Efficient Linux at the Command Line - Daniel J. Barrett

With a title like that, I expected a desktop reference packed with bash lifehacks, but no :)

The author explains simple concepts in a complex and verbose way. Even knowing how to use the described tools and using them every day, I struggled to get through the author’s thickets of explanations.

The author invents unrealistic scenarios for using various utilities while regularly saying: “I can’t cover everything here, only the most essential and in-demand functionality.” Sometimes he implements the simplest tasks in the most complex and convoluted way possible.

The narrative is scattered: he starts talking about something, then cuts himself off and says he’ll explain it in detail a few chapters later.

The author applies words to utilities and processes that are more suited for living things: “make it do,” “it doesn’t want to,” etc.

Every few pages, the author reminds you about the same appendices, as if this were a university textbook for a once-a-week course.

Up to the middle, the book is tedious and difficult to read: little information, few concepts, many words. From the middle, the author picks up speed and starts delivering information more densely. But constantly jumps between academic conceptual narrative and dumbed-down everyday language.

It seemed to me that the author himself couldn’t decide on the audience. So the book will seem boring to experienced specialists and simultaneously complex and hard to understand for beginners.

Not ready to recommend.

Efficient Linux at the Command Line Daniel J. Barrett