The Complete FreeBSD: Documentation from the Source

This will be your one and only desktop reference for FreeBSD. This is not a newbie book although topics are easy to read and understand. You should have some *nix experience and knowledge to get the most out of this book. It is a thorough coverage of version 5 with older versions covered in the appendix. I would also recommend using this book in tandem with the online FreeBSD Handbook found at freebsd.org. The strength of this book is in it's detailed Table of Contents and Index - a must for a complete reference book.

Before reading Greg Lehey's "The Complete FreeBSD, 4th Ed" (TCF:4E), I reviewed Michael Lucas' excellent "Absolute BSD" (a FreeBSD book) in Feb 03. I can't say which book is better, and I recommend you buy Lucas' book as well as this one. TCF:4E remains for me the FreeBSD user's manual; any serious FreeBSD user will have it on his or her shelf. The two books complement each other, as Lucas is often more direct in his explanations. While in some places I find Lucas' material easier to follow, Lehey offers depth of coverage not found elsewhere. For example, Lehey devotes the entirety of ch. 28 to low-level discussions of configuring and troubleshooting XFree86, whereas Lucas offers a few pages. (Urban and Tiemann's "FreeBSD Unleashed" talks about configuring X too.)Lucas' "Absolute BSD" focuses solely on FreeBSD. The only "straying" involves mentioning applications which run on FreeBSD. As apps like Apache and Postfix make systems useful, this makes sense. Lehey's TCF:4E is less concentrated, as it discusses intricacies of hardware, questions to ask ISPs before signing contracts, and principles of network troubleshooting. While I probably don't need to read such topics in a book I bought (yes, bought) for FreeBSD coverage, I didn't mind these "diversions." "Grog" Lehey has been around so long his insights are truly valuable. Lehey also presents a very traditional BSD usage model, where admins check their email using "mutt" (ch. 26) and avoid "Standard" installations in favor of "Custom" installations. I found this approach useful. Since TCF:4E is advertised as covering version 5.0, I hoped to see some introductory material on items brought from Robert Watson's "TrustedBSD" project. These were "experimental" in FreeBSD 5.0, but could change the way FreeBSD systems are administered. Overall, security didn't get as much attention in Lehey's book compared to Lucas'. For example, Lucas walked readers through deploying a jail, while Lehey doesn't mention the subject. I also found the chapter on Vinum confusing. Since Lehey created Vinum, he may need someone to step back and describe the system in layman's terms. Overall, TCF:4E is a must-buy. I already referred to it over the weekend when installing a new FreeBSD gateway, and I expect to consult it repeatedly in the future.

I've read a few FreeBSD books and coming from a background in *nix and *nix-type flavors, I've been let down before. Other books cover maybe a total of 20 commands and nothing you don't know the first day (and don't even have as much information as the man pages), but this one is different.I wasn't on a *BSD system for a couple of years of mainly using Linux, and I wanted a refresher and for the book to cover new and familiar topics. Useful things, rather than just listing the popular software used on it and not the things you need to know about them, etc.This book covers more than the others in regards to commands, common tasks, installs, configurations and so on. It actually covers the TOPIC (Being the FreeBSD OS). Not a quick and dirty run down of a few commands and a lot of fluff like other books. This gives you what you need to know, be it you have some experience or are new.It doesn't skip around like the other books and only offer maybe a total of one decent chapter on the topic of the book (FreeBSD), it covers many chapters worth. I can't stand when a book only has some information about the title, as much as it does about some irrelevant third party software (and only talks about it as briefly at that).I don't want or need information about anything other than what the book is about--and finally, a FreeBSD book that covers FreeBSD. I was impressed. It may not cover everything, but it sure gets close and is very professional, well structured and informative.Between this book, man pages and online (and up to date) documentation, it's unlikely you will need (much) more information about how to install, configure and use FreeBSD, it's tools and programs and work in it daily and have the information you need. Trust me, this book is far better than the others (see my review on "Absolute BSD: The Ultimate Guide to FreeBSD" to see what I mean).

IMHO FreeBSD is the best server Operating System available and this book covers all of the details for both beginners and experienced Unix Admins alike. If you are considering using FreeBSD I strongly urge you to buy this book. The bootable CDs that come with the book make installation a breeze.One of the truly great features of this book are the man pages that make up about half of the book. The ability to sit on the couch and study a man page for some task or other is simply wonderful and saves the paper that would otherwise be used to print it.The book covers in step by step fashion the setup of all normally used aspects of the system and covers them in great detail. The section on compiling a custom kernel is simply fantastic and an excellent guide for beginners. Building a custom kernel is a vital part of a fully functioning Unix system and this book makes it as simple as a cookbook.

I bought this book after doing a network install of FreeBSD 3.3. At the time I had experience with Linux, but was still a little bewildered by BSD. With the help of Lehey's book, I've made sense of every aspect of FreeBSD that I deal with regularly, and picked up a lot of information about how computers and operatings systems work along the way. A must have for anyone who uses or is considering using FreeBSD.