Linux Administration

This book is a very solid introduction for those who know their way around computers and operating systems in general. It's good to find books that don't treat the user like complete weenies or books that go so techincally deep but speak of very little...This book as a lot of analogies between the Linux and NT world, including some pretty nice network blueprints showing how a NT network would be server-wise, compared to a Linux network. Overall this was a great intro level book. My highest recommendations to everyone.

As a web developer, I decided to pick up this book along with O'Reilly's Running Linux to get at least a basic understanding of different conecpts, issues, concerns, etc. that anyone wanting to create a good web site (and a secure one) should be familiar with. Between the two, I have found this book far more helpful, as it discusses the basics of Linux (to me important) as well as administration concerns, security issues, and principles that every SysAdmin should understand and follow. It flows well, the writer's style is great and I read the entire thing over a course of 4 days. After reading it and doing additional research on the net, I realize that Steve has covered about 80% of what most authors are writing about when it comes to securing a single server.The book starts easy and gets quite in-depth, so if you are a rookie (like myself) you should at least have aptitude for computers or a strong will to learn. If that is the case, this is a great reference book which I will no doubt continue to use as I explore Linux further.

If you are familiar with Linux or Unix and want to start into some network services, this book is a solid introduction. As the title says, this book is for beginner's, but the author doesn't assume that means weenie. He has done a nice job of selecting basic tasks, and for each one lays out the commands, file locations, and basic configurations for the files. Other books either relied on GUI utilities, or used twice as many pages going into too much detail on some sections and not enough on others. This book is just what it says, a beginner's guide to help you get started with Linux servers and/or integrating Linux into an existing NT network.

Definitely an excellent book to start with. While it is possible to get books which are exhaustive on a given subject (i.e. DNS and Bind by O'Reilly), this book provides a great deal of coverage on everything. I fully intend to use it as a reference.

I have other Linux books and I found this book seemed to have the correct mix of overview and detail for the new admin. Other books with much detail would be a great second book but to get started this is the book.