RedHat Linux 8 Bible

Like the Bible series of books, this book on RedHat Linux 8 is also thick and covers the A to Z of the topic. This must-read for a seasoned RedHat Linux user, starts with an overview of the new features in the latest distribution, and after explaining the installation focuses on getting the desktop users aquatinted with the graphical desktops, KDE and GNOME, on Linux. 

There’s a chapter on running games on Linux, but it contains more pointers and less hands-on information on installing or setting up games. An interesting chapter on multimedia covers playing audio/video files, setting up TV tuner card and webcams in brief.

Snapshot Author :  Christopher Negus Price :  Rs 499 (with 3 CDs) Key specs : 1063 Contact : Wiley Dreamtech, Delhi Tel : 3260877 E-mail : wdt@vsnl.net

Another section is on system and user administration. Here, the topics on backup and security are fairly dealt with. The final section consists of chapters on setting up various servers–File, Mail, FTP, Web, News, DHCP, NIS and DNS. Postfix mail transfer agent offers an alternative to conventional Sendmail. The chapter on mail server does mention Postfix but only covers Sendmail in depth. One of the chapters includes an eye-catching topic on setting up wireless LANs, which is explained in detail. Though all the RedHat Linux Bible books cover the aforementioned servers, a separate chapter on MySQL database server is something new. 

The book comes with the complete RedHat 8 distribution on 3 CDs, this being a good reason to buy the book. 

Shekhar Govindarajan