Customer Reviews

Linux: Companion for System Administrators

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Hein covers alot. Unfortunately, there's very little detail. If you want to get a general taste for Linux, it's probably OK, but if you have jumped in and really need information, there's no depth here. I was (am?) a Linux neophyte when I installed RH5.2 and bought several books. Although I keep looking in Hein's book, I haven't found it useful even once. Not once. I recommend Welsh and Kaufman's Running Linux (O'Reilly) and HIGHLY recommend Butzen and Hilton's The Linux Network.

This is the first Linux book that starts answering the right questions from page one. I often have to get deep into a technical book before I follow how the author thinks. Somehow I was immediately at ease with layout. There is also enough technical theory to fill in my limited knowledge of exactly how Linux works.

I can recommend this book to all intermediate to advanced users. Especially those who would like to set-up a Linux network.

Although a lot is covered in detail, it sometimes lacks just that little extra piece of info (yes, that part where you have to jump into the RFC's). But IMHO Jochen Hein wrote an excellent admin book, very clear and complete. Nice job! Recommended for starting linux-admins (those who already know how to install and repartition ;-)).

This book contains a lot of very good information for the new system administrator (or casual Linux user). The 26 Chapters and 4 Appendices cover everything from LaTeX to DNS, the Linux boot process, customizing Emacs, the X Window, Backups, and more.

The chapters are clearly labeled and each presents a good overview of the basics with references to more information on-line.

This is a translation of the original German book, but I've yet to encounter a point where it actually seems like a translation. The translators did an outstanding job.

As a casual Linux user coming from a PC background, I really consider this book a find. Most other Linux books I've come across are either high level programming guides or simple intros to installing an enclosed distribution. Finally, here is the information that's too high level for most Linux books but assumed to be known in most FAQs and newsgroups.

It succinctly explains the various system init methods, the file system hierarchy, security (both user and group level), how to apply common utilities like rcs to sysadmin tasks, and many other topics. All are covered both in general and with specific notes on differences between Linux & most other Unix flavors, and amongst the different Linux distributions.

Simply put, the best intermediate Linux book I have found. My only criticism is that after reading this book you'll want to reinstall your current Linux partition, so you can do it right this time.

After scanning the shelves of five bookstores, this was the ONLY book that answered my questions on Samba, NFS, and startup daemons enough to actually get me going. It's terse, but the information is all there. If the defaults are good enough, don't bother. If you want Linux running the way YOU want it, this is a great starting point.

Jochen Hein has written an excellent book on Linux administration. The book starts off with a comparison of five Linux distributions: Slackware, S.u.S.E., Red Hat Caldera and Debian GNU/Linux. His recommendation leans toward Debian GNU/Linux. This is seemingly for the same reasons as the FSF, GNU and the fact that Debian GNU/Linux is the only one that provides a full implementation of the File Hierarchy Standard FHS.

The next chapter covers the FHS in some detail giving the rational behind it. This coverage is most welcome an helpful. In the following chapters the author moves through System Start-up, Configuration and Administration, and then packages such as Emacs, X Windows,TeX/LaTeX, Emulators, Networking, the Web and Unix tools. All subjects are covered with the same careful consideration with recommendations and the rational for selecting the best packages and setting every thing up to get the most out of the software.

This is not a book for beginners, but is invaluable for anyone that has moved beyond that point. The english translation of this second edition from German is on the whole very good with only the occasional near miss. I recommend this book and thank Jochen Hein for his work in bringing Linux up yet another notch.

Practical and carefully written book that provides wealth of Linux information and how-to.

Its audience are from beginner to moderate advanced system admin. Since it covers a broad subject, reader might need a specialized book in some particular subject (networking, et al) It answer many of my questions how to admin my own linux machine even I use Unix for almost 10 years

I skimp through many Linux books, this one is one of the best in its subject. The others are:

. Writing Linux device driver (O'Reilly)

. Linux kernel internal (M Beck)

. Practical application development in Linux (AWL)

Another winner computer related from Addision Wesley publishing that provides hi-quality paper and resonable price.

For instance, I would have understood the System Logs part just fine if it said it logs in the format "<origin>.<importance>", and listed the different origin and importance options.

Sorry to disagree with the other reviewers, but as I read through this I founnd myself wishing that it had been done somewhat better. Examples: the section on pluggable authentication modules is an excellent OVERVIEW, but there's not enough info there to actually DO anything, you need more docs. And Chapter 21 on DNS describes the old BIND4 not the current BIND8, unforgiveable in a book copyright 1999. Sigh. It coulda been so, so good...