Thank goodness for Michael Lucas and FreeBSD

books:


	• Absolute FreeBSD: The Complete Guide to FreeBSD, 2nd Edition Michael W. Lucas No Starch Press, 2007 - 744 pages average customer review:based on 10 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Thank goodness for Michael Lucas and FreeBSD

Almost five years ago I reviewed Absolute BSD, Michael Lucas' first book on FreeBSD. I gave that book five stars, back when several other BSD books provided competition. On the eve of 2008, I am happy to say that Michael Lucas is probably the best system administration author I've read. I am amazed that he can communicate top-notch content with a sense of humor, while not offending the reader or sounding stupid. When was the last time you could physically feel yourself getting smarter while reading a book? If you are a beginning to average FreeBSD user, Absolute FreeBSD 2nd Ed (AF2E) will deliver that sensation in spades. Even more advanced users will find plenty to enjoy.

One of the best aspects of AF2E is that it is modern and covers FreeBSD 7.x. The previous edition covered 4.x, and plenty has changed since then. I've used FreeBSD regularly since 4.1.1 (Aug 2000), and AF2E taught me a lot about my favorite OS. Michael's coverage of GEOM, NanoBSD, FreeSBIE, journaling, memory file systems, filesystems in a file, and other topics really opened my eyes. Michael delivers excellent line-by-line explanations of system output, using numbered references to guide the reader.

Another major reason I love AF2E is that it is a good system administration book that covers plenty of FreeBSD nuances. Michael shares many of his experiences running FreeBSD in production, and I always believe he is teaching the reader what he or she needs to use FreeBSD to support customers. For example, I liked the hint on p 221 about disabling hard drive write caching (hw.ata.wc=0 in /boot/loader.conf). I also liked hearing about netstat -m to see kernel memory used for networking.

The book is also very lively for a system administration title. One of my favorite lines appears on p 135:

"Ethernet has many device-like characteristics, and it's simplest for FreeBSD to treat it as a device. Leave this [kernel option alone], unless you're looking for a learning opportunity."

So far AF2E has received all positive reviews, but I'm sure there's some deficiency another reader will report. In an ideal world I would have read more on FreeBSD binary updates, especially those involving minor releases (say 6.2 to 6.3) and major releases (say 6.2 to 7.0). Those developments are too recent to have appeared in the book, but they appear in 7.0 and will provide exceptional power for many users. I think enough completely FreeBSD-specific chapters (performance tuning, /etc, and others) are present that it's easy to say this is an awesome FreeBSD book.

If you want more coverage of Pf (and found AF2E's material lacking), just buy a copy of the new title The Book of PF: A No-Nonsense Guide to the OpenBSD Firewall by Peter Hansteen. If you want more detail on installing certain applications on FreeBSD, buy Building a Server with FreeBSD 7 by Bryan Hong. Kudos to No Starch for publishing AF2E and these other BSD titles.

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Best FreeBSD book out there.

I have been a freebsd user for a little over 3 years in a real network environment with over 1000+ nodes at my facility. At first the handbook seems like a very complicated compilation of how-to's from different individuals, a class mate ask me to grab a copy of Absolute FreeBSD by Michael W.Lucas. I got online and this book was just coming out, so I decided to give a try, after reading half of the book, I have to say that Michael Lucas is an excellent writer; he describes in a very chronological/concise manner using graphics and commands the necessary steps to install, secure and make a useful system out of FreeBSD. Many of us are waiting for the 7.x release, he also cover the material in that upcoming release or at least part of it.

I am really exited about this book, I will be purchasing the OpenPGP book that Michael Lucas also published, as I said he is a great writer and if you want to learn FreeBSD without going through the nuts and bolds of the handbook this is the best source that will teach you step by step this great Operating System.

If you want to learn FreeBSD from in to out, get this book. Period.

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Latest and greatest

Excellent choice for any FBSD 6/7 user. Covers significant breadth and depth of topics, so new (motivated) sysadmins should be able to get up to speed, while experienced folks will be satisfied with the level of detailed information.

Lucas has a rather dry sense of humor that he injects just occasionally enough that it keeps things interesting.

Pleasant to read, and a usable reference.

Informative and Straightforward

I setup my FreeBSD server from start to finish with this book in less then two days and have got to say it is an excellent book with meticulously crafted chapters.

I am now running a full fledged smtp, pop3s, imaps with ajax webmail (roundcube mail, not in book, check ports), apache, mysql, php server with PF firewall and anti-brute force protection with sshguard. One word. Sick. On top of that I have world class spam protection from the books black listing and grey listing sections.

I would like to see a small section on php and mysql setup and a bit more on security, but this information is easily found on the net.

Definitely five stars

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ABSOLUTELY VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!

Are you a new Unix administrator? If you are, then this book is for you. Author Michael W. Lucas, has done an outstanding job of writing a book that will enable you to use FreeBSD to provide network services.

Lucas, begins with a discussion of the information resources the FreeBSD Project and its devotees provide for users. Then, the author gives you an overview of installing FreeBSD and others advice on an optimal install. Next, he shows you how the FreeBSD boot process makes your system start, stop, and reboot in different configurations. The author also discusses how to back up your data on both a system-wide and a file-by-file level, and how to make your changes so that they can be easily undone. He continues by describing how to configure the FreeBSD kernel. Then, the author discusses the network and how it works in FreeBSD. Next, he shows you how to make your computer resist attackers and intruders. The author continues by covering some of the details of working with hard drives in FreeBSD, support for other filesystems, and a few network filesystems. Then, he discusses some of the more interesting security features found in FreeBSD. Next, the author describes the many configuration files in FreeBSD and how they operate. He continues by describing the ports and packages system that FreeBSD uses to manage add-on software. Then, the author discusses some of the finer points of running software on FreeBSD systems. Next, he shows you how to use FreeBSD's upgrade process. The author continues by describing DNS and shows you how to install and troubleshoot it. Then, he discusses some of the small programs you'll need to manage in order to use FreeBSD properly. Next, the author describes how to set up an email system on FreeBSD to reliably deliver mail and repel spam and viruses. He continues by showing you how to setup and secure Web and FTP Services. Then, the author goes over some of the fancy techniques FreeBSD supports for mirroring disks, exporting disk devices across the network, and generally having a good old time protecting and manipulating your data. Next, he covers some of FreeBSD's performance-testing and trouble-shooting tools and shows you how to interpret the results. The author continues by showing you some of the more interesting tricks you can do with FreeBSD, such as running systems without disks and with tiny disks, as well as, some live failover and redundancy setups. Finally, the author wraps up by showing you how to deal with those rare occasions when a FreeBSD system fails, how to debug problems, and how to create a useful problem report.

This most excellent book shows you how to manage, patch, and maintain your FreeBSD systems and have a basic understanding of networking, system security, and software management. In other words, after reading this book, you will be armed with a strong working knowledge of how FreeBSD can be used as a powerful desktop or development machine.

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