# Michael Lucas is the Best Tech Author



## mvivirito (Jul 1, 2019)

I have been so happy with all the books that I have purchased from him. I have Absolute Freebsd, Jails Mastery and Ed Mastery. He manages to keep the books entertaining and fun as I read through them. Do you guys feel the same way? also who are your favorite tech authors? Please share below.


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## Cthulhux (Jul 1, 2019)

I stopped caring for Michael Lucas's books when he started adopting sexism to help sales:



> Any third-person singular pronouns that appear in the standard edition, for normal people, are female. Those who believe that women don’t belong in tech books may purchase this special “Manly McManface” edition, where all third-party singular pronouns are masculine.
> To compensate for this edition’s much smaller market, though, the Manly edition is unfortunately pricier than the standard edition.



"Ed mastery" would almost have been my first tech book in years. Now it won't. I cannot support this.


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## mvivirito (Jul 1, 2019)

Cthulhux said:


> I stopped caring for Michael Lucas's books when he started adopting sexism to help sales:
> 
> 
> 
> "Ed mastery" would almost have been my first tech book in years. Now it won't. I cannot support this.




Developing a thick skin is important to me. To each his own. I thought that part of the book was a joke and saw that he did sell the Manly McManface edition on his website. 
Are you seriously bothered by that?


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## tommiie (Jul 1, 2019)

He is an okay author. I prefer the _UNIX and Linux system administration handbook_ over _Absolute FreeBSD_. I agree with Cthulhux about "adopting sexism". I don't like his humor. His book on jails was missing a lot of important information and the examples I tried simply did not work.

I've been in networking my entire life and I like Todd Lammle as an author (I've read his CCNA book). I like a few more tech authors, but only heavily on the networking side. I did not yet find any really great authors on Linux, UNIX, or BSD.


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## mvivirito (Jul 1, 2019)

tommiie said:


> He is an okay author. I prefer the _UNIX and Linux system administration handbook_ over _Absolute FreeBSD_. I agree with Cthulhux about "adopting sexism". I don't like his humor. His book on jails was missing a lot of important information and the examples I tried simply did not work.
> 
> I've been in networking my entire life and I like Todd Lammle as an author (I've read his CCNA book). I like a few more tech authors, but only heavily on the networking side. I did not yet find any really great authors on Linux, UNIX, or BSD.



Thank you for the recomendation. I just purchased it! Looks like a fantastic book!


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## Cthulhux (Jul 1, 2019)

mvivirito said:


> Are you seriously bothered by that?



Yes, I am. There is already too much gender-related SNAFU here. We don't need more fuel in the fire.


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## unitrunker (Jul 1, 2019)

I like Michael's books and expect to buy more titles in the future.


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## drhowarddrfine (Jul 2, 2019)

mvivirito said:


> Are you seriously bothered by that?


Nowadays it's all the rage to be offended by everything. People get off on it as much as pornography.

I know someone who was offended when I saw a ceremony put on by the Cherokee Indian tribe a few years back because I called them Indians. I double checked and the Cherokee Nation has a web site. It's called http://www.indians.org/

Now that I think about it, I thought it was indiancountry.net or something like that but there is this http://www.navajoindian.net/ Back then, there were 10 interviews with young people about whether they wanted to be called Indian and none of them had a problem with it. Some even preferred it.

Which goes to show the difference between the internet and how real people actually think in reality and normal every day life.


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## Michael W Lucas (Jul 2, 2019)

The "Ed Mastery" prank was specifically aimed at the people who send me email telling me to not use female pronouns in tech books. Every few months, I got a coordinated flood of email telling me that mixing male and female pronouns in a tech book was wrong. Many senders claimed that women have no place in technology. Those people, in particular, are the ones I'm hitting back at. 

All of which it says in the book description, clearly and distinctly. (Note: I found a couple of stray angle brackets in the web site when I went to check the link, but you can check the text at any bookstore; that hasn't changed.)

Me telling those people to bug off is not sexism.

Me telling those people to bug off is being a decent human being.

And it hasn't affected my sales one way or another.


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## mvivirito (Jul 2, 2019)

Cthulhux said:


> Yes, I am. There is already too much gender-related SNAFU here. We don't need more fuel in the fire.



I wish you would’ve just added something valuable to the discussion. You did not even recommend any books!


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## Michael W Lucas (Jul 2, 2019)

Those of you who like my books: thanks! Glad I can help you.


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## Crivens (Jul 2, 2019)

Michael W Lucas said:


> Those of you who like my books: thanks! Glad I can help you.


Keep on writing then. And make fun of those who try to push their agenda on you, no matter who.

Btw, your avatar makes me want to play Deus Ex again.


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## mvivirito (Jul 2, 2019)

Crivens said:


> Keep on writing then. And make fun of those who try to push their agenda on you, no matter who.
> 
> Btw, your avatar makes me want to play Deus Ex again.


And your avatar makes me want to play professor Layton


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## sidetone (Jul 2, 2019)

There lacks a non-gender specific pronoun to mean either he or she. It's like how there's the slang y'all or yous, for a lack of a single pronoun to specify you all (you can be also plural, but it's not specified, and usually assumed as singular), and many use it in speech as if it were grammatically correct. The word "they" is often used to say one person, but is technically incorrect. To specify both she or he together is lengthy. Often, nothing is meant by using a gender specific pronoun, and sometimes it's not correct, but you know it's not meant to offend. But to insist that a gender specific pronoun be used for the purpose of singling out a gender, for something not gender related, is discriminatory, unless the purpose is fundamentally gender specific.


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## mvivirito (Jul 2, 2019)

sidetone said:


> There lacks a non-gender specific pronoun to mean either he or she. It's like how there's the slang y'all or yous, for a lack of a single pronoun for you all, and many use it in speech like it were grammatically correct. The word "they" is often used to say one person, but technically incorrect. To specify both she or he together is lengthy. Often, nothing is meant by using a gender specific pronoun, and sometimes it's not correct, but you know it's not meant to offend. But to insist that a gender specific pronoun be used for the purpose of singling out a gender is discriminatory, unless the purpose is fundamentally gender specific.



I really don’t want this discussion to be about this


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## tommiie (Jul 2, 2019)

Did you read Lucas' books on ZFS? I've read the first but I don't believe I've yet finished the second one. They were a very good introduction to ZFS and one of the reasons I switched over from Linux to FreeBSD.

While looking at my library, there aren't many books on Unix/Linux that I would recommend. There are a few that I really like (e.g. the _Unix and Linux system admin handbook_) but most of them are too old to really recommend. I think that might be one of the problems. There just aren't enough quality authors on Linux/Unix.

I especially don't like Packt's books as it seems their (technical) editors don't really do a good job of fixing all the mistakes.

I would love to hear some good recommendations on book myself.


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## hukadan (Jul 2, 2019)

tommiie said:


> Lucas' books on ZFS


To be fair, it's Lucas and Allan Jude's book. I enjoyed reading both of them even if I mainly use stuff that is described in the first one.


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## tommiie (Jul 2, 2019)

hukadan said:


> To be fair, it's Lucas and Allan Jude's book. I enjoyed reading both of them even if I mainly use stuff that is described in the first one.


Indeed. Credit where credit is due! Lucas and Jude's books on ZFS


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## mvivirito (Jul 2, 2019)

tommiie said:


> Did you read Lucas' books on ZFS? I've read the first but I don't believe I've yet finished the second one. They were a very good introduction to ZFS and one of the reasons I switched over from Linux



I did not read anything on zfs yet. This perfectly coincides with me freshly installing freebsd on my work desktop yesterday and Deciding to go with zfs so I can learn what all the fuss is about.


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## tommiie (Jul 2, 2019)

Tip: don't get _The design and implementation of the FreeBSD operating system_ by McKusick. While it might be a superb book (I wouldn't know) I found the contents way too advanced for me, being just a FreeBSD/programming noob myself.


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## forquare (Jul 2, 2019)

I first got hooked on Michael W Lucas' book _Networking for System Administrators_.  I loved his style, and was impressed that the friction I had previously experienced with the network engineers where I worked at the time melted away once I was able to give them better information.

I've enjoyed the ZFS books, and have enjoyed about half the Jails book - the other half is waiting for elusive free time...

As for other recommendations...
I really got on with _Learning Perl__, _after spending a few night shifts reading it between railway signalling tests I was really surprised how easily I could jump in a create useful Perl scripts.
Knuth's _The TeXbook_ is a wonderfully simple read. It seems to be available *here* as a PDF.



tommiie said:


> Tip: don't get _The design and implementation of the FreeBSD operating system_ by McKusick. While it might be a superb book (I wouldn't know) I found the contents way too advanced for me, being just a FreeBSD/programming noob myself.



I bought it, I've tried and failed to read it twice.  My programming and systems knowledge is nowhere near where it needs to be to properly digest the content.  If anyone has recommendations of how to skill up to digest it I'd be much appreciative.


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## tommiie (Jul 2, 2019)

forquare: thanks for the recommendations. I will check out the _TeXbook _by Knuth. I have _TeX by topic_ but found it too low-level for me.

About the Perl book, I think I'll skip that one. I rather focus on Python (as it's extremely popular) and simple shell scripts (a good book for this one would be appreciated).


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## Deleted member 30996 (Jul 2, 2019)

forquare said:


> My programming and systems knowledge is nowhere near where it needs to be to properly digest the content.  If anyone has recommendations of how to skill up to digest it I'd be much appreciative.



As far as system knowledge I learn best from hands on experience. Trial and lots of error was how I learned to use FreeBSD. I would recommend the Handbook now.

I bought the Open Solaris Bible but never got past the intro before I wanted to get my hands on it.


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## Nicola Mingotti (Jul 2, 2019)

sidetone said:


> There lacks a non-gender specific pronoun to mean either he or she.



Use 'it', sooner or later machines will learn to read as well.


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## PMc (Jul 2, 2019)

Cthulhux said:


> I stopped caring for Michael Lucas's books when he started adopting sexism to help sales:


Hm, it seems You don't get the idea of ridiculing a reactionary viewpoint not by futile discussion, but by action: by adhering to it to the point where it gets laughable?


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## forquare (Jul 2, 2019)

tommiie said:


> About the Perl book, I think I'll skip that one. I rather focus on Python (as it's extremely popular) and simple shell scripts (a good book for this one would be appreciated).



I'm mostly writing Python these days.  When I worked at Sun many of the engineers praised Perl, so early on when I deciding what to do for fun Perl was the obvious choice.  I've not really done any Perl since maybe 2015.
I kinda clicked with Perl, it felt like shell++.  Python still jars with me a bit.

For shell scripting, I generally use a mix of man pages and _UNIX in a nutshell_ which is showing it's age a bit! @freebsdfrau on Twitter has started putting together a book on gitbooks called _Serious Shell Programming_. I can't comment on it personally, but I've seen some good feedback on Twitter a while ago.


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## tommiie (Jul 2, 2019)

Can we please stay on topic?


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## Cthulhux (Jul 2, 2019)

Michael W Lucas said:


> mixing male and female pronouns in a tech book was wrong



Mixing male and female pronouns is wrong in anything that tries to remotely resemble an English text as long as there is no neutral pronoun.


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## scottro (Jul 2, 2019)

If something an author does bothers you, then you'll probably start looking for faults, rightly or wrongly, that's just human nature.  So, for those who got offended by that, they're probably better off looking elsewhere, but that's just my opinion.  I thought it was a joke, and for me, most of Mr. Lucas's writings hit that balance between getting the complex stuff and allowing me to understand it.
I would say there are probably 10 or more (that's a joke, I'm sure there are thousands) of places to discuss sexism, and its friends, and that if we keep this to a technical discussion, I'm just going to say, (or type) Thanks, Mr. Lucas and keep on writing your books, lots of things in them have been very useful for me.


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## Michael W Lucas (Jul 2, 2019)

Cthulhux said:


> Mixing male and female pronouns is wrong in anything that tries to remotely resemble an English text as long as there is no neutral pronoun.



No. It is not. It can be done incorrectly, but it's not wrong.

I have a college degree in writing English. For you to say this to me is as absurd as me telling you how to call code libraries in your chosen language.


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## Michael W Lucas (Jul 2, 2019)

forquare said:


> As for other recommendations...
> I really got on with _Learning Perl__, _after spending a few night shifts reading it between railway signalling tests I was really surprised how easily I could jump in a create useful Perl scripts.



Learning Perl is an EXCELLENT book. It's what taught me Perl back in the Stone Age. Highly, highly recommended.

I cracked my copy open to remind myself of a couple stupid basics ( curly braces, not parenthesis, ya daftie) when writing the scripts for the new edition of the sudo book.


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## shepper (Jul 2, 2019)

I like authors who come out of the Ivory Tower and mingle in forums with commoners.


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## Michael W Lucas (Jul 2, 2019)

shepper said:


> I like authors who come out of the Ivory Tower and mingle in forums with commoners.


I really should be making sudo-related words, but if I have to be here anyway to defend myself, well--Learning Perl really *is* excellent.


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## sidetone (Jul 2, 2019)

Michael W Lucas said:


> The "Ed Mastery" prank was specifically aimed at the people who send me email telling me to not use female pronouns in tech books. Every few months, I got a coordinated flood of email telling me that mixing male and female pronouns in a tech book was wrong. Many senders claimed that women have no place in technology. Those people, in particular, are the ones I'm hitting back at.





> mixing male and female pronouns in a tech book was wrong.


Cthulhux that's a misquote, and it makes it look like he said something he didn't convey.


Cthulhux said:


> Mixing male and female pronouns is wrong in anything that tries to remotely resemble an English text as long as there is no neutral pronoun.


As long as it's not intentional for the intent of being discriminatory (in something that applies to everyone), it doesn't matter one bit. In grade school, we'll use, either they, he or she, and nothing is meant by it. Then in college, they'll tell you to write "he or she" together or one or ones. I'll continue to use the same pronouns I used in gradeschool unless it's for a formal paper or conversation.



PMc said:


> Hm, it seems You don't get the idea of ridiculing a reactionary viewpoint not by futile discussion, but by action: by adhering to it to the point where it gets laughable?


He explained his action in reference to someone's doubt, and that's good.
- edits
It is funny; it's college or the Onion type humor. Putting out an actual book of the joke, looks like a joke taken far. Some are going to be in doubt whether the intent is meant as a joke, or not be satisfied by jokes. It would also be funny to have the reasoning for the book about the emails in the forward (maybe it does, I can't see it), and on the book page, but then again, that could create hatemail from those feeling called out, so that type of additional joke may not be worth it.


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## ucomp (Jul 2, 2019)

tommiie said:


> Tip: don't get _The design and implementation of the FreeBSD operating system_ by McKusick. While it might be a superb book (I wouldn't know) I found the contents way too advanced for me, being just a FreeBSD/programming noob myself.



I just took a pic from the book :






Is this a smalltalk WhatsApp-group here and not the BSD-community ?   ;-)


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## Deleted member 30996 (Jul 2, 2019)

I'm glad Michael W Lucas showed up and feel we're fortunate to have (dare I?) him. Too bad it's to defend (I dare!) himself from petty attacks on grammar, style of writing or sense of humor. 

I doubt the people who think it's discriminatory for someone to use gender specific terms have ever been discriminated against in real life. If so, please put me in touch with your attorney. If she took your case I know she'd take mine. If it's a guy forget it. I want an intelligent female attorney defending me in this matter so she can dress up like a Daemon in court.

I'd be in my ivory tower but I'm slumming as a permanent lifestyle choice. Save the elephants!


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## mvivirito (Jul 2, 2019)

I wanted to refrain from elaborating on the distractions that people have induced to my off-topic post. I felt that it would only feed the trolls. Any reasonable adult would see that Michael Lucas brings value to the BSD community. It is funny, it seems like the people who are so "offended" just want to virtue signal or feel warm and fuzzy inside by calling out what offended them. It seems as though they are locked into the mindset of an adolescent. I refuse to feed these trolls and will ignore them. They and their opinion are meaningless to me. 

As for everyone else! Thank you so much for your contributions to my topic. I decided to join this forum because of my love of Unix and FreeBSD and the BSD philosophy in general. I hope to contribute to this community greatly and I'm highly enthusiastic about bringing what I can offer to the table. I will never shut anyone out and hope to make many friends on here. 

As for your recommendations, Please keep them coming. Also I am very happy that Michael commented on my post. How cool is that!


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## sidetone (Jul 2, 2019)

At least, it was pointed out that it was humor.

I wonder who buys the book, people who believe women don't belong in tech, or women and those who believe women belong in tech. The former wouldn't like being laughed at, and wouldn't buy a book that contributes to a woman's cause, unless they don't realize it or they think that suits their ego. Maybe its for the ones who see it as a joke.


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## drhowarddrfine (Jul 2, 2019)

I hate it when someone says to me, "I know you were trying to be funny but..." which I reply with, "Well, if you knew I was trying to be funny, what are you upset about?".


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## _martin (Jul 2, 2019)

Oh, I remember when I first got my hands on FreeBSD. I don't recall exactly if it was 4.7 or 4.9. I do remember though I had this book, Absolute BSD 1st edition. It was a book that really helped me progress fast. I loved everything about it. Since then I got handful of Michael's books and each and every time it was money well spent. 

I feel almost starstruck that I can say it here: Michael W Lucas many thanks for your awesome job.


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## Deleted member 30996 (Jul 3, 2019)

sidetone said:


> I wonder who buys the book, people who believe women don't belong in tech, or women and those who believe women belong in tech. The former wouldn't like being laughed at, and wouldn't buy a book that contributes to a woman's cause, unless they don't realize it or they think that suits their ego. Maybe its for the ones who see it as a joke.



I've never been of the opinion that a female was any less competent to use a computer than a male, or at anything else for that matter. Most of my Supervisors have been women and I never felt it a blow to my ego to do what was asked of me.

There was a female on our laborer crew at the iron foundry that worked right along with us scooping sand all night. She got as dirty as us, worked just as hard as us and harder than one guy who would stand around and watch us work. She didn't put on muscle like us and was doing good if she weighed 120lbs at 6 foot but that didn't stop her. We all respected her.

The guy she outworked moved to Kansas City to work construction. That didn't fly out there, but he did. Off the top of a building from what I was told.


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## bookwormep (Jul 5, 2019)

Seems we praised Micheal Lucas on an earlier thread; I'll do the same here!


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## alexbjarki (Nov 13, 2019)

Thanks for all replies! You are the best


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