Sebastopol, CA--FreeBSD is by far the most popular version of BSD, the legendary operating system that has contributed a great deal to every version of Unix in use today (including Mac OS X). Originally a community effort by the University of California at Berkeley, FreeBSD was aimed at making Unix a little friendlier and easier to use. By the time other free operating systems came along, BSD was firmly established and very reliable. And it continues to be today.
For seven years, the FreeBSD community has relied on Greg Lehey's classic text to lead them through its configuration and administration. The fourth edition of this book, The Complete FreeBSD (O'Reilly, US $44.95), is now available through O'Reilly Community Press.
"The Complete FreeBSD" is a practical guidebook that explains how to get a computer up and running with the FreeBSD operating system, and, even more to the point, how to turn it into a highly functional and secure server that can host large numbers of users and disks, support remote access, and provide web service, mail service, and other key parts of the internet infrastructure. The book provides in-depth information on installation and updates, back-ups, printers, RAID, various internet services, firewalls, the graphical X Window system, and much more.
The new edition of "The Complete FreeBSD" is based on Version 5.0 of FreeBSD, which includes a number of new features, notably improved support for multi-processor systems. New topics include wireless LAN support, DHCP, proxy servers, the KDE desktop, and how to write CD-ROMs.
Lehey is a member of the FreeBSD core team and has been developing, documenting, and advocating for FreeBSD for nearly ten years. While there are several BSD books available, none has drawn the respect from the FreeBSD community that Lehey's has. "There are a number of differences between 'The Complete FreeBSD' and other BSD books," explains Lehey. "First, of course, it has been continually updated for over seven years. Second, as a member of the FreeeBSD core team, I have an above average understanding of the system and where the project is going. Third, I've gone to a lot of trouble to anticipate the problems that people might have, and to draw their attention to them in advance so that they're prepared.
"And finally," Lehey adds, "In addition to being the author of a BSD book, I am also a FreeBSD developer. There have been times where I've found something wrong while writing the book, but instead of just being forced to document them, I've been able to go in and fix them directly."
Marshall Kirk McKusick writes in his foreword to the book, "Greg Lehey has done a wonderful job with this book of helping those of us that want to fully utilize the FreeBSD system to do so without having to devote our entire lives figuring how. He has gone through and figured out each of the different tasks that you might ask your system to do. He has identified the software that you need to do the task. He explains how to configure it for your operational needs. He tells you how to monitor the resulting subsystem to make sure it is working as desired. And, he helps you to identify and fix the problem.
"In short," McKusick continues, "this book provides everything you need to know about the FreeBSD system from the day you first pick up the software through the day you have a full suite of machines."
"The Complete FreeBSD" is the second release in the O'Reilly Community Press Series. Unlike classic O'Reilly animal books, which are created to fill an information void, the Community Press titles provide convenient printed copies of documentation that is already available online. O'Reilly's role in the series is limited to providing manufacturing and distribution services rather than editorial development, so that each Community Press title reflects the editorial voice and organization of the community that has created it. Consequently, the covers of the Community Press titles are distinct from the familiar animal covers, featuring a line drawing of an oak tree against a brown background, which longtime O'Reilly readers will recognize as a direct descendent of early O'Reilly Nutshell handbook covers.
Additional Resources:
The Complete FreeBSD, 4th Edition
Greg Lehey
ISBN 0-596-00516-4, 679 pages, $44.95 (US), $69.95 (CAN), 31.95 (UK)
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