Administration

Sams Teach Yourself UNIX System Administration in 21 Days (Teach Yourself -- Days)

Format: Paperback
Author: John Ray
ReleaseDate: 12 October, 1999
Publisher: Sams
Rating:

Learn UNIX in more than 21 days.
I find this book a bit complicated, since i personally do not work with Operating Systems like these. Uhh, "Sams teach yourself UNIX system administration in 21 days" is a nice book with some content about older or more advanced systems such as Sun OS, IRIX, AIX. This book is 100% for advanced UNIX system administrators with expirience. I give it 4 stars, because i found it very interesting and knoweledgable about older Operating Systems, i think i will definately need this knoweledge some day. Oh and the part where author explains how you should behave in front of your boss is very nice also. In other words i would recommend this book to anybody who's absolutely insaine about UNIX like systems, definately should read.
P. S.
(You definately won't understand a thing if you finish whole book in 21 days).

Definitely not for beginners.
In the first 2 chapters (!) of the book, the author tells us about how grand you will become as a UNIX administrator and its associated immense responsibility. I am a casual user of the UNIX OS, trying to learn something about Unix administration. We are even told about some interpersonal skills and psychology needed for the job. You can browse these 2 chapters in about 1 hour, not having learnt at the end of it any UNIX administration whatsoever. You are suggested, very helpfully, told to write down this or that important number in "a paper, or a post-it note or whatever". Then the third chapter comes, with the installation of the OS (the author admits it is an old version, but this is presented as a positive feature, as if life is not complicated enough), and immediately, almost entire pages of output are shown. Only parts of this output are explained, and in a very casual mode. I suspect that, if my knowledge was superior, I would find this book outdated and cumbersome. As a beginner, I have not read more and I will look for other books.

Not nearly enough
"In Your Dreams" This book is just awful. This book should have an addition to it's title. Please don't waste your money on it. If you are a total beginner, you will be lost from the start. If you are an accomplished user trying to move into administration (as I am), you'll find that there is no meat in this book whatsoever. It is padded with the authors philosophies about administration rather than with any real information. The end of the book is just a meaningless collection of junk added for thickness purposes. Unless you are a UNIX administrator before you begin reading this book, you WILL NOT be a UNIX administrator when you finish.