Customer Reviews

Apache Server Bible (Bible (Wiley))

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I bought this book based on the great reviews here at Amazon. I don't have a clue why reviewers here thought it was so good. I should have known better and bought the O'Reilly book to start.

Most of the text consists of dry run throughs of various configuration settings - much of which probably came right from the online Apache manual. There were many errors. And, contrary to reviewers who claimed the author was open for questions, when I sent email asking about possible errata, the email was returned with an invalid address. The author's web site is also gone.

I also was unhappy that there was next to nothing about Java servlets and Apache.

The O'Reilly book got so-so reviews, but I can't imagine how it can be worse than this one.

This is a 600-page tome that gives you just enough information to make you very dangerous, and a bunch of non-sensical dialog that could have been left out. The book is also full of embarrassing errors and glaring contradictions. My favorite, in the mod_perl section is, "...when using mod_perl to run CGI scripts you cannot use ScriptAlias" followed very shortly by "You should also have a ScriptAlias directive..." The author probably knows a lot about Apache, but unfortunately is ineffective at teaching, a drawback particularly for novices reading his book. Too much is left out of this book, and too much is erroneous for you to put your put your faith in it. Try a more professional outfit, like O'Reilly's Apache: The Definitive Guide.

My requirements: Apache+SSL+PHP

This book does cover some fundamental concepts but provides too few examples (especially in the areas of installation and getting SSL up and running). I had to refer to the website more often than the book.

Good, but not good enough.

This book jumps around from trying to teach novice stuff to assuming the reader is about as tech saavy as the author. He might be tech saavy but he is not a good teacher. I am still trying to find a good Apache guide. Maybe best to just bug my friends.

I am using this book to implement a Perl web application using mod_perl on a Linux box - the other book I am using is O'Reilly's "Writing Apache Modules". So far, I have found most everything I needed between those two books. It is very helpful to have a book dedicated to the Apache Server, nothing more and nothing less.

If I would understand Regular Expressions better than I do, I actually would have found everything I needed - that's when I sent an email to the author, who answered me first in a meeting break and then again in his lunch break ... wow.

One little thing: I almost would have bought this book in a bookstore before I actually bought it from Amazon. The reason I didn't back then was that it says "Covers Windows 95 and Windows NT Platforms" on the cover - it should read "Covers UNIX/Linux and Windows 95/NT"! The book covers a lot of UNIX!

I've read about 3/4 of this book and found it easy to understand and helpful. But I wanted to mention another book, Professional Apache (Wrox, September 1999), which for some reason, doesn't show up on any amazon searches. I'm relatively new to programming, so I'm not able to evaluate all the details of Professional apache, but it is more up-to-date and (in my mind) easier to understand. And very comprehensive.

The book helped me get my Apache server up and running and also helped me understand the various server directives. Some of the later chapters look like they will be useful. The author was very responsive to a couple of questions I had and mentioned that he would be setting up a web site covering Linux and Apache, with Q&A, etc. This will be helpful in keeping up with the various changes that occur with new versions of Apache.

Don't buy it. It is cheaper to read the manpages for
Apache. The hole book is more or less a manpage listing.
In between one can find some useful examples. But they
are quit rear.

This title surpasses the O'Reilly offering, that's for sure. But then again that doesn't really say much. This book is fairly decent, but needs more polish before it's worth the raves expressed in other reviews. I find myself hitting apache.org a lot

After I read a few chapters, I contacted the author with a few questions. He responded the same day in a very friendy way. I love it! He even gave me his office phone number to call! What more can you get out of a book? I must say, Kabir is a very friendly author! I am waiting for his new books!