Great all-purpose Linux reference

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Book:		Linux Cookbook
Subject:		Great all-purpose Linux reference
Date:		2005-03-01 15:55:44
From:		Fred the Linux Guy

Rating: This is just the Linux howto I have been looking for. I am the IT staff for a cabinet shop. Little by little I have been replacing our old Windows servers - an ugly mix of Windows 95 and NT4 - with Linux servers. This book was a big help, since my background is mostly Windows. I've been fooling around with Linux at home but work is another story- it has to work right and I can't take forever to do it. The chapters on building a Postfix mail server, and spam and virus control, are great. The Samba chapter was also invaluable to me, I now have a Samba 3 domain controller for 40 Windows clients, and it works right, which is nice change of pace. My Samba-CUPS printer server works great and doesn't give me fits like the old Windows box it replaced. This books covers a lot of the everyday system administration chores I seem to encounter- dependable hands-off backups, how to use TinyDNS, using Yum, a LAN time server, some advanced user account management tips, and secure remote access over SSH. (Which is a two-edged sword as my boss tries to pester me to do work from home in my off time.) I even built and customized some kernels successfully- it's not difficult when you have good insturctions. O'Reilly books are always excellent, but of all the Linux titles this is one of the best.