This book is an excellent tool for novices of the game. It gives chapters about the positions and techniques of the game and could be very helpul if you are learning lacrosse. It is also a resourceful tool as a coach (of kids under about 14) and gives pointers on all aspects of the game. If you have been playing lacrosse for a while you may want to look to another source for information about the game, although this book would be somewhat entertaining.

Hey, I'm a 14 year old all county state and divios player and sting attack/ meddie for the chappaqua cross fire. i hily sagest you ording this book. 3 years ago this book got me into to the game. i had the skills but not the rules down. it was fun to read and i still look back at it. email me i always luv to talk about lacrosse. hell ya my email is bballjg87@aol.com and title it lax stuff. thanxs great book and good luck

I coach high school Lacrosse in Missouri, and have found this book a valuable tool in teaching Lacrosse to my players and their parents. I also loan this book out to other coaches and assistant coaches. The book is very comprehensive, but it is so easy to understand, that a total novice at Lacrosse is able to understand the game and even feel like an authority. It covers rules, history and strategy. In an area where Lacrosse is relatively new, this book is a god-send

I wasn't as touched with the story 'The Tale I Told Sasha' as I was with the illustrations. My goodness, the watercolor and sketches were so breathtakingly beautiful the story was easily forgotten.

Have you ever lost something? Then follow a little girl on a magical journey as she chases her small yellow ball over the Bridge of Butterflies, across the Field of Lesser Beasts, through painted trees, to the place where all lost things are found in the enchanting picture book, The Tale I Told Sasha. Nancy Willard explores just how far a young imagination can go on a rainy day, through her writing in this concept book first copyrighted in 1999. The vivid illustrations are the true art in this children's masterpiece, as illustrator David Christiana paints the unimaginable with captivating dimension in brilliant color. Whether the first or five hundredth time through this breathtaking book, The Tale I Told Sasha will reveal something new and deeper in each and every reading. The words, few and powerful, are capable of intriguing children and puzzling adults time and time again. Even the end-sheets of a golden hue and the cutout title page are thoughtfully created and tastefully executed. Williard and Christiana should receive smiles of approval from both young and old, as the truth of all that shadows may hide is revealed in their phenomenal children's picture book, The Tale I Told Sasha.

The poetic and thought provoking adventure that unfolds through the course of this book is quite captivating in and of itself, yet I believe the fantastic watercolors that illustrate the tale are beautiful and eye catching enough to stand on their own, if needs be. Whether you have kids or not, this book is a collectable for anyone who appreciates this kind of creative eye-candy.

Here is the skinny on this one: it is a novel about a couple of Parisian lads who have adventures in war-torn 1870's Paris, then grow up and meet each other as enemies in the Sahara desert. It's a lengthy, epic, page-turning adventure tale which ultimately overcomes some early clumsy writing and ends up being very enjoyable.

The book is almost evenly divided into two halves, the first taking place in Paris. The two lads in question--Paul and Moussa--are cousins, with one of them the son of a Saharan Tuareg woman. (Moussa's father, a count, met her while exploring North Africa.) They live together on the count's estate and get into some interesting adventures, particularly after the advent of the Franco-Prussian war. The author is terrific at creating scenarios and maintaining dramatic tension. For example, there are the boys spying from the attic on an elegant party; there are the boys hunting rats in the tunnels underneath Paris; there is Paul's father, a colonel, leading a cavalry charge against brigand French.

Good stuff, but the first half, at least, is marred by some absolutely horrible, out-of-place, modern-day colloquialisms. The author describes Bismarck's boldness by saying he had, well, a common English epithet for male genitalia. A wounded French soldier speaking to the colonel says, "Gosh, Colonel, sir, I've never been this close to a real officer before," and, "we whomped them," in speaking of a meeting with the Prussians. Since when does a bumpkin from Huckleberry Finn show up in the French army? And sure enough--you can see it coming--one of the French officers insults another by resorting to the standard ignorant comment: "... you." Come on, we're reading about the French in 1870: can't the author at least try to create a little verisimilitude? These are good examples of sloppy writing, and are very off-putting. Several times, and despite the compelling plot, I was on the verge of giving this book the old heave-ho.

But oddly, after a couple of hundred pages or so, these jarring anachronisms pretty much disappear. And the second half of the novel, the part which takes place in the Sahara, becomes even more exciting than the already-interesting Parisian adventures. Moussa, you see, has to flee there with his mother after some difficulties with the French authorities, and becomes a leader of the desert-warrior Tuareg tribe. Paul becomes an officer in the French Army, and sure enough, is sent to the Sahara with the historical ill-fated mission to seek a railroad route to central Africa. As with the first half, exciting and numerous adventures abound. Most exciting to me were the descriptions of a desert ostrich hunt; and also the slave camp, in which the slaves are forced to dig long tunnels and work underground to get at what little water there is in the scorching desert. There are also some terrific battle scenes between the French and the Tuareg, and of course, the tale culminates in the inevitable meeting between the two long-lost cousins under very trying circumstances. It's very exciting.

There do continue to be a few minor problems, however. Some of the characters--most notably the nun, the bishop, and Mahdi--are a little too one-dimensionally evil, and the ending fits together just a little too neatly. But I can forgive it these faults. It is a romantic adventure after all, in the style of Dumas or Robert Louis Stevenson, and one must expect at least a little of this sort of thing. It ends up being a very satisfying read. Too bad there wasn't an editor around to clean up the earlier parts a little bit.

Everything you read in the other reviews about cliches, stereotypes, and a hoaky storyline is true. Believe me. The first three chapters are horrible. I only kept reading because I kept hoping it would get better. And amazingly enough, it did! Not that the characters got more three-dimensional, no, I just got completely absorbed in the story. Once Ball's caught you, it's getting harder to notice the shortcomings of this book. Maybe it's because it's so simple: You've got your three or four evil characters, you're rooting for Moussa to win and for Paul to come to his senses again, and everything is set in faraway lands... you could easily make this book a successful Hollywood motion picture. The formula is there. All in all, if you look for a book with deep moral struggles or an excellent, believable plot, look elsewhere. But if you have a few hours left and want to fill your mind with pictures of exotic places and people, read the book. It reminded me of the wonderful adventure stories of my childhood and left me wishing for more.

I loved this book of great adventure! The story begins with the escapades of two young cousins in France, in the tunnels under Paris, which is besieged by the Prussians. When Paul's father is imprisoned, the boys make a daring attempt to rescue him, floating on a raft between high guarded walls around the city. In their Catholic school, Moussa, who is half Arabic, experiences racism, which gets him into fights. Sister Godrick persecutes him for the amulet he wears, a symbol of his heritage. When other injustices and danger befall Moussa, in particular at the hands of a lascivious bishop, their lives take different paths. Moussa flees to join his nomadic Tuareg relatives in the Sahara, and Paul joins a French expedition to the Sahara. Unknowingly, they end up on opposing sides.

The story has great scenes of narrow escapes, including one from Paris in a hot air balloon, from underground tunnels in the desert, and from battles with Arabic warriors. There is the suspense of wondering if and when the cousins will ever meet up safely and in friendship again. This is an adventurous historical fiction that is on my all-times favorites list!

I may be the only person ever to read this book that doesn't think it's a landmark in herpetocultural literature. Oh well. For the record, I found the information sound, and I was pleased by the book's wealth of information about snake ailments. However, this is not a book for anyone who does not already know how to care for his or her Python regius. The discussion of basic care information is, I thought, inadequate, and De Vosjoli in particular seems to regard these snakes as incredibly delicate, look-but-don't-touch animals. If you are interested in ball pythons, buy this book, but don't buy *only* this book.

I have owned The Ball Python Manual for a year now, (I got it through Amazon.com) and it is refreshing to find a text that gives an owner IMPORTANT factual information about the care and keeping of these magnificent (and docile) reptiles. My highest recommendation is given to anyone interested in the husbandry of Royal (Ball) Pythons.

I found that the book is very informative about ball python breeding and husbandry. It also gives information about diseases and how to treat and how to prevent them. I recently bought my first ball python and it helped me a lot. I named her MEDUSA. My mother and father are helping me, but I am doing most of the work. I am 11 years old and I love reptiles. My mother is the one that has the membership here so it is under her name. My name is Mitchel Yorks.

This book is great for those who are just becoming independant readers. The sentences are short and the vocabulary is simple enough so it is easy for them to understand. Also the pictures correspond well to the story. The story will keep their interest, they will follow the pursuit to find the baseball, seeing how Cam uses her photographic memory to help solve the mystery. This story teaches young children how photgraphic memories work in a simple way. I liked how they used Cam, short for camera as her nickname.

I got this book as a gift and was skeptical about it. My daughter was born in China and I adopted her a few years ago. The author did an excellent job capturing the day to day life of China. The story itself was fast paced and heartwrenching. How much "truth" spurred this story on is suspect and that bothers me that some people will think this "really" happened. If people are reading this as a guide to international adoption it would scare everyone away. That being said, this FICTIONAL story was grand. Had powerful emotions and drama, it was a quick read and one I did not want to put down; but I did several times as it got too close for me. I kept thinking what would I have done if that had been me, after having my baby girl for 5 days what would I have done if a Chinese official had requested her back? The thought of running in a country such as China is mind boggling. But the thrill of the chase was great and exciting. But at the end of the story, I went into my sleeping childs room and gave her a big hug!

China Run sets in Suzhou, China (some 250 kilometers west of Shanghai) where the government told 6 American families the babies whom they just adopted was the wrong babies. The Chinese law requires adoptive parents have to be at least 35 and have no other children at the time of the adoption application in order to qualify for healthy babies. Otherwise they will only qualify for children with special needs. Allison Turk has come all the way to China with her 9-year-old stepson Tyler to adopt Wen Li. On the morning the Americans supposed to return the babies to orphanage, Allison decided to keep Wen Li and ran away with Nash and Claire Cameron and Ruth Pollard who were determined to keep their babies as well. The Americans set off to seek help from the American embassy in Shanghai with the help of Yi Ling, their Chinese guide.

The disappearance of the Americans quickly alerted the government which immediately dispatched the "gong an" (security) officers to hunt them down. They set up roadblocks and checkpoints on major highways while PSB interrogated Yi Ling's family and whoever might have helped the Americans escape. No sooner than they boarded a ship that belonged to Yi Ling's uncle Yang Boda on the Yangtze than some smuggler boat hit them... A fisherman Ren Kai and his wife Mei Ling sheltered the fugitives, namely now just Ruth and Allison, and tendered Tyler and the babies. Knowing that the whole world is collapsing about her ears, Allison was determined to keep Wen Li and by all means dodged the police. The rest of the book was about her hiding in the truck, walking in the bushes, and dodging those who were after her in her venture down south to Guangzhou (180 kilometers northwest of Hong Kong).

The book is a thriller (it doesn't seem to be the case when I read the first chapter) where almost two thirds of it is about the cat-and-mouse chase for the fugitives. It's a page-turner until the last few chapters where the author rambles on and on and makes an effort to drag and twist the story somehow. While the author does excellent and thorough research on places and the reality issues of China, he does expose some of the most repugnant problems in China: the black market of healthy human organs and the extraction of such organs from deceased children in orphanage. Corrupted government officials (such as orphanage director and public security officers) collaborated with gangster rings in smuggling the organs that promised a lucrative business. No less striking was how Xinhua agency (the official government newsagent) often by all means covers up the truth of such vile trades.

I realized the book was based on a true story shortly after I finished it. David Ball had managed to fictionize the real-life incident and its characters. At that point I felt somewhat relieved and beamed at the fact that despite the relentless Chinese government there were good-hearted Chinese people who possessed a good conscience. In a country where one's furies stayed tucked neatly beneath the skin, Yi Ling had stood by the truth of her feelings and risked her life to save the babies, to help the Americans escape. She was confronted face-to-face by her own conscience as she encountered Allison escaping on the hotel hallway. It was that split of a second when Yi Ling made the fateful decision out of her heart and not duty. Allison had touched and changed the lives of Ren Kai and his wife Mei Ling. Ren insisted on helping the Americans since he had come this far with them (picked them up in Hokou after the ship collision and took them home) against all odds. An interesting vignette was how well 9-year-old Tyler got along with the Chinese with whom he shared nothing in common. In the midst of touching moments and outrageous adventures, I question the validity of all the events in this book. David Ball might have forged some of the extra thrilling details here and there to touch up the actual incidence. Whatever the case is, this is a different kind of novel about China. It's a quick-read good for an afternoon in the weekend. It also contains sporadic prose on Chinese scenery. 3.6 stars.

When I first received the book, I opened it and read the prologue and wept. The story of a woman's suffering through pregnancies and abortions and difficult choices presented by a one-child policy and family pressures has more than a ring of truth to it.

Fortunately, that is where the truth ends.

Yes, this book is 'fiction' but the wording on the fly leaf indicating it is based upon a 'true' incident will mislead people into thinking there is more truth here than fiction and that is NOT the case.

The 'true' part of the story is that international adoption from China used to be run by more than one governmental agency, and in the late mid-1990's this process was changed in order to tighten controls and eliminate irregularities in processing of applications. There had never been even any hint of baby selling or organ-farming, and the implication that there may have been, while titillating, is a creation of the author's imagination.

During the transition period of the re-org, there were families who had been 'matched' and notified of their referrals, only to have their referrals changed later on - most prior to leaving for China. At the end of the re-organization, CCAA became the sole governmental arbiter of all things related to adoption in China. The China program of international adoption is a well-run program, resulting in the placement of approximately 6000 children into loving homes around the world each year.

So the 'true incident' mentioned on the book cover in no way resembles the story as written. In fact, the incident in the book never took place. The author's story is an extrapolation of the re-org into a HUGE 'what if' scenario.

And, as far as that goes, that is fine - because this is, afterall, a fiction novel.

However, the book does make interesting reading, and it is unfortunate that the fly leaf does not provide more details about the 'true incident' because the statement that it is 'based upon a true incident' misleads readers into thinking that the story is more true than it is. And, as we know that many people only think as far as the end of their nose about these things, it presents a very wrong, and therefore potentially VERY harmful, impression about China, Chinese government officials, the adoption process and adopting parents.

What makes the situation even more maddening for those of us who have gone through the process or are in the midst of the process, is that the author is also the Dad of a daughter adopted from China. This not only makes some of us feel betrayed, but also angry, as it lends a level of veracity to the fictional story that is neither warranted nor wanted.

All that being said, you will easily get caught up in the action and emotional turmoil of the adopting parents, especially the protagonist - an adopting mom who has been told she must give back her daughter, and runs, with her 9 year old stepson in tow, for their lives.

Mr. Ball's writing about the Chinese countryside and daily life is on the mark, and very well done. Having been there/done that twice now (I am Mom to 2 daughters from China), I was easily transported back through the images described in his writing. I could 'see' things, 'feel' things, even 'smell' the markets and cooking scents. The book is rich with images that evoke a strong sense of place, and add much to the story.

As a work of fiction, I have found myself recommending the book highly -- much to my surprise.

This book is a solid first treatment of a subject that is *way* overdue for serious attention from WWII historians: logistics in general and the Red Ball Express in particular. It also, along the way, helps to do for support troops what Ernie Pyle (then) and Stephen Ambrose (lately) did for combat troops . . . record and pass on their stories of "what it was like." The fact that many of the soldiers whose stories are told in RTV are African-American addds a third valuable dimension to the book.

So why only three stars? Well . . .

David Colley writes like an experienced, and very talented, magazine writer who hasn't developed a feel for how to structure a book-length story. RTV is a mosaic of brief, topical chapters that are complete in themselves but add up (more or less) to a complete picture of life on the Red Ball. It *feels* like an extended series of magazine articles rather than a unified book. I often had the sense that, if I reshuffled the chapters in random order, it would read just as smoothly. I can accept that in a reference book, but a straight-ahead work of history needs more shape.

What I missed, throughout the book, was any sense that Colley had digested all the (fascinating) information he presents. So much of the material was new to me that I kept waiting for him to draw conclusions that were equally new and fascinating. Instead, Colley told me things that I already knew: Mechanized transport was crucial to the Allied victory in Europe, Americans have a talent for improvisation, and overt racism was less prominent in Europe than in the 1940s USA.

This book is well worth buying and well worth reading, but the definitive history of the Red Ball has yet to be written. Any WWII historians out there looking for a great project?

"The Road to Victory" is not an old Bob Hope/Dorothy Lamour movie. Instead, RV tells the tale of World War 2 in Europe during the climactic months after the Normandy invasion of June 1944. It does not dwell on heroics or bravery in combat. Instead it is concerned with other heroics- the sheer logistical day by day avalanche of men and materiel that was required to supply the quickly advancing Allied Armies. Author Colley actually succeeds in shedding the crunching tonnage of Army Supply into a readable novel. From this Army veteran, that is high praise! Key to it all was the Red Ball Express. These were large truck convoys that raced across France from the Channel ports through Luxembourg and Belgium to the borders of Germany. The majority of convoy drivers were African American, doing critical work for a segregated, often unappreciative and sometimes even hostile U.S. Army. This contrasts sharply with the more liberal Europeans they came in contact with. The author weaves interesting combinations: human interest in the hard working Black drivers, the difficulties and dangers they faced on the road, the military "foul-ups" (for lack of a stronger word), and enough statistics and numbers to warm the heart of any QMC or TC man. True, RV is a bit dry, but not to any detrimental effect. This reviewer has read many military works and it's always gratifying to read one that explores a new story, a different angle or a fresh approach. RV is such a book. Once it appears in paperback, military history fans should pounce. Civil Rights students should ignore the military jargon and strongly consider RV too.

It is often hard to write a book for intermediate users. Covering so many different topics just make it harder. The book gives overviews for many operations that are possible in RedHat. However, too little is provided apart from listing commands and config files, sometime with no explanations. Too many times I have found my self reading HOW-TOS instead - what's the point of having the book?

I suggest getting 'Running Linux' (good general) and 'Linux in a nutshell' (good reference) from O'Reilly. This book is too vague for beginners, and of little value to intermediate-advanced users.

This book is as good as the previous versions of Linux Unleashed. Maybe a little better since it is only concentrating on the RH versions. Gives quick introductory to a lot of configurations. I think this is helpfull because at least you can make it work without digging through sometimes Illegible README and INSTALL documentation. Sometimes I use the information from the book to try and understand what the author of the README pages is talking about. The basic configurations for Apache, Samba and Networking are there (NIS is there also but didn't try it). Once you get this setup going you can tweak it and see whether it did what you wanted or it crashed. You get a baseline working system though. One little tid-bit of warning. I tried to use the disks provided with the book to upgrade a system and it stalled 3-times in a row. I put in a RH installation disk from RH and the upgrade went fine. So there may be a few kinks on the disks which are provided with this book. I have used the book supplied disks to install individual rpm packages and they seem to work fine.

Having an Unleashed book will make your more of an expert on the topic you are reading about, and Red Hat Linux 7 Unleashed is no different.

People who have never used Linux or are experienced users will find this book helpful as it gives insight into how to install, configure, secure and get the most out of Red Hat Linux 7.

One chapter many advanced users who are using a dual boot system will find helpful is Chapter 9 on System Startup and Shutdown. One disadvantage about this book, and others, is the lack on coverage on installing Linux on a Windows 2000, NT or XP version of Windows. While Windows XP is not, out yet I have been baffled at the lack of coverage on installing the Linux Loader or LILO for an NT based system.

(Many people who are using the LILO and want to put it on the MBR will have to learn by trial and error.)

However, the intermediate or advanced user will find the rest of the information on the LILO and the Master Boot Record to be very helpful.

Also included with the book is Red Hat Linux 7 on three CD's including documentation and source. Having an extra copy (unless your getting your first copy from the book) is helpful if your copy ever goes bad.

No matter what you are planning on doing with Red Hat Linux 7, you must pickup a copy of this book. Believe me you will thank me when something goes wrong and this book as the answer in it.

If you can only afford one Linux book and you are running Redhat 6.0 or later, then this is definately the book to get. However, it still has a long way to go.

'Unleashed' is another one of those tomes that simply try to cover too much material in a single volume and don't seem to do any particular topic justice. I have a whole bookshelf of computer books that are each over 500 pages that I had to buy only because out of the entire book there was one sentence in one paragraph somewhere in the middle that had the tidbit of information that I needed.

These books simply have too much redundant and non-meaty stuff and too little of the really important stuff. For example, they cover installation, building the kernel, setting up NFS, the history of the internet and why you need DNS, how mail works and the different types of mail programs, how to connect to an ISP through PPP, how to write C, Perl, and Java programs, ... etc. Three things to consider here: (1) are all of those topics relative to me in the context of getting RH6.0 loaded and configured? (2) Are any of the relative topics covered in sufficient detail that I don't have to look further to complete my task? (3) Are there any glaring omissions or topics that are essential to cover in order to complete my installation and configuration?

The answer to the 1st question is absolutely not - there is no value whatsoever in including programing topics here. This is not the time nor place. I would rather buy a 2nd book on Linux programing and take about 2 lbs out of this one.

The 2nd question addresses the real meat of the problem: does the book address the relative topics in sufficient detail to get you up and running. This is where Unleashed stands above simular books (such as the O'Rielly version), but clearly doesn't go far enough. In general, I wish they would take the time and show you in detail how to use the X/GUI-version of Linuxconf - the primary configuration tool and single greatest strength of RH Linux, to demystify each major configuration evolution including building the Kernel. Here they are inconsitent and frustratingly vague. Sometimes they refer to the Linuxconf interface for a configuration evolution, sometimes they refer to the .conf files. Sometimes they simply print out a .conf file and don't offer any clarification.

Regarding question (3) they go into great detail about topics that you are not likely to encounter (such as setting up new user accounts or using command line mode to rebuild the kernel), but omit much needed information such as SAMBA troubleshooting checkpoints, potential NFS errors, an end-to-end example to configure the PPP daemon for dial-in support, or setting up a firewall via IPCHAINS or IP Masquerading.

In conlusion, I wanted to see a RH-specific book that focuses on how RH is distributed today as a GUI-oriented OS whose greatest features (if some author could please explain its use) is Linuxconf - a X/GUI application that is a single point COMPREHENSIVE configuration utility that can be run remotely. Specifically, I want a book that can walk me through these evolutions critical to getting a RH60 server or workstation up and running:

NETWORK CLIENT - configuring network adapters, multiple adapters, IP forwarding, routing (default gateway), DNS, mask, DHCP.

NETWORK SERVER - configuring a DNS server, mail (POP-3) server, dial-in PPP server, DHCP/BOOTP server, PXE server (important! ), SAMBA server. Provide insightful ways to debug or verify basic functionality - how to test that it is or is not working.

KERNEL BULDING - using the graphical 'make xconfig'. Special notes on building SMP (multi-processing) boxes. How to properly configure your LILO files, how to add SCSI support, how to add loadable modules, etc.

EXTRAS - Save the programing issues for another book!

In conclusion, Unleashed goes further and is more useful than other simular comprehensive Linux books. It does enter into using Linuxconf for system configuration but does not go into enough detail to be a true on-stop-source. It is unfortunate that the bulk of its content is redundant and not of importance to the system integrator who is likely to buy this book. I recommend that you do buy it, but you might have to buy others.

If I had time to sift through the online Linux manuals, I probably wouldn't be buying books, but I don't, so I do and on the topic of Linux, "unleashed" delivered a ground-up tour in one (heavy) package. The book is also making the rounds around here as other departments start looking at Linux for LAN servers.

The title is a bit misleading: It is really a book about installing, managing and using a Linux distribution using RedHat as the example. It includes the basic set-up of an Apache website, an overview of several included programming languages and other packages included on the CDs, but which are not really RedHat specific; I don't know much about Caldera or SuSE but I expect what you learn in this book is not all that different from what you'd learn with any Linux distribution. It is also probably not a book for really advanced topics, but easily enough to get your bearings, learn the basics, and then quickly get proficient enough to start using (unleashing?) Linux in a real-world situation.

Also, unlike the other new RH Linux books I looked at, This one also includes *both* the official packages and the *source* *code* CDs --- I don't know where the other authors/publishers are coming from: I thought having the source code was what Linux was all about!

I'm not sure if this is common of the "Unleashed" series or not, but I still use this book for most of my Linux problems. I always seem to be able to find the answer and the index is the most complete of all the books I've bought since -- not sure if that's saying too much since I've been so frustrated with ALL the other Linux books I've bought since. Maybe I just find the bad ones.

If you haven't had some "command-line" experience, then I'm not certain this book may be for you. Most things are described via command-line interfaces with some desciptions of companion gui apps.

For what's worth, I'm (still) runnning RedHat 7.2 and this is still my best reference. The only other reference I usually use is the man pages and an occasional HOWTO. Not sure that's bad or good, so take it as you will. :o)

Overall I believe the book is a good buy. However, there were two things I found disappointing.

The first was the fact that the CDE window manager was not included on the CD's even though the book made it sound like it was (Page 107). See customer comment titled "A reader from USA , April 4, 1999".

Secondly I didn't think there was enough information on partitioning. The book recommends setting up partitions (/usr, /home, /, /var) to name a few, but it doesn't recommend how much space to dedicate to each. The first time I set up the partitions and installed the packages I ran out of disk space for the targeted partition /usr. I had to go back and allocate more space to /usr and try again. The second time through it worked. No big deal. However, after using Linux for several weeks and after I had configured X windows, I discovered that I should have devoted more space to /usr and a little less to /home (since I'm running this as a workstation and not a server; I only have one user- myself). There should have been more information about what each of the partitions recommended by the book are for. The book does mention that if you wish to install the entire CD you will need x number of bytes free on your disk, but which of the partitions should have the free space?

Besides that this book is good for a technical person that is new to Linux. I was able to have my system running Linux in a short time with few headaches that I could blame the book for. Always reference more than one source. There are plenty of web sites that can help. Part of being a computer geek is just trial and error.

Granted I've been working off and on with Unix systems for a few years now, but when I decided to build a Linux box on my second PC I found the book a phenomenal resource.

For a *complete* beginner to Linux it may lack too many details, but for most people who enjoy getting inside of an OS and their computer this book explains not only the 'how', but also the 'why'. Details the book outlines are ample enough so that if you aren't able to gather all the info you need to get something to work, you are informed enough to search for the remaining info you require on the online Linux resources.

Granted, more details would have been beneficial in some areas, but overall I found the book not only a 'must read', but a 'must have'.

For Windows users: before criticizing the book, realize first that the Linux OS is different from the Win9X platforms. Win9X was designed for beginners, and NT for advanced users; Linux should really only be considered by people with extensive interest in an OS with a very steep learning curve.

The unleashed series give a very broad over view of a given subject. i have both slackware unleashed and redhat unleashed. both are very similar and only touch on the hundreds of facets to LINUX. the software cd's are great it includes red hat linux, xfree86, GIMP, apache, sendmail, netscape, and a bunch of others (including the source). the rpm based install is a dream compared to slackware96. the HTML based manual on the install CD tells exactly how to install redhat (especially how to make the boot disks), complete with screen shots. the write up in the book is not accurate in the least. it makes little mention of hardware troubles or how the install should go. it does cover several programming languages, (c, c++, perl, cgi, even html and java to a certain extent), the basics of UNIX, some system administration, and even web, mail and ftp server basics. if you are brand new to linux (and even UNIX), read the book from cover to cover to see what all you can do, if you like what you see then browse the cd to get started. if you are a veteran, buy an O'reilly book instead. one thing is true about linux, YOU WILL PAY MORE FOR BOOKS THAN YOU WILL EVER PAY FOR SOFTWARE!!! ***** for the software PLUS ***** for the breadth of the content PLUS ** for the detail of the content PLUS *** for the accuracy of the content EQUALS 15 stars divided by 4 categories. that averages out to 3.75 stars.