Customer Reviews

The Complete FreeBSD: Documentation from the Source

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The book is well-written and easy to understand. If you wish to learn the FreeBSD Operating System and start a server, it is well worth the money. You should be up and running in no time. Apart from this, read on.

It is very complete, albeit at a minor cost... some topics are given a few sentences and then glossed over. Now, don't get me wrong. This book is to explain FreeBSD, not those little topics generously thrown in. Therefore, it shouldn't hurt the book's review. Just be aware that you will not learn Unix, X Windows or any of the other addons that can be found in Unix through this book. Obviously, it's not the book's purpose. Its purpose is to teach FreeBSD.

It would have earned five stars, but Chapter 31, Keeping Up To Date (CVS) is uneven and jumpy. This chapter came as a shock when compared to the rest of the book. I think another reviewer shared a similar complaint about it.

On a side note, a reviewer amused me by complimenting the book (giving it five stars) just because of who the author is. I'd rather buy a well-written book by a no-name author than a poorly-written book by a renowned author. It's people like this that trap other people into buying books that aren't helpful. I hope this review helped you. :)

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.

A good book for those who either need to know where to start to do something under FreeBSD, or those would already know most of what they need to and just need a reminder of something they might be forgetting.

However, the biggest shortcoming of this book is that it leads you into a topic, gets you going, and then drops you right at the point when you need it most.

Example: the book has a chapter on printing. The average home user probably has an inkjet printer, or a low-end laser. The author, though, has a fully PostScript-compatible printer, and goes on to set up printing as if everyone has this printer. No ground is covered for the every-day people, ie how to set up filters to allow PostScript printing to non-PS printers.

Also leaves other areas short, such as updating the operating system. The book has excellent coverage of how to rebuild the kernel, but if you compare the book's steps on how to update the rest of the system (ie using CVS to get from 3.2 to 3.4) with the docs provided with the operating system, or provided on the web (especially at the FreeBSD.org Handbook section) then the author misses a huge chunk of stuff that has the ability to kill a machine (yes, this happened to me but I was lucky enough to catch it before the reboot to let the system come up with the new rev of the OS).

I used the book for about the first two weeks of adding/configuring components, then realised I was getting better information off the web, provided I was willing to take the time to find it.

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.

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.

This, to my knowledge, is the only *complete* guide to FreeBSD currently available (no pun intended ;) and does a good job at it. The book is written at a fairly technical level and isn't a "FreeBSD for Dummies," so complete newbies would be well advised to obtain an additional "Unix for beginners" type book as well.

The thorough, techincal style of writing works both for and against you in various sections of the text. The chapters on installation and configuring XFree86 are especially well done, while I found a few sections, most notably on setting up PPP dial-in & updating FreeBSD from source, to be a bit cryptic. Luckily, the FreeBSD project has an abundance of on-line documentation that may explain a topic in a different way that's helpful to you.

Other books that may be helpful to FreeBSD users are _The FreeBSD Handbook_ (ISBN: 1571762418), a hard-copy of the Handbook from FreeBSD's website, and Kirk McKusick's _The Design and Implementation of the 4.4BSD Operating System_ (ISBN: 0201549794). I also understand that McKusick is updating the second book to be _The Design and Implementation of the FreeBSD Operating System_, but am unsure when this will be published...

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.

The two books that I use most frequently when administering my FreeBSD server, are this one by Lehey and UNIX System Administration Handbook by Nemeth et al. Lehey's book is easy to understand, and covers most instances where FreeBSD varies from other Unix varieties.

My chief complaint with the book (and hence only 4 stars), is that Lehey seems to be a bit conflicted as to whether he wants his book to be a tutorial or a reference book. I have only read the 4th edition, and I suspect some of this problem is due to hauling along portions of the book that used to be necessary which really are not anymore. For example, when it comes to explaining the installation process, the book does not add much value to the free online guide, "FreeBSD Handbook" available on the FreeBSD website. In fact, due to the ever evolving nature of software, the "FreeBSD Handbook" is often more up to date than Lehey's book. In particular, Lehey's book still explains how to install XFree86, while the current version of the OS used XOrg.

Lehey does excel in giving a more thorough overview of most other aspects of FreeBSD that do not change quite as quickly. He also does a decent job of pointing the reader to other resources for further information.

Lehey created the Vinum Volume Manager (which I admittedly know nothing about, and I skipped his chapter on it), so it is no surprise that the chapter on it is in the top third largest chapters in his book.

My advice, if you are just trying out FreeBSD, you can probably get by with the free "FreeBSD Handbook" online. If you plan on maintaining a FreeBSD machine, this book is definitely handy to have on the bookshelf.

Mr.Lehey wrote this book as if its some kind of a shorthand for him! The information presented is definately not clear. It may probably make sense to ppl who already have some BSD background, but not for those who want to know more about BSD. Buy this book only if you want a fast and a good, night sleep.