DSL book reviwed on Linux.com and NF

Forum: News
Topic: DSL book reviwed on Linux.com and NF
started by: vees

Posted by vees on May 04 2006,14:44

http://www.linux.com/article.pl?sid=06/04/24/215211
< http://business.newsforge.com/business/06/04/24/216233.shtml?tid=35 >

Posted by pr0f3550r on May 04 2006,16:44

Direct link:
< http://www.linux.com/article.pl?sid=06/04/24/215211 >

Posted by humpty on May 05 2006,03:41

hmm, I wonder what DSL developers gets out of this ?

Posted by vees on May 05 2006,04:14

out of what? the review or the book?

either way - they get the same things: recognition, exposure and hopefully a bigger user base. no?

Posted by dougz on June 03 2006,13:17

I was a bit disappointed in the review. It didn't seem to give enough info about what the book or videos covered. The book author's web site was helpful, but I wasn't sure whether the book was worth the bucks. Fortunately, I decided to take a chance on it.

Mike Weber did a good job covering DSL and providing a gentle intro to Linux. It is a "work in progess" in the best sense; it was up-to-date on DSL 2.4 and had a few pages on DSL-N 0.1. My book was dated May 7, 2006.

I agree with the review about the need for editing, but it rarely is a problem. The reader can usually catch the bugs by context. The number of real errors is quite small and they don't really detract from the book. More importantly, Weber "gets" DSL, and that makes for a better book.

Book is 391 pages, 8.5 x 7 inch, comb-bound, well-illustrated. It comes with a DSL 2.4 CD & a CD of instructional Flash videos. Contrary to the reviewer, I think Weber was wise to use Flash because it is easy to play on any platform. I played them on DSL after installing the Firefox Flash plugin (using the instructions in the DSL Forum). The videos would be especially helpful for DSL Newbies, particularly if used with the book. The book doesn't have the polish of something from O'Reilly, but DSL is a rapidly evolving and the target market is relativley small. More than "good enough."

Price is US$24.95 plus $4 S&H. Order was shipped on the day after receipt by USPS Priority Mail. Major credit cards, PayPal, etc.

If there is interest, I'd be willing to write up a longer review with a table of contents for both the book and the videos CD.

If you just want to learn Linux skills, there are better books. If you want to rapidly transition from DSL Newbie to DSL Intermediate skills, you will probably like the book.

FWIW, I'd recommend the book to people who:
-- have trouble following the help in the DSL forums
-- need to understand how to configure fluxbox or jwm
-- are "refugees" from big Linux distros or Windows and need to understand the "Tao of DSL"

Some links that might help you decde about the book:
-- < Slide show >
-- < Weber's review of DSL >

Contributions to DSL:

Quote

A portion of each sale will go to support the DSL Project.
$2138.77

Donations Listed Here
$330
$1446.06 Spent on Google Ads Which DSL gets a portion
$362.71 Purchased Hardware from damnsmalllinux.org
< Source page >

I have no relationship to the author, other than as a paying customer. If you have questions, I'll try to answer them.

Posted by flatcat on July 06 2006,16:26

Thanks dougz, I like to read reviews before I stretch to a book and you are broadly positive so I will buy it today.

Posted by dougz on July 11 2006,23:11

Quote

I like to read reviews before I stretch to a book

Me too!

Normally I wouldn't review a book because there are so many other reviews out there.

Since DSL is never going to be as big a book market as the bigger distros (partly because of the technical sophistication of the DSL user community), I thought a second review would help other DSLers and the author.

Quote

...you are broadly positive....

Didn't want to oversell it or be too picky. Tough to do! Hope I don't disappoint.

flatcat, why don't you let others know what you think after you've spent time with the book & videos? The more comments, the better help to the other DSLers. It doesn't matter whether you agree or disagree with the previous reviews. Your insights will be valuable -- like the customer reviews on amazon.com or neweg.com.