some of the reviewers expected to become a "linux Einstein" after reading this book. Well, I'm afraid that this ain't gonna happen no matter which 2000 page "guru in 2 minutes" book you read. This book is an OK introduction to linux... period.

This book is terrible. I thought that an introductory book would be just that; yet, after that chapters on installation, this one tells you nothing. Almost every time it discusses a topic it says 'look at the manuel page' or 'look at the web page' for the information needed to use the function. Sometime, the book tells you to edit some file, without ever explaining how to use any of the editing programs. I brought this up to the publisher( with other concerns) and was instucted on how to get a refund. but after two months of waiting, I've give up. DON'T BUY THIS BOOK!!!!!!

As a former Technical Writer, I am somewhat amazed that the author of this book, who is billed as one, would let it go in the condition it's in. The book, while a good concept, is fatally flawed in a number of ways, and I am surprised any Tech Writer would approve the galleys.
The first thing we noticed were typos; in regular usage, they are annoying enough. When they are in command line arguments, they're intolerable.
Installation went poorly, as the info on using Disk Druid to configure your HD was very sketchy. We wound up with only 900KB usable on a 1.6MB HD due to a paucity of information on how to nuke the DOS partition and reclaim it for Linux. We managed to lurch through the first chapters and get Linux 5.0 installed, but hit a brick wall when it came to getting X-Windows to run. Also, the X-configurator that comes with RH 5.0 is very buggy (as is RH 5.0 itself, we found; 5.2 is better), and we had to resort to an older, XFree86 configurator that was in a different directory. We found out about this from an associate, no thanks to Sams!
Additionally, the book was very aggravating in that, in trying to teach you something, it constantly made references to future chapters. Nothing like having to skip back and forth through the book to get through one chapter!
But the real blow came when it was time to close the book and shut the system down. Nowhere in this manual was there an instruction on how to turn the system off and shut it down properly. I suppose Linux is so great you never WANT to shut it down!
This sort of error would be comical, if it was not so deadly.
Finally, we found that many of the commands, documents and files referred to in the book are simply not where they should be on the system. It made the whole unpleasant business even more aggravating.
For me and my associates, a new book and Linux 5.2 seems to be in order. As a tutorial, this book is worse than useless, it's a waste of time, the most precious human commodity.