At over 1,200 pages, this is a very big book. The copy I was sent to review is a 20th anniversary edition. The fact that a book on an operating system is still current after 20 years is a testament to both the operating system and the book (by comparison, people were using Microsoft Windows 3.0 in 1990). A lot has changed (or evolved) in Unix in the last 20 years, and this book reflects those changes. The biggest change to the landscape since 1990 is probably the introduction of Linux; both the title and the content of the book reflect this.

Writing a book for system administrators is a difficult task. They are expected to have such an intimate, in-depth knowledge of the systems they are administering that they do not need books. On the other hand, the landscape of their systems is so vast, they cannot possibly expect to know all the details of the systems under their control. Often, a person will be primarily responsible for a Microsoft-based network, but will be asked to also look after a mid-range Unix computer (or even just to provide Samba connectivity to one). Or, it may be that someone in charge of a mainframe installation needs to provide support for a mid-range Unix system. Nowadays, many people set up their own Linux workstations. These people are not full-time system administrators, but they must be able to add accounts, perform backups, install software, and handle many other tasks that are expected from system administrators. This book attempts to accommodate these different users. How well does it do this? I think it does it reasonably well.

The first section of the book, “Where to Start,” briefly discusses Unix and Linux and the difference between them. I would have liked a bit more discussion on the versions of Unix (for example, the differences between System V and BSD) and more than just one sentence on POSIX--but there is only so much that can be covered in about 1,300 pages. In each section, the differences between flavors of Unix are noted. For example, in the section on installing new software, the authors describe the tools available for Ubuntu, SUSE, Red Hat, Solaris, and HP. At the end of each chapter, there is a section with recommended reading and some exercises.

The second chapter, on scripting, is one that could have been more detailed. The chapter covers bash/sh, regular expressions, Perl, and Python, all in about 45 pages. There is no mention of other shells, such as ksh or csh. The authors do mention that it is good for a system administrator to learn “expect,” but do not follow this by going into the details of what it does or how it could be used.

The next sections--on booting, access control, startup, and the filesystem--are all reasonably thorough and complete. They are followed by a healthy section on storage, a somewhat limited section on periodic processes (cron), and several other sections that will help system administrators set up, configure, monitor, and troubleshoot Unix systems.

The last section of the book, “Bunch o’ Stuff,” covers topics that do not fit easily into any other section. This includes virtualization, the X window system, printing, performance analysis, and a few other topics.

So, how does this book perform as a useful reference for the various system administrators mentioned in the beginning--that is, the professional, the accidental administrator, and the hobbyist? As I mentioned earlier, the landscape is vast and this book is quite ambitious in trying to cover as much of that landscape as possible. It had to make compromises, in that it is not able to go into much depth in many of the topics. However, it has done a very good job in providing a general overview. The book is well organized and, for the most part, the writing style is breezy and light. For those who are looking to buy a single book for their system administrators, or for a hobbyist who is looking for a single book to get started, this one would be a good choice.

As a final thought, some people may wonder if there is still a place for paper books in an age where a search engine will provide an almost instant response to most system administration questions. For the moment, I think there is still space for this book. The authors’ organization of topics, authority, and experience will bring comfort and edification to readers.