How Linux Works

Title: How Linux Works

Author: Brian Ward

Publisher: No Starch Press, 2004

Vital Stats: 347 pages

Reviewer: Alex Reynolds

Overall Rating: 6 stars (out of 10)

Review:

How Linux Works by Brian Ward presents itself as a guide for the new Linux user. As a new Linux user I found this an interesting read, firstly because prior to reading this book I knew next to nothing about Linux, and secondly because I have read many similar how-to books, and was interested to see how they were written across topic.

• When reading was this book, the first thing that struck me was the ease of the reading itself. Ward writes clearly and concisely, offering a large amount of information. The chapters are divided and have a logical flow. Anytime I needed to reference something specific within the book it was very simple to find the chapter and section number. The Ward’s self referencing within the text makes this a necessity. This was also useful for when I was initially starting to use Linux myself (Slackware), because if I needed a quick explanation I could find what I was looking for with effortlessly.
• However, I found these divisions to be distracting when I was initially reading the text. Frequent and unclear chapter and section divisions slowed my comprehension of the material. There seemed to be little connection between chapters, and I felt little or no natural progression as a student. One example would be the chapter on C programming, which seems very out of the blue and whose importance is not clarified until far later in the book. Introductions to new topic were short, or almost non-existent. As a reference book this is fine, but I felt as if I was supposed to be conceptualizing Linux as an operating system.
• Furthermore, despite sometime elaborate examples in the text, the importances of concepts were in general not explained. There seemed to be little goal or direction as a reader. When I had finished reading the text I felt as if I had just been given a very large sum of case specific information, and not very much in the way of greater knowledge. More to the point, I felt as if the command system of Linux was changed tomorrow, but the design of the system remained the same, that I would be unable to adjust. Again, if this book is treated solely as a reference manual this isn’t much of a problem.
• . A constant concern in any educational book is to write at a consistent level; in order to stay within the bounds of reader comprehension. Overall this book does a decent job of this. Only a few times did I feel as if the author spoke about subjects that I didn’t know about, or topics that weren’t otherwise properly explained. These seemed to be isolated incidences in the long run and didn’t truly detract from the book.
• . Another small issue I had with the writing style of the book was the tendency of the author to slip in to the vernacular. While this tends to be common in how-to style writing I felt as if this was an inconsistency for a book so high on information. These colloquial outbursts were most concentrated when the author chose to interject his opinion on specific software choices or computing practices. By doing so I felt that the arguments presented were greatly mitigated. Towards the end of my reading I went as far to skip such paragraphs completely, despite potentially good advice contained within. At the very least these outbursts were distracting and inappropriate in a field where factual arguments should be easy to make.

• . Using How Linux Works to learn basic computing concepts may be a bad idea. The book is not poorly written, but it lacks connecting elements between ideas and concepts. The choppy nature of the writing is simply not conducive to learning. I also found, that despite the insistence of the author, you need to know quite a bit more than simply how file systems work in order to use this book. Still, we are given a very pragmatic and useful reference book. I found this book most useful when I was sitting in from of a Linux machine configuring things for myself, and referencing them appropriately. If you are looking for a reference book for basic Linux commands and configuration this book is a decent choice, but I would avoid it as an introductory text.