Linux Cookbook

Linux Cookbook
Practical Advice for Linux Users & System Admins
O'Reilly Press
ISBN 0-596-00640-3
$ (and worth every penny).

The Linux Cookbook is the sort of book that quickly becomes filthy and
dog-eared. The sort that lives beside your console and is accessed
frequently. It is not a shelf-queen.

Targeted at the experienced Linux user, it is designed to provide quick
and concise answers to daily Linux problems. It doesn't teach Linux, it
doesn't help with system architecture. It solves problems.

Using a simple recipe format, this book covers all the things that a
user or sysadmin might want to do, but probably doesn't do often enough
to remember the syntax. It makes an excellent replacement for Man pages.

This book is the antithesis to those big show more wordy tomes like "Running XX"
and "Learn XX in 24 Hours". I find that those types of books are more
about selling paper than teaching anything useful.

It is unusual for me to buy a book I've read, but I am going to buy my
own copy of the Linux Cookbook so I can have a handy reference. I have
already used the book to solve 2 problems.

TOC, by chapter:
1) Finding Documentation
2) Installing and Managing Software with RPM
3) Installing and Managing Software for Debian systems
4) Installing Software from Source Code
5) Discovering Hardware from Outside the Box
6) Editing Text Files with JOE and VIM
7) Starting and Stopping Linux
8) Managing Users and Groups
9) Managing Files and Partitions
10) Patching, Customizing and Upgrading Kernels
11) CD and DVD Recording
12) Managing the Bootloader and Multibooting
13) System Rescue and Recovery with Knoppix
14) Printing with CUPS
15) Configuring Video and X-Windows
16) Backup and Recovery
17) Remote Access
18) Version Control
19) Keeping Time with NTP
20) Building a Postfix Mail Server
21) Managing SPAM and Malware
22) Running Apache Web Server
23) File and Printer Sharing and Domain Authentication with SAMBA
24) Managing Name Resolution show less

Obviously this is not a work of fiction that one reads through from beginning to end--but you would certainly learn a lot if you did so. Carla Schroder's technical writing is clear, simple, and presented in short "recipes" that are easy to understand, and not overwhelming if you're a Linux newbie.

On O'Reilly's web site there is an downloadable update to the Kindle edition (I can't speak to other ebook editions), but, caveat emptor, it is not free, though in my opinion reasonably priced.

A bit outdated. Also, it was not what i was expecting.