Ok, firstly, I am *not* a fan of Microsoft File Sharing (SMB/Samba) as it is usually set up poorly, and quite insecurely. That said...

There are times where one has no choice but to use Windows Networking, and truth-be-told, the Samba implementation of the SMB protocol (Windows Networking) is (in my opinion) faster, less buggy, and more secure than the native Windows version.

Now, as with any network file sharing scheme, the System Admin *must* know how to properly configure & secure the system. That is where this wonderful book comes in.

Within these 600+ pages, Mr. Smith shows he understands his topic like the back of his hand, deftly helping newbie and experienced SA alike with both the basic configurations of file & print sharing, as well as esoterica of the SMB protocol suite.

Another feature about this book that I find exemplary is that the author speaks to *Nix admins about Windows file sharing like *Nix admins, not Windows admins trying to figure out how to share a file with a Unix user. This is very important to keep the number of pages about how to use "cat" "less" "vi" or other common tools to a minimum...

Overall, this is one of the best Samba books I have found, and highly recommend it to anyone deploying Windows file sharing in a mixed environment.

Ok, so you have read PHP Programming for the Mentally Challanged, or Learn PHP in 23.5 minutes, or some other similar tome that seems to regurgitate itself every week or two...

Now you are thinking, "What should I do to take the next step?"
Answer: Read this book.

While this book has its share of typos, errors and other "burps" it is quite well presented, and if you take the time to use it, and truely study it, the errors will be easily fixed.

I have been working with PHP for all too long now, and I have given this book to a number of collegues to get them up to speed, and I have not been disappointed yet.

This book is perfect for the person who has been tinkering with Linux long enought to have started outgrowing the GUI based tools that the distros are spoon feeding users with.

This book takes a reader who is ready to leave webmin or other "wizard" approaches behind and wants to take the bull (er... config files) by the horns and REALLY control their machines.

The vendor/distro neutral coverage is fair and even handed, giving time to both Redhat based distros as well as Debian.

If you are itching to stop having to point and click all over the place to change a line in a config file, and are ready to learn the faster, quicker, less error prone way... here you go!

Become an SA :)

When people say RTFM when asked questions about NFS, this is "The ...er.. FINE ... Manual" they should be refering to.

Erez has been in charge of the care & feeding of NFS on the Linux platform and knows his charges well.

This book (and this series as a whole) is well writen with the experienced SysAdmin in mind. You do not need to know NFS for this book to help you, but you do need to know basic Sys Admin concepts and techniques.

I have been running NFS on various Unicies for years and found this to be a great resource for NFS/Automount on not only the Linux side, but on Solaris, HPUX, AIX and *BSD as well.

If you intend to run a secure, stable and speedy NFS server, you MUST read this book. Erez helps you avoid the gotchas and pitfalls most people hit when running NFS for the first, or hundreth time.

This book really should have the word Linux removed from its title, not because it doesnt cover it, but because the book shouldnt limit its readership by it.

I own a number of so-called 'essential' references for many languages, and over a dozen PHP books that claim to be the end all of PHP documentation.

If you have already learned PHP but are human and cannot remember every function's name or syntax, this book is for you.

It is organized in clear and concise format, you can find your needle in a haystack either by looking in the grouped chapters, or if you know the name of the function, just not the details (which in reality happens more often than not <G>) the well stocked index will get you going.

This ...I prefer having the hardcopy in my hands when coding so that I can quickly jog my memory without having to navigate through the web for the info.

This book, along with the PHP Developer's Cookbook by SANS should be on *every* PHP Developer's desk... not the bookshelf!

Until the O'Reilly "Bat Book" is updated and expanded, this book should become the standard sendmail reference book, for linux as well as other unicies...

The information is cleanly laid out, explored and described. The author presents not only broad knowledge/information, but in depth experience with the MTA and related technologies.

I found this book quite helpfull when stuck with the minutia of a sendmail.cf file, and the information in the beginning of the book in great for those new to sendmail and/or linux.

I found this book a joy to read. Before ordering this book, I had read the GPL'd chapters online and found them to be quite good so I wanted to support the author with my wallet. I figgured the rest would be the regular pomp about Open Source that we are seeing alot of lately, but I could not have been more incorrect! The author not only knows his technical details about the CVS system, he fully groks the Open Source movement, personalities and community.

The author alternates chapters between community issues (ethics, forking, project maintenance and administration, as well as "people skills") and the technical nuts and bolts of running a CVS server and/or using a CVS client.

While the title touts the Open Source movement, CVS is just as at home in a closed environment, say a web development team, inhouse application development, or anywhere else that you need to track text based files. Mr. Fogel does a good job of showing run of the mill examples and code, as well as some more esoteric uses of CVS commands and utilities.

If you are doing any sort of development and are investigating content version control software this book (and application) are for you.

This has to be the worst programming book I have ever read. The code will be over the head of a novice without explanation, and for the experienced PHP coder a waste of time.

I purchased this book thinking it would be good for some help on a project I am working on, and it was... it helped keep a number of papers from blowing around on my desk. If you are looking for a book to help you with PHP and/or MySQL, this is the last book I would ever recommend to you. There are other books available on Amazon that would be a much better place for people at any level of experience.

I wish I could actually charge the author for having read this one, because it did waste alot of time, so dont waste yours.

And that is where it excells! I have actually read this book cover to cover once, and now I use it as a good reference on LDAP. It is not exactly geared to the implementor, but rather to both the Designer/Architect as well as those who have to "sell" LDAP to an organization. If you are new to LDAP, or are going to be doing any sort of design work, this is the first book you should read, its introduction to LDAP is the best I have seen, and although it is weighty (and not just the size of the book) it is quite comprehendable if read in order.

Whether you are a newbie to Linux, or recompile Linux Kernels to run your blender in your sleep, this book is for you.

The book is huge (686 pages not counting appendix or index pages) and contains no fluff anywhere, pure information on User Account management, installation & configuration, DNS, Apache, NFS and other "basic" services, shell scripting, building RPMs, hell... everything from Apache to Zeus is in here.

The topics are well presented, no glossing over things just to say they are included, but rather indepth and compotent coverage of each area. My only gripe is that it is a bit too RedHat (and RH Clone) centric. Not enough coverage of my personal favorite Distro (Debian). Other than that one small personal dig, this is a great book, and sits on my desk next to about 4 other books I use daily.

I want to congratulate the author, Dee-Ann has done a great job compiling and melding alot of different and obtuse information and presenting it in a means that is easy to follow, understand, and most importantly, FIND what you are looking for.

I cannot say it enough, if you run Linux, this book is for you.