Rating: 
Summary: Simply awesome.
Review: It's a book recommended by the head of OpenBSD dev team. Period. It took me about 15 minutes to install OpenBSD. Great book.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Contribution
Review: Michael Lucas has provided some of the most useful documentation to the BSD family that's available. From his OnLamp columns to his two No Starch Press BSD books, he's given both new and experienced BSD users some great material.Absolute OpenBSD follows the tradition. This is not a reprint or rewording of the online OpenBSD documentation available. It's like doing a walk-through of an OpenBSD install and configuration with an experienced sysadmin who speaks plain-talk, makes jokes that aren't corny (well, sometimes at least <g>) and gets to the point. If you're interested in the OpenBSD world, or have a bit of a history with OpenBSD but want to fill in the gaps, or just further your understanding of this awesome operating system, buy this book.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Contribution
Review: Michael Lucas has provided some of the most useful documentation to the BSD family that's available. From his OnLamp columns to his two No Starch Press BSD books, he's given both new and experienced BSD users some great material. Absolute OpenBSD follows the tradition. This is not a reprint or rewording of the online OpenBSD documentation available. It's like doing a walk-through of an OpenBSD install and configuration with an experienced sysadmin who speaks plain-talk, makes jokes that aren't corny (well, sometimes at least ) and gets to the point.If you're interested in the OpenBSD world, or have a bit of a history with OpenBSD but want to fill in the gaps, or just further your understanding of this awesome operating system, buy this book.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book on an Excellent OS
Review: Mike Lucas has prepared a great book on OpenBSD. I'm writing from a user's perspective who has been following and working with OpenBSD for about three years. To my knowledge, this is the first book on OpenBSD. One of the best features of the book is that, in my opinion, the author fairly presents the nature of the OpenBSD project at the beginning of the book. You don't get any hand holding with OpenBSD, but if you are willing to do your homework, research existing documentation, etc., and work with the system you can obtain significant benefit from OpenBSD. You have to know some Unix basics to use the OS and gain benefit from the book. The book is targeted somewhere between the moderately informed user and system administrators. The author covers installation for dedicated and multi-boot setups, essential post-install work, booting, and managing users. It reviews essential details regarding networking to bring user's up to speed and reviews Internet connections using Ethernet and ppp. There is significant detail on a wide variety of configurations and advaned security features such as security levels and systrace with discussion of WorX, Propolice. PF packet filter is coverd in detail along with example rules for three types topologies from home users to three tier models. There is significant material on building kernels, upgrading, the /etc file system, disk management, etc. for which OpenBSD has its own unique requirements and features. I think that the book is well paced and has a good balance between "here is what you need to know in detail" and "now you need to do some research on your own". It doesn't answer basic Unix or advanced sys admin questions (the far end of the spectrum), but hits the middle of the user / admin spectrum well. I'm very pleased with the content and presentation. Thanks to Mike Lucas and I hope he continues to write about 'BSD.
Rating:
Summary: Makes OpenBSD accessible to a moderately technical reader
Review: OpenBSD is lauded for its security features -- this is THE OS to use for serious firewalls or secure web servers and the like. However, it is small and obscure compared to the better known, more popular FreeBSD, and of course there are 10 Linux users for every 1 person who has even heard of OpenBSD. Until now, installing and using OpenBSD required reading numerous man pages and online FAQs and tutorials. OpenBSD's documentation is pretty good, but for the average person who just wants to try it out, it's an awful lot to wade through, with few navigational aids available. And the OpenBSD mailing lists are notoriously unforgiving of anyone who asks questions without having read every pertinent document first. "Absolute OpenBSD" is just what this OS needed to make it more accessible to a wider user base. It takes you step by step through installation, configuration, and implementation, and then covers a number of more advanced topics, including no less than three very comprehensive chapters devoted to pf, OpenBSD's own packet filtering program. (OpenBSD uses this instead of ipchains or iptables, which is what you will find on other BSDs or Linux.) It tells you what every service you might want to run (or not) is, and where they are found and how to configure them. It goes through the contents of OpenBSD's /etc directory, file by file. The author has a very straightforward yet humorous writing style, and he neither talks down to the reader nor assumes that you are a SysAdmin and networking god. He does assume that you have some familiarity with UNIX-style OSs and basic UNIX/Linux commands. It also helps if you know a little basic networking -- if you have never even configured your TCP/IP settings on your Linux or Windows box, then you may have a steeper learning curve ahead. If you are completely new to the *NIX world, then starting out with OpenBSD, even using this book as a guide, may be a little too much to take on before you've learned the basics. However, if you are coming from the Linux world, or are familiar with other BSDs (FreeBSD, NetBSD) or UNIX variants, then you will have no trouble learning OpenBSD from this book. If you're a Linux guy who's wondering what's so great about OpenBSD, or a sysadmin thinking of building an OpenBSD firewall, this is the book for you. OpenBSD is not and never will be accessible to the average casual computer user, but if you're not afraid of a command line and willing to learn more about the guts of an operating system, "Absolute OpenBSD" is a fine tutorial and reference guide. The emphasis in this book is on the OpenBSD operating system itself, and what makes it special and unique. There is very good coverage of OpenBSD's unique security features, and what differentiates it from other BSDs and Linux. If you just want to build a firewall, this book is all you need. If you want an introduction to OpenBSD, because you are thinking about using it for your server or workstation(s), this book will give you what you want. If you want to set up a server, this book will give you enough to get your OpenBSD machine set up and ready to be turned into one, but it does not cover setting up sendmail or DNS or Apache or DHCP or the like in great detail -- only what you need to know about setting those services up on OpenBSD. You'll need to go elsewhere for more detailed instructions on individual services. (If you already know how to set them up on another OS, though, then this book will tell you everything you need to know to get them running on OpenBSD.) This is absolutely an excellent guide to OpenBSD, and I found nothing that wasn't covered adequately. It allowed me to install and upgrade my own OpenBSD machine and build a custom firewall for my home network, and I was coming from the Linux world with only a small amount of networking experience. While more OpenBSD books would be nice, this is the one that all future books will be compared against.
Rating:
Summary: Another great BSD book from the guy who writes best about it
Review: Six months ago I was happy to read Michael Lucas' "Absolute BSD," and today I'm glad I read "Absolute OpenBSD." This author knows just what to cover, and to what detail. To test the book's relevance I bought an OpenBSD 3.3 CD-ROM set and installed it, following Lucas' directions. I tried many of the procedures in the book, and found Lucas' instructions to be accurate on the whole. (Right now I'm rebuilding a system to incorporate a security patch that needs certain static binaries to be recompiled from source.)
Lucas provides the background and skills needed to get a working OpenBSD system. Although some of the most basic UNIX-type material appears by necessity in both "Absolute" books (these are both BSDs!), Lucas knows where each OS' strength lies. In his FreeBSD book, he spends more time on general purpose server services. Web, FTP, email, DNS, etc. all get their own chapters. In this OpenBSD book, Lucas devotes multiple chapters to topics that matter most to OpenBSD users -- security and packet filtering. While lots of people run Web, etc. on OpenBSD platforms, OpenBSD offers unique features in its systrace system call access control and PF packet filtering tools. Beyond these OpenBSD strengths, Lucas gives plenty of coverage to the routine yet crucial system administration tasks of adding and removing applications, and upgrading and patching the OS itself.
On the downside, some have commented on "rough editing." While the book has some typos, I didn't find them all that distracting. Beware p. 344, though -- I think "tag=OPENBSD3_2" should read "tag=OPENBSD_3_2". (This is subtle but could be important.) I also found the description of network layers in ch 8 to be perplexing. Why talk about "application, logical protocol, physical protocol, and physical layer" when no one else does? I would also have liked to have read of OpenBSD's use as a bridging firewall or as a VPN concentrator.
The bottom line is this: Michael Lucas knows what to write to help system administrators get the job done. I wish other authors did the same. I'd love to see Lucas or another "No Starch" author write "Absolute Cisco Routers," followed by "Absolute Cisco Switches." Any takers?
Rating:
Summary: Another great BSD book from the guy who writes best about it
Review: Six months ago I was happy to read Michael Lucas' "Absolute BSD," and today I'm glad I read "Absolute OpenBSD." This author knows just what to cover, and to what detail. To test the book's relevance I bought an OpenBSD 3.3 CD-ROM set and installed it, following Lucas' directions. I tried many of the procedures in the book, and found Lucas' instructions to be accurate on the whole. (Right now I'm rebuilding a system to incorporate a security patch that needs certain static binaries to be recompiled from source.)
Lucas provides the background and skills needed to get a working OpenBSD system. Although some of the most basic UNIX-type material appears by necessity in both "Absolute" books (these are both BSDs!), Lucas knows where each OS' strength lies. In his FreeBSD book, he spends more time on general purpose server services. Web, FTP, email, DNS, etc. all get their own chapters. In this OpenBSD book, Lucas devotes multiple chapters to topics that matter most to OpenBSD users -- security and packet filtering. While lots of people run Web, etc. on OpenBSD platforms, OpenBSD offers unique features in its systrace system call access control and PF packet filtering tools. Beyond these OpenBSD strengths, Lucas gives plenty of coverage to the routine yet crucial system administration tasks of adding and removing applications, and upgrading and patching the OS itself.
On the downside, some have commented on "rough editing." While the book has some typos, I didn't find them all that distracting. Beware p. 344, though -- I think "tag=OPENBSD3_2" should read "tag=OPENBSD_3_2". (This is subtle but could be important.) I also found the description of network layers in ch 8 to be perplexing. Why talk about "application, logical protocol, physical protocol, and physical layer" when no one else does? I would also have liked to have read of OpenBSD's use as a bridging firewall or as a VPN concentrator.
The bottom line is this: Michael Lucas knows what to write to help system administrators get the job done. I wish other authors did the same. I'd love to see Lucas or another "No Starch" author write "Absolute Cisco Routers," followed by "Absolute Cisco Switches." Any takers?
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