Customer Reviews

Apache: The Definitive Guide

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I am a computer professional and I got the book in order to install and run Apache on our company web servers. I do know my way around UNIX and NT, but I'm no system administrator.

I was shocked at the bad reviews. I found this book to be a great read and organized as should be.

The only reason I think someone would not like this book is if they are use to GUI tools in the Windows world. If you know UNIX/LINUX and aren't scared of OS command lines, this book is great.

If you are a Windows geek, this book may not be that great, but let's face it, Apache and TCP/IP is UNIX at it's best.

I found this book a good training source and reference manual.

As O'Reilly books go, Apache: The Definitive Guide is really rather weak. There's enough information to get an Apache installation up and running, but there's nowhere near enough depth for it to be called a 'definitive' guide. It's also a little out of date.

A far better book is Wrox's 'Professional Apache' which covers everything the O'Reilly book does and much more.

This is a very good book for apache. When I first got the book, I agreed with other readers' complain of poor organization. However, after 1 hour of reading it, I began to realized that I was wrong. The unique part of this book is that instead of teaching you about install and configure apache on the first shot. It actually teaches you the more detailed configuration by trying different option one at a time. This way, you learn more about the internal of the apache instead of compile and install based on the original options set by apache.org. This way, you can avoid many problems that might occur later on. By the way, if you don't know much about linux/unix, don't bother to install apache on a linux/unix machine.

O'Reilley and Associates seems to have a knack at publishing good, solid technical manuals -- and "Apache: The Definitive Guide" is no exception.

One of the best features of this book is the assumption that the reader knows nothing about web servers, and builds a good solid knowledge of apache, the most popular web server on the internet today (and one of only a few offering true HTTP-compliance). The book guides the reader through the purpose of Apache, the HTTP protocol, and then on to writing Apache config files from scratch (once you learn how to do this, you'll never want to use the default config). From there, the book goes on to discuss advanced topics such as server-side includes, Secure socket layer, and even a reference into the Apache API.

The only suggestion I'd add -- when you try the examples in this book, make sure you have a clean install of Apache. If you're on linux, don't use the version of Apache that shipped with your system -- start from scratch, follow the book. For windows users, don't be intimidated by the lack of a visual front-end (this is actually a benefit on a real production web server). Follow the book and all the special notes for Win32, and you'll be an Apache guru in no time.

I would imagine that the book might be easier to follow if I had done exactly what the authors do, which is to install FreeBSD and then install Apache with the included CD-ROM. But that's not really an option in most cases unless you can afford to have a separate machine that doesn't have the standard Linux installation on it, just for following the book. I've learned a lot more about how to set up Apache to properly on Linux (Redhat 6.2) by searching around the web and reading the online documentation than from this book. This is so disappointing, because like others, I usually love anything that is published by O'Reilly. The only thing that stops me from giving it a lower rating is that some of the information is kind of useful. I have Professional Apache on order now, and I'm hoping for more from that.

An unwelcome reminder that not everything that comes from O'Reilly is top notch.

This book seems to have been written half heartedly. The explanations of many of the directives in the configuration file seem to be repetitions of online manual contents with the authors not taking the time to provide really useful insights or clarify difficult concepts.

The attitude of the book seems to be: "This is what we did to get Apache running on BSD and Windows. If it helps you, great, if not, tough !"

I also have a doubt about the technical credibility of the authors. Their advice seems glib and dubious at times.

I have run Apache on Windows before without consulting documentation and I expected to learn something useful from this book. Not in the 1st three chapters.

Not a great tutorial. Not a very good reference manual.

One of the few books I would lend to someone and probably not worry about it being returned.

Really, this book can be described as the Apache httpd manual in much greater detail.

The book covers pretty much everything you might want to know about running Apache on a *nix or Windows Operating System, but the basic attitude toward Windows users is "If it doesn't work for you - tough luck", which is fine, since Apache really isn't meant to run on Windows as anything more than a test server anyway. Still, I fear that a lot of the Windows folks who are jumping into the Open Source craze may pick this book up and be greatly disappointed.

Another problem I had with the book was the fact that it plays out as more of a step by step manual for setting up specific features of Apache. This makes it fairly difficult to use it for reference later on, but perhaps the idea was that once you got through this book, you could use the web and the manual as a reference instead.

All in all, the book is fairly useful, it just takes some getting used to. If you plan to use it to set up a Windows server, you'd probably be better off braving the various forums and threads out there available to Apache users. However, if you have a good Operating System (BSD, Unix, or Linux), and you want some extra help setting up your Apache server, or setting up specific parts of your Apache server, by all means give this book a shot. It's an above average book, but it's below average by O'Reilly standards.

This book is clearly written in understandable english. It serves as a good introduction to the Apache Server, however lacks the depth is necessary when managing a high demand webserver. Features such as SSL and integration with X500 were not covered.

As someone else wrote, "I could have written this book after compiling and installing apache myself". There really is nothing to this book that will save you any time. Go to apache.org or usenet via dejanews.

I really was expecting a book that would address some real-world issues that are not easy to find. E.g,

using mod_perl with apache (trial and error and reading bad docs worked but a lot of time wasted and I don't feel I am aware of the full potential)

java servlets (okay maybe they need to update the book but they are taking the entirely wrong tack anyhow. Show exactly how it is done from line one)

How can I insert headers and footers on all my pages via apache rather than server-side includes in all the html docs. This is possible but I gave up finding out how.

Using the clickthrough cookie monster. Very interesting but where is that explored? Not at all. Just mentioned. I learned how to implement this in other places.

I have learned nothing from this book but to be more careful in selecting books.

Other reviewers are right, this book doesn't deserve the O'Reilly reputation. This book organizes information loosely, and if you are clueless about Apache, reading this book wouldn't really benefit. Though, if you treat this book as a story book, maybe you can still read it, but don't expect much.

If you want to spend your time better on the Apache subject, try the "Professional Apache" by Peter Wainwright by Wrox, which is a really "definitive" guide. (With that book I finished my domain name and virtual hosting within a few hours, marvelous by my standard.)