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, The Complete FreeBSD, to guide them through its configuration and administration. The 4th edition, covering version 5 of FreeBSD, is now available through O'Reilly Community Press. The Complete FreeBSD is an eminently practical guidebook that explains not only how to get a computer up and running with the FreeBSD operating system, but also 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. Author Greg Lehey is a member of the FreeBSD core team and has been developing, documenting, and advocating for FreeBSD for nearly ten years. Whether you're an experienced Unix user or just interested in learning more about this free operating system and how you can put it to work for you, this do-it-yourself BSD documentation will provide the information you need. 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.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
Documnetation fronm the source? NOT:
I was expecting documentation from the source code (ie. a description of how FreeBSD internals work). This book is just another "How to use FreeBSD" book like any other. As a result I found the title very misleading and the book did not do what I expected.
Buy it; support the author, then download it..:
Along with Michael W. Lucas' AbsoluteBSD, now called Absolute FreeBSD in it's 2nd edition, these are the 2 most useful books on FreeBSD and UNIX in general I've found. However, this version is inferior to the "10th anniversary edition" you can download for free from: http://www.lemis.com/grog/Documentation/CFBSD/ It's been edited a bit, and had it's formatting changed since it was published in tree form. Note that as of this writing you cannot purchase the edition available for download. It's... more info
The Complete FreeBSD:
This book is an in-depth and excellent source of information on the installation, configuration, and administration of FreeBSD UNIX. It covers everything about FreeBSD and does not copy but goes beyond the usual MAN pages. It should be in every FreeBSD user's library. Although it covers Version 5, it is still appropriate for persons now using FreeBSD Version 6.2. The author, Greg Lehey, has issued a free electronic version of the book [...], but the paper edition is an inexpensive way to have everything in... more info
Excellent book on FreeBSD, maybe the only one you'll need:
This is a very good book on FreeBSD. It touches on just about every aspect of installing, configuring, and running FreeBSD. It leans more towards desktop use then server use, but there is lots of good information on configuring network services. There is also a huge section just on networking itself. Just by reading this book you can tell the author Greg Lehey is a smart, seasoned, no-nonsense person that is very familiar with FreeBSD. He tells you the recommended way of doing things, then follows up... more info
