Customer Rating: 

This book really is exactly what it says, it will take you from linux poweruser/administrator to understanding the basics of the kernel, and getting that vital starting point in developing.

I bought it some time ago for some background reading and found it a little bit too detailed for that, but am now studying it in more detail for a potential honuors project at university on linux file systems, which involves some kernel jiggery-pokery. Without this, I doubt I'd ever be able to get started.

It explains big ideas in English, then goes on to explain the interesting parts in English, along with the tiny bit of C code it is describing.

Well written and explains rarer generic things in an easily skippable way - for example there is a part of the kernel that uses double-linked-lists and the page before that explains them in a nice box, so that anybody who knew about them already (since they are a general topic and not specific to kernels) can skip it easily.

Customer Rating: 

This book is excellent way to get know how Linux kernel works and what it does. For person like me, sysadmin for some years already, the book clarifies what makes operating system to behave some way or other. I will not recommend this book for any junior sysadmin, but for thous who have experience and whom are asked to help when systems work strange way the book can give really good background knowledge.

For example after reading this book I could understand slocate cronjob and page table growing relation. Of course removing slocate from cron is the fix, but knowing why it helps and what it does is related to slabs. Even monkey can fix things without understanding what he is doing or why, that is why the book is so important.

Since this and Solaris internals are only books about this subject (what I know) there is no other option than give five starts. I hope in future there will be even better and less dry kernel internal books. Meanwhile this is one of the best.

Customer Rating: 

Everybody likes easy to read books and I also assume that learning UNIX is not necessarily has to be a struggle. This book stood up to my expectations almost perfectly: it is very well written and clearly expressed work. It does not overwhelm with technical details and does not press too much. It is VERY descriptive and takes you snoothly from subject to subject. I also followed an advise in someone's review and purchased "UNIX Essentials" DVD that is complete unix course recorded (I found on Amazon.com but since they do not ship outside US I ordered it directly from CustomFlix.com). These two nicely complement one another. You watch it and you read it. If you didn't catch it from the first try you watch it again and read it again. In two months I found myself confident to that extend that gave advises to our system administrator and he accepted them because there were subjects that he wasn't completely sure. What I can say, in three month I passed my first interview and got a job! Sure it is a way to start and there are much more advanced reading, however these two provide you with the background !
I can't overstate how much I have learned from them. Don't be naive, though. You will have to learn and memorize many things. The fact of owning neither book nor DVD will not make you knowledgeable, but if you will work it trough, trust me, you will surprise many people around!