There are now several SUSE Linux books on the market, each with a slightly different angle. Some concentrate on SUSE itself without going into depth on general GNU/Linux topics, others are more for reference than cover-to-cover reading, and some are comprehensive behemoths that try to document every possible use and purpose for Novell's GNU/Linux distribution. O'Reilly's SUSE Linux definitely falls into the latter category; people totally new to GNU/Linux will appreciate its thoroughness, but more advanced readers might find it slow and pedantic.

Writing analysis

The author of SUSE Linux must have been paid by the word; he tends to try to tell the story of how to use SUSE Linux instead of getting straight to the useful parts. While this may make for an interesting classroom presentation (the author is a teacher), it does not make for compelling reading. SUSE Linux proceeds at a glacial pace; each subchapter starts with a retrospective on Linux or Unix history, or a famous quote, or something else tangentially related to the subject of the chapter, then you're told what the goal is and how to accomplish it in a variety of ways. In essence, each lab is like a how-to article that you might find on a Linux news site.

According to the preface, this book was originally designed with SUSE Linux 9.3 Professional in mind, then remodeled to accommodate SUSE Linux 10. Before the book was completed, SUSE Linux 10.1 came out. So which version does SUSE Linux apply to? I found that it was mostly concerned with elements common to both 10 and 10.1, with very few bits specific to 10.1; the book failed to cover 10.1's post-release problems with ZENworks.

Putting the book to the test

SUSE Linux is best read start to finish. Each chapter is filled with "lab" subchapters where you solve a problem or accomplish a goal. In the beginning the book covers many general, elementary GNU/Linux concepts and ends with super-advanced system administration techniques. It's entirely possible to find yourself skipping over much of the obvious material at the beginning of the book while finding the system administration sections near the end to be over your head.

Some of the labs in SUSE Linux are -- to be blunt -- crazy. For instance the lab on adding software to SUSE starts out by saying that the easiest way to do this is through YaST, but then proceeds to tell you how to do it from the command line by browsing the installation CDs and unzipping a directory listing. There is no conceivable situation in which someone would want to do this instead of using YaST, and it doesn't teach readers how to do anything that might be useful later.

If you buy this book, you'll learn more than you probably ever wanted to know about SUSE Linux 10 and 10.1, but don't expect to become immediately productive with it. This is not a "quick start" guide, nor does it cover installation troubleshooting -- it is a course on using GNU/Linux in general and SUSE Linux 10/10.1 in specific. If you're going to be reading it in your spare time, it could take months to complete all of the labs.

Conclusions

SUSE Linux is most appropriate for people who have no prior experience with GNU/Linux or other Unix-like operating systems, or who need to learn everything there is to know about SUSE Linux 10.1 for their career. Think of SUSE Linux as a classroom with paperback covers. By the time you're finished with this book, you should be able to do nearly any system administration task in SUSE Linux 10 or 10.1. Experienced users will probably find SUSE Linux to be too tedious and pedantic for their tastes, but readers of all skill levels will be able to learn something.

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Copyright 2006 Jem Matzan.