This is a book for people who want to use FreeBSD as a server -- for mail, web services, DNS, etc. It's not a book for those who want to use FreeBSD as a desktop machine. FreeBSD makes a perfectly good desktop OS, but Absolute BSD includes very little information about setting up X or installing and using desktop applications. If you want to try out FreeBSD as an alternative to your Linux desktop, look elsewhere. But if you want to build a server, and learn an awful lot of incredibly useful bits about basic systems administration tasks (much of which is applicable to any other *nix system, including Linux), then I haven't found a better book for this purpose.

I bought this book because I liked Lucas's more recent book, Absolute OpenBSD, so much, and he covers FreeBSD at least as well, if not better. His writing style is humorous and very readable while still conveying a lot of technical information, and you not only learn what you need to type on the command line to accomplish a particular task, but also how a SysAdmin thinks.

Being more familiar with Linux, only somewhat familiar with BSD in general, I have gone from chapter to chapter and this book has guided me through installing FreeBSD both from CDs and over the network, upgrading it, and recompiling a more optimized kernel (which turns out to be a fairly painless process, if you follow the instructions in this book, for those of you who believe, as I did, that recompiling kernels is a big hassle, messing with the guts of your machine and likely to kill it if you make one stupid mistake). He explains every configuration file, how to set up (or turn off!) services, how to make your machine secure, how to make it useful, how to install and upgrade new packages, and how to provide web, mail, and DNS services, and his instructions are very clear and makes it much easier to understand WHY you need to do certain things as well as what you should do. Someone who has never performed any of these tasks before should have no trouble doing so by following the instructions in this book, and afterwards you should know enough that with a little exploration you'd be able to do the same on another OS.

As the author says at the beginning, this book is actually meant to be read from start to finish, rather than being flipped through as a reference guide. What you learn in each chapter builds on the one before. Thus, this book might be somewhat less useful to experienced SysAdmins who just need to know BSD-specific information -- while the information is comprehensive enough to make it a good reference guide, there is probably a lot of extra space devoted to material that experienced SysAdmins already know. However, if you're a novice SysAdmin or just want to learn how to run your own server at home or a small one at work, I think Absolute BSD does a credible job of turning absolute novices into competent junior-level SysAdmins. So this is really a book about systems administration, not just FreeBSD, though the material is all aimed at running FreeBSD systems.

For its intended audience (novice or junior-level systems administrators or people who just want a web server) and scope (using FreeBSD as a server), this is an excellent book. There are other FreeBSD books out there, or more generic books about Systems Administration, with a wider scope, which might be more useful for other purposes. But I would still absolutely recommend including this book on your shelf if you are going to perform admin duties on any system (especially *nix systems), or use FreeBSD for any purpose.

The introductions explains the scope of the book and who it is for:

***Welcome to Absolute BSD! This book is a one-stop shop for new UNIX administrators who want to build, configure and manage dedicated FreeBSD servers.***

Now, if that applies to you, then you can get no better book. If you want X11 stuff, look elsewhere. Wanna play games??? Keep looking.

I have been a network admin on other platforms for years and moved to BSD. I needed to set up a few secure and reliable web/mail/dns servers. This book was the perfect book for my needs. But what truly makes the book unique and great is the author.

Too many people write Unix books that talk about commands but never actually talk about getting work done with the computer. To me, most Unix writers are more interested in showing off acquired knowledge than actually relaying that knowledge in a useful way.

Learning Unix from a book had always been pain until I found this book.

If you will allow me an analogy... If you look up "hammer" in most Unix books they tell you the vector force required to use the hammer. They tell you exact measurements of a hammer. They tell you the molecular composition of the head of the hammer. Then they tell you to subscribe to lists@hammers.org.

Michael Lucas actually says that it is used to drive in a nail! (imagine that)

No, this book does not cover every FreeBSD command and what it does. Nor was it meant to. The book is about providing solutions and not just a bunch or words.

If you are a Unix rookie and want to become a decent admin fast, this is the right book. It is so easy to read, I read it for fun. (It is really funny)

For you ultra newbies, learn a pinch of Unix first, not much but a pinch.

FreeBSD is bar none, the most dependable server OS out there. Using it and this book is a killer combination.

==Update 2.5 years later==

I still use this book every few months. Either to brush up on my knowledge or to help someone who is still learning. It got wet during Katrina but I'm still hanging on to it. It's a good reference. I still give it 5 stars.

This book is great. I've been using FreeBSD for 4 years and it helped me brush up on some stuff i had forgot. Teaches you about system crashes and how to check core dumps. Networking/Kernel/EVERYTHING. This book is great. Good job MWLucas.

Out of the BSD books I've purchased .... while most are aimed at first timers .... this one jumps straight into the Kernel && buildworld -- and that's the best way / approach for me; epecially when the OS will work better when built by you & for your machine ...... Not to mention the detailed section of using ports is also satisfactory ..... even for a seasoned BSD user....
It really depends on whether or not you want to thumb through the usual 200pgs of how to cd & ls ... or "get straight to it" .,
Not to mention ... the humor of Michael Lucas is fantastic ... and that's few and far between when it comes to technical manuals / guides ....
Well worth the buy !!!!!

I am comfortable with Linux and very much enjoy it, but I am by no means a pro. I was looking for an alternative that was sleeker, cleaner, and would run on an older system with a smaller hard drive. I found FreeBSD and really liked it, but there are some small differences between FreeBSD and Linux, and I thought a book would help.
I did some research and decided on "Absolute BSD" and was going to order it when I returned from my vacation. The day before I went on vacation, I stopped at a bookstore to get something to read on the plane. I picked up this book and was blown away. It was exactly what I was looking for! Not so simple that it went over basic Unix commands, and not too complex where I would have been lost.
If you are looking for a sleeker alternative to Linux, and especially if you're looking to run internet services - this is the book for you. In fact, I purchased the book at the bookstore at list price! Order this book at amazon before you look at it at a bookstore or you might find yourself out 12 extra bucks like me! (It was worth it!)
Mike Pinnella
email: /mushen620$NOSPAM-AT$YAHOO.com\

This book is too generalized. It barely covers much about FreeBSD, the OS and configurations. It covers some basic aspects, which may help someone that's never used a *nix variant--but other than that it covers a lot of basic stuff about Apache, Sendmail, etc.

Personally, if I buy a book about an OS, I want it to cover a lot about it. This had a total (what I can recall, at least it seemed) of about 20 commands, basic configuration and the rest was just fluff about Apache, Sendmail, etc.

I can't see this book being of much value. Condensed it would be a "decent' one chapter worth of knowledge. This book doesn't have a lot of knowledge or information to obtain.

I have been using Linux and *nix variants for about 8 years, doing web server tasks. I haven't been on a FreeBSD system for a while now and got this book to brush up, see the differences, etc.

The problem was, even though at this point logging into a FreeBSD server feels a little alien to me, even after all these years since I've used one much, I can refer to this book for anything and I already know it.

Don't mistake that for me knowing more about it than I thought--there's a lot I don't know and this book didn't touch any of it. This is way too basic and for the size of it, you'd think it would at least cover more for someone starting in it with more information. I didn't see either value in this book.

Again, this book could be condensed into one chapter and it would only be a so-so chapter. It didn't cover any of the commonly used commands, other than ps and top and netstat, etc., it didn't get into anything helpful. Very basic, and very general and too much fluff. I took it back the same day--because flipping through the entire book, there was only a few things I forgot about.

It doesn't have much to offer, you can get all this information just as easily in the FreeBSD documentation at the FreeBSD site. This book may be good for beginners, or people like me, that just like to read and own books and try and soak up as much knowledge about the topic as they can, but only for someone very new to this... even then, I wonder the value.

I bought this book because I was having so much trouble understanding the online documentation. I had tried unsuccessfully to install and setup FreeBSD for my webserver.

The step-by-step approach works well for me and made the Unix-type OS less intimidating. I was able to set up not 1 but 2 FreeBSD web/database servers, one for myself and the other for my job!
It IS a beginner's book, so doesn't have everything, but it gave me the basics that I needed to set the boxes up, get them running, secure and in production. It also gave me the confidence to keep going with the OS when I was ready to throw in the towel (after 5 unsuccessful installs).

The only thing I was slightly disappointed in was the binding. I use my book heavily and the binding started breaking after the 1st week. If/when the author decides to reprint, I suggest he insist on better binding.

This is the sort of book I've been waiting for, since reading Annelise Anderson's "FreeBSD" almost one year ago. Michael Lucas is well-known for his articles, and his knowledge and easy conversational style shine in "Absolute BSD." Of the four books I've read with "FreeBSD" in the title, this has been the most helpful -- but not necessarily the most comprehensive.

The strength of "Absolute BSD" lies in Lucas' understanding of what matters most to system administrators. Control of services via scripts, bandwidth throttling, firewalls, networking health monitoring, SCSI, RAID, upgrades -- these are what UNIX sys admins care about. You'll learn the most if you follow along with Lucas' examples. I tweaked, tuned, and typed my way through kernel builds, mergemaster, IPFilter, jails, MRTG, and other processes and tools. Along the way I appreciated Lucas' attention to detail, like pointing out the subtleties of 'top -S', and his knowledge of obscure tools, like 'sockstat' or 'vmstat'.

"Absolute BSD" does have a few flaws, and I almost gave it four stars. I was sad to see no coverage of 'portupgrade' (though Lucas wrote about it in Nov 01) or using RSA/DSA authentication with OpenSSH. While his instructions for Apache were sufficient to get a basic installation running, I didn't feel BIND was covered adequately. I would trade the talk about these applications for more FreeBSD-specific material, like the excellent and unique chapters on "Making Your System Useful" (ch 10) and "System Performance" (ch 18). Beware errors in crontab entries (pp 190-1) and probably omissions in OpenSSL (pp 313-4). Overall, the quality of the material Lucas included in his book far outweighed my concerns. If you know anything about FreeBSD, it's that the developers of the volunteer project are almost too busy to document their work. Thank goodness Lucas -- a FreeBSD committer -- took the time to share what he knows!

"Absolute BSD" addresses topics not found in other FreeBSD or UNIX system administration books. It's a must-buy. If you want wider coverage, try "FreeBSD Unleashed." For integration with Windows, check out "The FreeBSD Corporate Networker's Guide." For comparisons with other UNIX types, see "The UNIX System Administration Handbook." Beginners will still like Annelise Anderson's "FreeBSD." I can't wait to read Lucas' upcoming OpenBSD book.

Great Job! What a great tool. It helped me to make sense of my needs and issues--I even decided to change my OS.

This book is by far the most useful and helpful book I've read for setting up a *NIX server (and as my husband and I have set up several dozen Linux boxes, a couple of SGIs, and an HP-UX machine, believe me when I say I've read several). The author uses a light, humorous and conversational tone throughout, making the book an easy read even for newbies, but that doesn't mean it's lacking in technical information-- just reading Chapter 9 (Too Much Information About /etc) is enough to make your head spin.

Mr. Lucas starts from the beginning with installing FreeBSD (a chapter that I admit I skipped at first, and I ended up reinstalling because of it), and goes all the way up through such non-trivial events as system panics and how to respond to them (unfortunately, most of the best options require some proactive configuring, so the bulk of the people who need the information will be unprepared. But that is hardly the author's fault). In between, he spends several chapters discussing how to secure your system, which is probably the single most important element to setting up any computer for any use, and also the most ignored.

The book is, admittedly, a little light in X11 and other desktop-machine elements (a mere 14 pages are devoted to the entire subject), and is more suited to those wishing to set up a server. It's evident, however, that the author has had a great deal of experience with setting up FreeBSD servers for a number of uses in a number of environments, as there's enough information in the book to set up your server as:

* An all-purpose Internet host

* A dedicated mail host

* A high performance web server

* A firewall

* A fileserver on a Microsoft network

* A backup server

* A nameserver

* A network-monitoring server

While it's highly unlikely that you would ever want a single server to do all of the above, the information is there for you to pick and choose what you need for your particular environment. And throughout it all, Michael Lucas keeps his irreverent yet easily understood tone.

Let me start by saying that it's amazing what IS in this book for having ONLY 500 pages.

I've used BSD for 3 years now and cannot find a better reference guide ANYWHERE. This book is AWESOME. The writing style is crisp and ENTERTAINING. I read the book from cover to cover (which is unusual for a tech. manual) and still use it as my main reference. If it doesn't have the answer I'm looking for (which is rare), it at least gives me enough information to find the answer.

The section on IPFilter is worth the price alone and had me drooling with delight at the knowledge therein.

I also personally enjoyed the networking section which describes basic network concepts (network layers, arp, ip addresses) as well as a vibrant discussion of netstat.

Security is also a focus and the discussions of who/what/why/where/when/how of security is laid out in the style I've come to admire in Mr. Lucas. Basic permissions, flags are discussed as well as sockstat (I LOVE sockstat).

Next I liked the section on ports and patching. This discusses the way each of these are utilized and how to handle upgrading ports and packages (in a step by step method).

Mr. Lucas actually has DNS make SENSE, which all of us know can be daunting indeed.

Mr. Lucas has made a gem of a book and only 500 pages. If you want a complete discussion of X-Windows, go find a Linux book, this is FreeBSD!

I'm sorry, just need to response to W. Marshall's comments. Either he's reading a completely different book or reading this one backwards. Lehey's book is fine, and has been fine, as far as it goes, but Absolute BSD is a great edition to the body of work about BSD. There's got to be a reason why Jordan Hubbard wrote a foreword to this one :)

There is no book on the planet that isn't missing something or other. The most important aspect about this book by Lucas is that its clear, complete, and readable. Buy it.

I love FreeBSD, and have been looking forward to a successor to Greg Lehey's most excellent _Complete FreeBSD_, now getting a little dated. My own copy is now well-worn and ugly, a broken spine held together with duct tape.

So, I had high hopes for a replacement. Since Michael Lucas' book promotes itself as "the ultimate" guide, I expected to find a thorough treatment of FreeBSD, a guide that I could suggest for new users just getting started, as well as a manual of "insider" tips and tricks for experienced administrators.

Instead, this book offers little value or substance for any category of FreeBSD user. I actually don't know how it is possible for a book of over 500 pages of rather small print to be so empty.

For example, here is a brief (and incomplete!) list of essential topics that are either not covered at all, or mentioned only in passing:

* no network address translation (NAT) coverage

* no PCMCIA configuration or wireless networking coverage, even though the author mentions several times his use of FreeBSD on a laptop

* no printer daemon setup/filter coverage

* no user PPP coverage, a glaring omission as user PPP is a significant advantage of *BSD systems for those needing PPP

* discussion of ssh doesn't even mention ssh-agent, ssh-add

* no multi-boot coverage; even a production server will often have multiple boot partitions, to facilitate testing, backups and upgrades

* no shell coverage, such as how to set up your environment with a few simple settings to be more user-friendly

* useless short discussion of X11

* useless short mention of email clients (along the lines of "I use mutt, my wife uses pine", but no discussion at all of configuration for either)

* postfix discussion erroneously disses qmail, goes on to fail mention of Maildir mailboxes at all

* generally poor treatment of network configuration, including no discussion of DHCP setup

* etc.

It is really hard to fathom where the author is coming from in all this. For example, you would think that the chapter titled "Desktop FreeBSD" might describe how to set up a workstation to be comfortable and efficient for work. But you would be wrong, this is not covered at all. Instead, this chapter leads off with a discussion on how to access Windoze file shares!

This is the only book I have ever returned in my life, and I am not a young person. I regret this book is even out there, because this kind of lame, inadequate material could actually turn people away from finding out what a great OS is in FreeBSD.

The author is evidently preparing a similar book on OpenBSD, another fantastic OS. Let's hope he will do a better job next time, though there is no evidence in the present work that he is capable.

As for FreeBSD, I can only suggest sticking with Lehey's book and _The FreeBSD Handbook_, regularly read the Daemonnews ezine and Dru Lavigne's columns on O'Reilly, and hope that Lehey's book will appear in an edition updated for FreeBSD 5.0 in the near future.

It's a technical book, but it makes sense.

This is the best BSD book out there for newbies. The conversational style as well as the actual text formatting make this the easiest reading book on the subject. Others were WAY TOO technical for comprehension without repeated study. This one gets your feet wet in a comfortable manner, but still covers just about everything you need to know to make BSD into a secure, reliable SERVER.

Be aware, no X-windows coverage here! If that's your issue, go to FreeBSD Unleashed. While I never read it, I know it covers X.

I have FreeBSD Corporate Netwoker's Guide, The Complete FreeBSD and this Absolute BSD. This one is the absolute book to have for learning FreeBSD.

I haven't finished the book yet, but the conversational style of Lucas' book make this a "cover-to-cover" read instead of JUST a simple reference book. This applies to his articles too, he regularly writes columns for the "Big Scary Demons" section on O'Reilly dot com. It'll probably make a great reference book after the cover-to-cover read.

I get information that I can immediately put to use (new commands or new ways to use old commands) each time a read a section of the book.

This book is well worth the bucks.

Absolute BSD: The Ultimate Guide To Free BSD by computer expert Michael Lucas is a thorough and comprehensive user's guide to FreeBSD, the versatile and free Unix-based operating system that many choose as their preferred server. Individual chapters address installation, debugging, setting up web and ftp services, Microsoft's Shared Source .Net Implementation for FreeBSD, and much more. Highly practical, and deliberately written to be accessible for users of all skill and experience levels, featuring straightforward text and numerous examples, FreeBSD is an essential instructional reference for anyone who relies on FreeBSD.

BSD is an amazing os, but there's so much mystery. I've bought a couple other BSD books and been disappointed by the lot, but not this one.

Lucas has done a terrific job of making sense of the beast. You'll find info in here on topics you've only heard about but never quite understood -- and it's all in plain English.

Thanks to the author and his very cool publisher. No Starch rocks too. I love their books!!