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Old 1st May 2008
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Default Absolute FreeBSD, 2nd Edition

Absolute FreeBSD: The Complete Guide to FreeBSD, 2nd Edition
by Michael W. Lucas

From the product description:
Quote:
Absolute FreeBSD, 2nd Edition is your complete guide to FreeBSD, written by FreeBSD committer Michael W. Lucas. Lucas considers this completely revised and rewritten second edition of his landmark work to be his best work ever; a true product of his love for FreeBSD and the support of the FreeBSD community. Absolute FreeBSD, 2nd Edition covers installation, networking, security, network services, system performance, kernel tweaking, filesystems, SMP, upgrading, crash debugging, and much more...
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Old 1st May 2008
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Quote:
Originally Posted by anomie View Post
Absolute FreeBSD: The Complete Guide to FreeBSD, 2nd Edition
by Michael W. Lucas

From the product description:
I actually have this book on order right now, I'll let you know how it is.
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Old 1st May 2008
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My personal opinion:

As of this writing, this book is one of the best FreeBSD 6/7 paper resources available to users/sysadmins.

Unlike most technical books, it doesn't put me to sleep, thanks to a dry sense of humor frequently injected by Lucas.

There is a ton of fundamental FreeBSD OS information covering a lot of areas (identified in the product description, obviously). There are also several terse but useful primers for common protocols and services such as: TCP/IP, DNS, Apache httpd, MTAs, etc.

Worth the $$. Enjoy.
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Old 17th June 2008
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Quote:
Originally Posted by anomie View Post
Unlike most technical books, it doesn't put me to sleep, thanks to a dry sense of humor frequently injected by Lucas.
lol isnt that the truth. i just started reading this last week.

This is one my favorite passages so far:
Quote:
Typical leaf ports include text editors, oversized office suites, web browsers, chat clients, and so on.
lol oversized office suites. so many dry and slight jokes laced throughout. Great read so far. Mainly focused on FreeBSD in a server environment but still really good even for a desktop user like me.

P.S. sorry to bump old threads
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Old 17th June 2008
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Quote:
Originally Posted by chill
so many dry and slight jokes laced throughout. Great read so far.
I agree -- and that's an accomplishment for a tech book.
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Old 1st May 2008
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The first edition was excellent, so unless he's been spoiled by success, it should be worthwhile.
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Old 1st May 2008
ocicat ocicat is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by scottro View Post
The first edition was excellent, so unless he's been spoiled by success, it should be worthwhile.
Lucas has been quoted (& I am paraphrasing...) saying that due to delays, he was able to put more time into editing than with other editions, so the quality should be even better. From what I have read in his second edition, it is a great improvement. For what FreeBSD specific titles which are available today, I would say this is the best.

Hopefully, Michael will migrate to this site. He had been a regular visitor over at BSDForums for the last four months or so, although he didn't post often.
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Old 17th July 2008
agshekeloh agshekeloh is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ocicat View Post
Hopefully, Michael will migrate to this site. He had been a regular visitor over at BSDForums for the last four months or so, although he didn't post often.
Lucas would show up, if he had known about it. He doesn't care for web forums, but makes an effort to show up where his readers are.

Glad you all liked the book! I'm very happy with it myself.

And no, I don't post often. I prefer email. Sorry, I'm of an older generation. I also prefer to avoid discussing my own work. I enjoy reading good reviews, I enjoy reading that people like the book, and I appreciate every sale, but I only reply when a post asks an interesting, unusual, or unique question. Answering every post or comment in a forum discussion about my own book quickly becomes a narcissistic hole with no bottom...
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Old 6th January 2009
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Quote:
Originally Posted by agshekeloh View Post
Glad you all liked the book! I'm very happy with it myself.
Now back to Absolute FreeBSD. I have it of course I think it is a very fine book. It is in some sense complementary to Absolute OpenBSD being somewhat more elementary and easier on reader. It also covers wider variety of topics most of which are relevant to any BSD users. OpenBSD users (NetBSD as well ) would definitely benefit from reading this book in spite of the fact that is formally written for FreeBSD. Although my favorite book when it comes to FreeBSD remains Graig's Complete FreeBSD your book is definitely must have. I also like Dry's 100 BSD Hacks. I read most of other books written for FreeBSD users ( I read the one about kernel hacking as well but that is really for another audience) but I did that in bookstores and I didn't feel compel to have them on my shelf.

Last edited by Oko; 6th January 2009 at 07:00 AM.
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Old 17th July 2008
agshekeloh agshekeloh is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by scottro View Post
unless he's been spoiled by success
<cough><choke>

Thank you for making me spew my Pepsi all over my monitor. I needed to clean it anyway.

Believe it or not, the success you get from writing a BSD book is pretty minimal. Yes, you get warm fuzzy feelings, a small (but highly educated and very intelligent) group of people know who you are and, if the book is printed on thin enough paper, you have a nearly infinite supply of toilet tissue...
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Old 17th July 2008
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Quote:
Originally Posted by agshekeloh View Post
Thank you...
Welcome! It can be a bit chaotic in here at times, but most of the regulars have had their shots.

You have a very loyal following here at this site. I have recommended Absolute OpenBSD to a number of people both here & elsewhere.
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Old 17th July 2008
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Well, I'm glad to see that nothing has gone to your head hehe.


Quote:
Originally Posted by agshekeloh View Post
<cough><choke>
and, if the book is printed on thin enough paper, you have a nearly infinite supply of toilet tissue...
Thanks for my chuckle of the day :-)
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Old 1st May 2008
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i wish i had time to read some of these texts, i know there's some great ones out there.....

Can someone read it for me and give me the basic gist?
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Old 14th May 2008
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I found this book as a good introduction for semi advanced users to be honest. He covers a lot of subjects from ports management to kernel panics. With that said it is a great reference. Has most everything one would want to get a understanding of FBSD from a user perspective.
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Old 17th May 2008
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The best resource I've ever read! It is very good as complementing the Handbook. The contents are very practice oriented and touches many aspects of FreeBSD user life. Either desktop or servers environments. It is really worth the $$$.
If somebody is interested in talk about this book, we can discuss it when you send the private message.
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Old 20th May 2008
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I've learned about jails on the previous book but does the 2nd edition go in depth?
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Old 17th June 2008
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Quote:
Originally Posted by revzalot
I've learned about jails on the previous book but does the 2nd edition go in depth?
Not really. It gives a solid jail overview, but it's not super in depth. For that I'd recommend the FreeBSD Handbook, the jail(8) manpages, the book Mastering FreeBSD and OpenBSD Security, the FreeBSD Diary jail walkthru, and lots of practice and experimentation.
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Old 17th June 2008
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It's expensive, at least in Germany, but it's worth the money
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Old 17th June 2008
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Oliver: order books (english language) on amazon.com the shipping costs are nothing to speak of.

.de: 41,95€ (without shipping costs inside germany)
.com: $37.77 + $7.98 shipping = 29,52€
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Old 17th June 2008
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tuck View Post
Oliver: order books (english language) on amazon.com the shipping costs are nothing to speak of.

.de: 41,95€ (without shipping costs inside germany)
.com: $37.77 + $7.98 shipping = 29,52€

Yes something to consider, thanks
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