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Book reviews Reviews of books related to BSD and computing in general. |
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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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<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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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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Well, I'm glad to see that nothing has gone to your head hehe.
Thanks for my chuckle of the day :-)
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My Journal Thou shalt check the array bounds of all strings (indeed, all arrays), for surely where thou typest ``foo'' someone someday shall type ``supercalifragilisticexpialidocious''. |
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Hi everyone,
I'm new to FreeBSD (and to this forum) and I have to say this book is definitely an amazing resource for a newcomer. Everything you may want to learn about is covered in enough details to give the reader a solid understanding of how things work in FreeBSD and at the same time avoids getting confusing and boring by not digging too deep its various subjects. To me, it's both a desktop reference and a good book to read in bed, since the author even managed to slip in some humour. Like ninjatux said, it's just brilliant. |
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Last edited by mousesack; 20th July 2008 at 09:59 PM. |
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I was wondering about "Absolute OpenBSD", but I'd like something on NetBSD. It seems the project doesn't have that many followers.
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"UNIX is basically a simple operating system, but you have to be a genius to understand the simplicity." MacBook Pro (Darwin 9), iMac (Darwin 9), iPod Touch (Darwin 9), Dell Optiplex GX620 (FreeBSD 7.1-STABLE) |
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The author claims that 5-15 percent of machines on the internet are BSD-based. Do you buy this? The max seems a little high.
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"UNIX is basically a simple operating system, but you have to be a genius to understand the simplicity." MacBook Pro (Darwin 9), iMac (Darwin 9), iPod Touch (Darwin 9), Dell Optiplex GX620 (FreeBSD 7.1-STABLE) |
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http://uptime.netcraft.com/perf/repo...e&tn=june_2008
I think it's not that implausible as one may think. Ok, netcraft is not a "I see every machine on the whole wide world" but the diagram is nice Last edited by tuck; 24th July 2008 at 06:52 PM. |
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Yeah, I guess it is plausible.
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"UNIX is basically a simple operating system, but you have to be a genius to understand the simplicity." MacBook Pro (Darwin 9), iMac (Darwin 9), iPod Touch (Darwin 9), Dell Optiplex GX620 (FreeBSD 7.1-STABLE) |
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5%-15%
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BSD is like morning glory; once you have a bit of it in your playground, the damn stuff spreads and spreads. Even when you think you've killed it all, it reappears. Yes, I'm putting off yard work... |
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One of the FreeBSD kernel developers, in a Google Talk video, said you can't throw a rock on the internet without hitting a FreeBSD server. I don't recall if it was him, too, but I read, recently, the internet still runs on FreeBSD, but I think that person was speaking of the top-level-domain servers.
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I got the book but has been quite busy lately and probably gone through just a dozen of pages, so Im not qualified to give any comment on technical issues. One non-technical thing that I find quite interesting is the presentation. Its the traditional method on writing layout, identation for the first line of each paragraph (in Lucas's book, no identation in first paragraph) and no blank line between paragraphs. I havent seen this kind of method both in paper and online writing for many years.
Thank you and welcome to Daemonforums, M.Lucas Last edited by 18Googol2; 29th July 2008 at 04:01 PM. |
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Bought the book for the holidays and am currently at 70%. Great stuff!
I recommend it for every FreeBSD user. It sure broadens the reader's view on FreeBSD and its possibilities. Loved the Lucas' unique humor also. Hope to see an Absolute OpenBSD 2nd Edition and Absolute NetBSD
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BSD and Linux tips and tutorials: Blog Linux/BSD: sharing experiences |
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There are essentially 9 books devoted more or less entirely to OpenBSD. I will count them in order in which you should probably read them. OpenBSD 4.0: A Crash Course by Jem Matzan. Very mild introduction for a complete nOObs to OpenBSD. Book is not worth of having it and definitely not worth of price. Secure Architectures with OpenBSD by Brandon Palmer, Jose Nazario. Do not let the title fool you. This is gentle general introduction into OpenBSD. If you are new to OpenBSD this is the first book to read. Covers lots of topics. The Book of PF - A No-Nonsense Guide to the OpenBSD Firewall by Peter N. M. Hansteen is the most beautiful introductory to intermediate text to P.F. Absolute OpenBSD by Michael Lucas is intermediate to semi-advanced text on OpenBSD. If you want really to harden your system this is the book to read. The new edition would be welcome Michael if you read this Building Firewalls with OpenBSD and PF [2nd edition] by Jacek Artymiak is very advanced book on computer security systems geared towards computer security professionals. If you are in charge of security in a bank you probably want to know all tricks from this book. For a normal system administrator Absolute OpenBSD is sufficient. Mastering FreeBSD and OpenBSD Security by Yanek Korff , Paco Hope , Bruce Potter Is not really OpenBSD specific book. Lots of things like jails for instance are FreeBSD specific. It cover lots of mish-mash material. If somebody gives you for free definitely take it but I would not rush to buy this one. The OpenBSD PF Packet Filter Book by Jeremy C. Reed (Editor). I am not familiar with the book but according to some reviews I read it is little bit more than PF tutorial from the OpenBSD web-site. How To Approach OpenBSD With A Few Tips: Simple Tips For OpenBSD by Quick Easy Guides. I am not familiar with the book but I am guessing that you can not learn much from 40 pages. Openbsd: Implementing the Secure Unix Platform by Brian Carter. To my knowledge this book has never been published although advertised on many web-sites. It has the most awesome blowfish on the cover. Last edited by Oko; 8th January 2009 at 09:08 AM. |
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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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This book is my favorite one. I would recommend it for all the beginners.
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