Linux Administration: A Beginner’s Guide, Seventh Edition

Might be a bit intimidating for an absolute beginner, but then Linux network administration is extremely technical. Technical in this sense means lots of moving parts, and in a great many cases, a part has its own configuration file that controls its behavior. The wrangling of all these parts and their associated configuration files are not for those faint of heart. This book covers the administration of those parts in pretty good detail, better than most. The truth is that there are not that many books that cover Linux server administration, and sadly, those that do are lacking in details and examples. I find examples to be the main key to success, as the administration of a Linux server is done mostly at the command line. This book will not only get you started, but gives you a pretty good push out of beginner and into intermediate levels of administration. This book covers the main distros of Linux servers, i.e. RHEL, Ubuntu, Fedora, and OpenSuse.

This is one of the better Linux Admin books out there. The author does a great job of giving the reader enough information for a vast number of Linux topics/tools. It is a beginner's book in the sense that for many subjects, there are tons of other resources you have to look into to really master or get a deep level of knowledge. The author makes a note of this and also suggests further reading. The person that gives this 1 star "Warning - The title is a lie." couldn't be more wrong about the book. The author explains from the very beginning that there are certain assumptions being made about the reader and even if these assumptions are wrong, the material in the book is still great for guiding a beginner level Linux admin. One of my favorite chapter is chapter 9 'The Linux Kernel'. I will def keep this book close by. If you have absolutely no idea what Linux is, an argument could be made for picking up a more introductory type of book.

This is a solid resource for IT administrators or software developers getting their first exposure to Linux Server administration. The newest version of the book offers coverage of Amazon Web Services and Docker. I appreciated the author sharing helpful tips from his own experience to save reader's time. For example, in the installation chapter, he recommends placing a limit on the TMP directory size to avoid hacking attempts at filling up the server's drive. I had a misbehaving open source program that spammed my TMP directory with log files and partial downloads, and this tip saved me from having my server become unavailable because it couldn't perform any write actions.

So far I like this guide better than any I have ever had. It is well indexed and the chapters are arranged very logically. The actual content I have not yet had time to absorb, but it seems to be written in a style easy to understand and accomplish tasks. A lot of these types of guides have a lot of unintelligible jargon to sort through, but this writer seems to have avoided that with clear and concise instructions. Thanks.

Book is clear and concise

Over 800 pages perfectly pitched for non-professional Linux enthusiasts (like myself). Covers distros, installation and the command line, networks, services, protocols, even virtual machines in enough depth to be really *useful* without totally overwhelming the reader. A meaty read; well done! Easily worth the price.

I loved the the last edition, I would not dare miss the new lol! Thank you. This book will take you from Beginner to Advanced Linux Concepts. I am a Linux Engineer and I can't say how much of a blessing this book has been to me. It has literally saved my butt quite a few times! Thanks Wale!

The title of this book is a lie. And in the first few pages, the author openly tells you so. It says it's for "beginners," but it is actually written for server admins who are already familiar with Microsoft server administration but who want to dabble in or learn Linux. They actually say in the first few pages they assume you are already a "power user" with such software. Stupid: Say a book is for beginners, then assume your readers are already power users with similarly purposed, expensive software solutions. Why would an author write a book for "beginners" who want to learn free, open-source software, while assuming their readers are already familiar with expensive, Microsoft proprietary software? Yeah, I don't know either, but that is the, um, misguided, perspective they took with this book. They say the reason is that they didn't want to write a book "for dummies" where you just learned what to click or type here and there without knowing the why behind it, but their result is just the opposite of what they say they intended. If you assume your reader is already familiar with the concepts and the "why" with other similar software, then you don't apparently feel the need to really explain the why with the software your teaching. In truth, they do explain the "why," just not the "why" you really need as a beginner. They explain the "why," only in relation to the Microsoft software (i.e., Microsoft server software does it this way, here is why Linux does it differently and how it is better...) Problem is, if you're a beginner trying to learn the free software before shelling out the money for the Microsoft products, you need the underlying "why" and "how," not just a why in relation to how other similar software solutions do it. And why assume that a book "for dummies" would necessarily have to just teach "what to click or type here or there" rather than explaining the "why" anyway?? Why couldn't a book "for dummies," or true beginners, explain the fundamental "why's?" It may seem harsh to leave only one star, because the book could be far worse. If they didn't lie to you, and you are not a true beginner, the book is useful. Otherwise, you'll just feel angry they couldn't actually teach it the way a true beginner needs it taught. But, lying up front, in the title of the book itself, is a pretty fatal flaw in my view. It simply doesn't serve the purpose it set for itself. It is not a guide for beginners.

The best oneRegards from Mexico

Fantastic, very well explained. Great lay out, became a reference after subject were learn.

good

The title of the book is somewhat misleading as it expects the reader to have experience as a Windows administrator.However if you have basic knowledge of Linux or Unix then you shouldn't have any major problems working with the book, and there are plenty of free tutorials on the web for learning basic Linux and Unix, that you use before jumping into the book, for example at tutorialspoint.Alternatively you can buy an old but cheap textbook like Teach Yourself Linux, most of what they cover is still useful for a true beginner.Personally I did not have the assumed background the author requested, but I could still use the book quite comfortably, if you come across something you don't understand simply google it and return to the book.In hindsight the Linux Bible by Christopher Negus is probably even better for Linux beginners since it has more illustrative pictures, however it does put more emphasis on Red Hat, whereas Soyinka's book has a more even spread between the different distributions.Overall its a good book with plenty of tutorials/exercises, however its not the best book for true administrative beginners.

Reading on a Kindle Paperwhite suffers because the example text is tiny. It doesn't change size with the Kindle text size setting - presumably to keep the formatting fixed. It is possible to enlarge the examples by touching them, waiting for a + to appear and then touching that, but it feels clunky. You pretty much have to be in portait mode as well (or maybe it's just my eyesight)