When I read the title of the first chapter 'Use your DOS Know-How to Save Time', it gave me the wrong impression that this would be a poor read. The first few chapters explain how to set up DOS like aliases for Unix commands.

In my opinion the author could have better given a short introduction to shell commands and a reference where to learn more. The book is targeted at the home user and tries to get him away from the command line interface as much as possible. The book assumes that you have installed Redhat 7.0 with the KDE and Gnome desktops. It provides a variety of mostly graphical tools on its CD, including games, video and music applications. It discusses the possible office suite options. They are not always free though. The book instructs how to set up your system as a web server, install Samba, back up your system and monitor a network.

If you are proficient in UNIX, this book will not offer very much. It reads like a computer magazine that provides free applications on its CD. I wonder what the publisher wants to achieve with a chimp and a banana on the cover and each page, because it does not appeal to me.