The easiest thing to do after you read a reference book
is complain, so let me start by saying that I think that
this book is quite well-written and would be a good
resource for anyone wanting to get started using a free
mailing list server on a Unix machine.

That being said, as an experienced LISTSERV maintainer, I
didn't learn much new. (Since I generally only looked at
the LISTSERV and general material, that's mainly what I'll
be talking about.) I'll mainly be using the book to loan
to people who want to learn more, and I'll definately quote
some of the material in the handouts I give to new
listowners.

A couple of gripes: It wasn't clear to me before I got the
book that it would cover LISTSERV _Lite_, not LISTSERV
Classic. It's an understandable decision to make since
Lite is free, but this could have been made clearer on the
cover.

Another issue is that this book was Unix-only, which I
also didn't realize until the book arrived. I had
assumed that it would give some coverage to the different
platforms, but (although it mentioned which of the mailing
list packages were available for other platforms) stuff
like installation instructions, etc. was all for Unix
versions of the products. Again, I don't have a gripe
with that decision, but I would have liked to have known
about that before I got the book. (Now someone will point
me to a place in the book's description that made that
clear, I'm sure.)

But all-in-all I liked the discussion of mail protocals,
the sort of things you should be thinking of when you
set up a mailing list server or create a mailing list,
the comparison of the different packages, and the
information on LISTSERV Lite, and I'll definately be
loaning this book to the LISTSERV-administrator-in-
training that I'm supposed to be bringing up to speed.