Bad science fiction burdens the reader with obsessive technical detail, filling page after page with descriptions of star drives, man-made atmospheres, or planetary creation. Good science fiction posits one or two changes to our everyday reality, and then uses that new perspective to reexamine the human experience.
Similarly, bad technical books rehash the details of the reference manuals, and “add value” by throwing in a few more details of their own. Little or no guidance is given as to how to knit these facts into a greater wisdom. Good technical books tell the reader directly how to change their technical lives, and then supply only the details necessary to make the jump. This book is one of the good ones.
If you are an old hand at Linux (any Unix, actually), but are no longer thrilled by pipes and scripts, or by having a DNS server on your home network, then buy this book. If you’ve forgotten why you prefer Linux to Windows, buy this book. If you’re new to Linux, or wondering what the attraction is, again: buy this book. This text goes beyond using the shell, beyond installation, and beyond administration, to the real reason you use a computer in the first place: to be more creative.
The text opens with a history and discussion of the free software, open source, and Linux movements. By the end of the first chapter you have compiled your first kernel. The remaining 23 chapters each address a cogent topic that will change the way you compute:
- Remote control using any OS
- Detecting Network Attacks
- IP Masquerading and NAT
- Secure Connectivity with SSH
- Parallel Line IP Networking (PLIP)
- Connecting to PDAs
- Samba (networking with Windows)
- Running Windows under Linux
- Undernets and CVS (version control)
- Remote CD Burning
- E-Mail as a System Console
- Audio Processing
- Secure Web-Mail with IMAP and SSL
- Music Production
- Extending Apache
- Speech Synthesis
- Secure E-Mail with GPG
- Image Processing
- Network Sniffing
- 3D Graphics Production
- Preventing Network Attacks
- Video Production
Entire books have been written on each of these topics, yet this text manages to get to the point and solve each problem in only one chapter. It can be downright exciting, but note: it’s only exciting to experienced programmers. If you’ve never gone past point and click, if you’ve never compiled anything, or if you’ve never been the only one in the office late at night trying one more fix, this book is not for you. Topics like music or video production may sound appealing to a wide audience, but, like a chainsaw, this “multitool” is best handled by experienced hands.
