Absolute FreeBSD: The Complete Guide to FreeBSD, 2nd Edition

Lucas has a distinct writing style and geek sense of humor that make this computer book actually readable. He explains complex matters in such a way with a touch of humor that keep you interested and in the process makes you informed. Many users have reviewed the content, so I don't feel the need to dive into a full review of what is covered. However, the topics covered in this book are very relevant to the day to day tasks of a full time administrator. I administer a network with many users, and have administered smaller networks, and the topics apply equally. Very good read.

I'm relatively new to *BSDs though I've used Linux since the early 1990s so I read the author reviews extensively before purchasing this book. Michael Lucas writes just like everyone says and make the topic easy to understand. I've purchased two other books written by the author on ZFS and Network Flow Analysis and he is consistent in style with each of these books. This is a large book and I'm only 25% through it though I must admit that I hop around a lot reading all the interesting topics so I might be half way. I will keep it as a reference and use the ZFS book for the software installation portion that this book covers which is to say the 3rd edition will be welcomed when published.

My organization has been incorporating FreeBSD into our most critical infrastructure pieces. Linux has become an ever-changing, evolving puzzle and, at least for our organization, they've had enough. This is easily the best BSD book I've read. It's not for everyone, though. FreeBSD is solid, professional-grade Unix, and Lucas is a professional administrator. You should expect to use the command line, but Lucas explains the most accepted way to do things so you don't waste time. BSD is very Pythonic in that there is often only one or two ways to do something, which makes it a pleasure to follow along with his examples. His book is not going to baby you, but it also won't talk down to you or be pedantic, either. Anyone who reads it wants to know practical things such as how to install, maintain, and service FreeBSD. They want to know how it works and how to install and use applcations. FreeBSD works as a united and organized whole, which makes the easy things easy and the difficult things possible. Michael Lucas will help you get started on that journey.

Too much information that is useless to someone who just wants to get running. If you're an expert at FreeBSD, then this book is for you... Edit: I was harsh in my first reviewing. This is a good book written by a knowledgeable author but I am still cutting my teeth on FreeBSD and this is not a beginner's book. It has a lot of information but does require some intermediate knowledge of what is being discussed to get the most out of the book.

I've read a few UNIX/freeBSD books and this one was the best. It had much more than just information about freeBSD however. There was good descriptions on how many basic computer services work. Many of the books I've read had more quantity than quality, but this is definitely the opposite. It has everything you need to get a basic server up and running, along with a few other things.

This book had a lot of what I already knew but it was a great add to my collection of books for BSD. It had some interesting things in it to help harden the server more than I already had it. It also gave me some tips of things I could do or add to the server to help me with some other htings I wanted to do, but couldn't remember the commands to get it done. Great Book

In general, I found this book to be redundant with a combination of the online FreeBSD Handbook and man pages. In some cases, the information provided is inaccurate, inappropriate, or just (already) outdated. If you like printed texts, this may be for you. Otherwise, I'd stick with the online content. I was hoping to find some pointers on some of the less-common facets of FreeBSD (as compared to Linux or Sun), such as ipfw2, netgraph, mpd for VPN, service jails, running dhcpd in a jail, ZFS, and management of updates through freebsd-update and portsnap. In general, I didn't find much that wasn't more easily available and complete on the FreeBSD site. Looking at a couple of the 7.x features I was hoping to get some extended insights into, but was bothered by the results: jails -- Suggests that you "look around for the Secret Ninja Jail Techniques" and doesn't even mention the ezjail port (which goes back to 2005). Come on, at least give me something I can put into Google! Already out of date with the changes in 7.2 which allow named jails and multiple IPs. ZFS -- Suggests that 64-bit processors are required. Reality is that its not the instruction set, but that 1 GB or more memory is recommended, and can be run on less (768 MB as been shown possible). "ZFS's license is not suitable for making it the primary FreeBSD filesystem" seems out of sync with the efforts going into making ZFS pools bootable in -CURRENT. If you don't have any familiarity with `nix and are diving into FreeBSD first, this might be a good book to read. Personally, I'll stick with the updated information on the FreeBSD website. As a side note, if you're in that category, take a look at the more general UNIX System Administration Handbook (3rd Edition) , which served me well in one of its earlier editions.

I bought the first edition of this book so many years ago, and I think it's one of the best book I ever bought. That's why I bought this second edition too, and again it is one of the best book I ever got. If you want to know more about FreeBSD, this book will teach you all you need, and it will make you love FreeBSD.

Recomiendo este libro a cualquiera que quiera tanto iniciarse como ampliar sus conocimientos sobre FreeBSD. Aunque el libro es antiguo sigue sirviendo perfectamente. Lo mejor es que el estilo de Michael W. Lucas con su humro incisivo consigue motivarte para hacer las cosas lo mejor posible. Con este libro y mucha práctica cualquiera podría llegar a ser un Administrador de FreeBSD.

M.W. Lucas has a very entertaining writing style, and is able to combine it effectively with content. He covers a lot of material to a decent depth with enough detail you feel like you learned something, and pretty comfortable on where to look next to go deeper into a given topic. Not my first or last book from this author on computer topics, certainly not my last

purtroppo alcune cose sono piuttosto obsolete (ma fa parte del percorso di tutti i BSD & linux): non si fa in tempo a scrivere una guida che già qualcosa di nuovo è nato per rimpiazzarlo. Il libro è davvero ben fatto, ben scritto. Consigliato.

I abandoned Windows a few years ago for Linux, and so this book was quite accessible to me. That said, I think most people with more than a passing interest in computer systems will be able to glean much knowledge from this guide. It begins with a basic introduction to BSD and progressively works its way through installation, customizing, networks, security and upgrading, etc, to understanding almost everything you will need to know about running a fully functional BSD server. A book of Unix commands would be a useful companion.

Inhaltlich gibt es dank der vorherigen Rezensionen kaum noch etwas zu sagen, aber da ich den Autor mag, werde ich halt auch noch ein paar Worte dazu sagen. Eigentlich komme ich aus dem Linux-lager, wollte mich aber unbedingt mal in FreeBSD einlesen und mir wurde dieses Buch hier angeraten. Leider schon etwas angestaubt, aber da es nichts Besseres auf dem Markt gibt, hab ich mir dieses halt gebraucht gekauft. Und was soll ich dazu sagen? Es hat sich auf jeden Fall gelohnt! Nachdem ich dieses Buch durchgelesen hatte, hab ich mir einen Server mit FreeBSD gebaut, ein weiterführendes Buch zu FreeBSD gekauft (Design and architecture of FreeBSD) und bin inzwischen Abonnent diverser FreeBSD-Mailinglisten. Einen Port hab ich auch schon eingereicht. Das zeigt hoffentlich, welchen Einfluss dieses Buch auf mich hatte. Ich kann es nur jeder Person empfehlen, die sich in *BSD und Unix weiterbilden möchte! Michael W. Lucas wurde gefragt, wann er denn eine aktualisierte Ausgabe von Absolute FreeBSD schreibt und seine Antwort war: "Das nächste Buch muss unbedingt Informationen zu ZFS beinhalten. Solang das noch nicht im Installer angeboten wird, hat es keinen Sinn mit einer neuen Version anzufangen". Irgedwann im Oktober/November hat Allan Jude seine Patches eingereicht, die das jetzt ermöglichen. Sobald diese sich als stabil und zuverlässig erwiesen haben, können wir uns auf eine dritte Ausgabe freuen!