# Which is a better book?



## BigSmallDd (Jan 28, 2011)

Hi Forum,

I am new to Unix and BSD.. I have downloaded 3 Ebooks. 1) Absolute BSD by Michael Lucas, 2) Sams-Teach Yourself FreeBSD In 24 Hours and 3) The Complete FreeBSD by Greg Lehey.

I am somehow not able to decide which one to start with. Can someone suggest some study material?


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## fossala (Jan 29, 2011)

Non of them books, try the handbook first.
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/


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## anomie (Jan 30, 2011)

@BigSmallDd: I'm hoping you paid for the books, where applicable. (I know #3 is now freely available.) 

_Absolute FreeBSD_ is a pretty impressive piece of work. M. Lucas is an entertaining writer, and there is so much good information in that book; I would recommend reading it cover to cover. 

_The Complete FreeBSD_ is another fantastic text, but at this stage of the game it's a wee bit dated. You might be interested in reading it for historical perspective and useful tips anyway. 

I haven't read the other book (#2).


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## UNIXgod (Jan 30, 2011)

BigSmallDd said:
			
		

> Hi Forum,
> 
> I am new to Unix and BSD.. I have downloaded 3 Ebooks. 1) Absolute BSD by Michael Lucas, 2) Sams-Teach Yourself FreeBSD In 24 Hours and 3) The Complete FreeBSD by Greg Lehey.
> 
> I am somehow not able to decide which one to start with. Can someone suggest some study material?



I have read both in order 3 and 1. Both are good reference books and can supplement the handbook well.

To learn about your shell and basic shell scripting look for The UNIX Programming Environment Kernighan/Pike

This is a good book to own for 'learning' the UNIX command line and is pedagogical in it's teachings.


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## _martin (Jan 30, 2011)

You can't go wrong with a book from Michael Lucas. I have many of his books and all of them are great. 

I read both editions of _Absolute BSD_ myself. Text easy to understand, good real life examples and author's deeper technical background makes it worth reading. 

Money well spent..


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## vand777 (Jan 30, 2011)

I completely agree with the above comments that "Absolute FreeBSD" by Michael Lucas is the best. Start with this book.

I found a lot of answers to my questions in Handbook.

I'd also recommend the following book (read it after "Absolute FreeBSD"): "Building a Server with FreeBSD 7" by Bryan J. Hong. 

It describes how to install and configure the most popular services (Apache, Bind, Php, Postfix, MySQL etc). Of course, their recommendations in some cases are not detailed enough for building a bullet-proof highly loaded production server but it is a very good starting point for a newbie.


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## drhowarddrfine (Jan 30, 2011)

I have Lehey's book and consider it a reference but it is a bit dated as mentioned above. I also found it more difficult to learn with when I was a beginner. I learned from "FreeBSD Unleashed", an excellent book but I don't know if it's been updated since FreeBSDv5 when I got it. 

I also learned from the Handbook. I own the Lucas book but have only scanned through it.


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## BigSmallDd (Jan 30, 2011)

Thanks a lot for your inputs.
Currenlty i am studying basic commands and theory from Sams-teach yourself unix in 10 mins,which I'll be finishing shortly.I also read a first few chapters of Absolute BSD and I do agree its the best book to start with and not the one by Greg Lehey.
Thanks again!!!!!!!


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## razixx (Jan 30, 2011)

Yeah i downloaded this book as well, Loved it soo much I went and ordered a hard copy immediately, secondly, I can't stand reading an 800 page text off of a computer screen, you'd go blind .  I definitely like the try before you buy model, just make sure you get the second edition.


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