Unix

UNIX Web Server Administrator's Interactive Workbook

Format: Paperback
Author: James Mohr
ReleaseDate: 30 October, 1998
Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR
Rating:

A nice overview, but not much depth
The information is heavily geard toward Caldera Linux and Apache, without any hints as to how the differences translate to other versions of Unix. First of all, this book should be called, "The Apache on Caldera Linux Web Administrators workbook".

Second of all, I don't feel that most operations are explained in enought depth to give a webmaster any help. It's a good overview of how someone could set up a basic webserver for their home, but not nearly in depth enough for a professional admin. There's a lot of cross-references to other chapters that make you think a thought is going to be well explained somewhere else, but when you to look at the other chapter, you see no further explanation.

Then there's the random chapters on HTML. These pages should have been used to further delve into admin info, not developer info. If I cared about building webpages, I would have bought HTML in 21 Days. The demo pages used to demo your newly built website should've just come pre-built on the cd. If you don't know anything about webservers or Linux, this is probably the best book you could get. If you are a web admin, then you're better off getting a book on your flavor of Unix, and seperate documentation on your exact webserver.

Have Fun Learning Apache on Your Own
One needs an Apache server to work with, but the book comes with a CD that includes the Apache server. This is an excellent book for someone who wants to learn by doing, as the subtitle suggests. One can experiment with the different modules and try different things. The book is filled with review questions (and answers). A big plus is that it covers more than just Apache. It has stuff on HTML for the HTML non-expert. (It has a whole chapter on frames. ) This makes it a great book for beginners.

The book is easy to read, and flows nicely. The coverage of the basics, the fundamentals and the theory of running a real Web server under different circumstances far outweighs the fact the book is a bit outdated. The Apache vesion discussed in the book is not the current version, so there may be a few things that are slightly different with today's Apache server.

I am really glad I bought the book.