A.P. Lawrence

How Linux Works

• Brian Ward
• No Starch Press
• 1593270356

Subtitled "What every superuser should know", this is a good techie overview of Linux. This is not the book you hand to Grandma (unless Grandma is a system admin), but it is a very well done Linux guide/introduction.

The first couple of chapters are old hat to any Unix user, being just basic overviews of how Unix in gneral works, but Brian quickly gets into the real meat of Linux with chapter 3 "How Linux Boots" and goes on from there with coverage of networking, printing and everything else you'd expect. If that were all there was, I'd be impressed and would recommend this book, but there is more. There are two excellent chapters on programming tools and compiling source code. These include troubleshooting compilation problems, an often ignored aspect of our Open Source world. A third related chapter covers kernel compilation specifically and again goes beyond the usual treatment.

Throughout the book, Brian gives useful hints and suggestions. He has obviously used and administered real Linux systems and has good experience and advice to share.

I like Brian's writing style and the definite techie orientation. If you are a tech person investigating Linux, this is a good book to read.