Best recommended comprehensive book for newbie to learn FreeBSD in 2015? Michael Lucas?

[Matthew Seaman]

On 10/23/15 09:24, Mehmet Erol Sanliturk wrote:
> On Fri, Oct 23, 2015 at 1:18 AM, John via freebsd-questions <
> freebsd-questions at freebsd.org> wrote:
> 
>> I like author Michael Lucas, but his latest such book, Absolute FreeBSD
>> was released back in 2007, quite a bit of time ago. I wonder if it is still
>> my best source, or, perhaps, anything newer has been released with a
>> similar approach, depth, and humor?
>> _______________________________________________
>>
>>
> 
> http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0321968972?keywords=freebsd&qid=1445588293&ref_=sr_1_1&s=books&sr=1-1
> 
> The Design and Implementation of the FreeBSD Operating System (2nd Edition)
> 2nd Edition
> by Marshall Kirk McKusick (Author), George V. Neville-Neil (Author), Robert
> N.M. Watson (Author)

This is certainly comprehensive, but it isn't for newbies, and it
doesn't teach you how to operate a FreeBSD system -- it teaches you how
to write the FreeBSD kernel.

> http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0692452354?keywords=freebsd&qid=1445588293&ref_=sr_1_3&s=books&sr=1-3
> 
> FreeBSD Mastery: ZFS (IT Mastery) (Volume 7) Paperback – May 16, 2015
> by Michael W Lucas (Author), Allan Jude (Author)

Much more accessible to a beginner, but concentrating on the use of ZFS.

> http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0692343202?keywords=freebsd&qid=1445588293&ref_=sr_1_5&s=books&sr=1-5
> 
> FreeBSD Mastery: Storage Essentials (IT Mastery) (Volume 4) Paperback –
> November 28, 2014
> by Michael W Lucas (Author)

Similarly more accessible, but again focussing in on a specific part of
the system.

> http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1593272049?keywords=freebsd&qid=1445588293&ref_=sr_1_4&s=books&sr=1-4
> 
> FreeBSD Device Drivers: A Guide for the Intrepid 1st Edition
> by Joseph Kong (Author)

This is, like the Design and Implementation book, aimed at people who
want to write device drivers.  It's not an introduction to the OS from a
user's or administrator's point of view.

Although Michael Lucas' "Absolute BSD" is a few years old nowadays, it's
still a good choice for an introductory text.  The contents of the book
will still be largely relevant today -- there haven't been any
revolutionary changes in most of the system, but there will have been a
lot of changes in various details.   One exception to that is the system
installer, which has been extensively rewritten.  The description in the
Handbook should cover you there.  Actually, the Handbook is another good
all round fit for your requirements.

My advice: read Absolute BSD and the Handbook, then grab yourself a VM
or some such and get stuck in.  Give yourself an objective, like: set up
an instance of Wordpress with php-fpm and nginx, trying to secure it as
well as possible and test-publish some articles. [Just an example --
choose whatever seems most relevant to you.]  Use Google or ask
questions here for anything that causes you difficulties as you're going
along.  Then throw away all your initial attempts and start again from
scratch, applying what you've learnt, to set up something more permanent.

You may also find material on the BSD Certification site useful:

   http://www.bsdcertification.org/

and

   http://bsdwiki.reedmedia.net/wiki/Table_of_Contents.html

	Cheers,

	Matthew





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