15 Chapters and 4 Appendices and Index in 653 Pages.

Contents

Chapters
 

        1    Linux in the Enterprise
        2    Integrating Windows and Linux using Samba
        3    Case Study: a Linux Workgroup Server
        4    Linux, The Internet, and Free Software
        5    Deploying Web and FTP Servers
        6    Building a Data-Driven Web Site:  E-commerce with Linux
        7    Using Database Applications with Linux
        8    Using Directory Services and LDAP
        9    Linux as an Internet Gateway
        10  Configuring Linux as a Firewall and Proxy
        11  Cryptography and the Linux Connection
        12  Distributed Systems in the Linux Environment
        13  Implementing Distributed Systems
        14  EntireX - DCOM on Linux
        15  Case Study:  Migrating to Linux

Appendices

        A  Linux 101
        B  Linux Commands and Utilities
        C  System Administration
        D  Support and Errata
 

Synopsis

If you have reached that point where you have made up your mind that you wish to deploy Linux within your organisation then this book is for you.  Most of the problems are discussed and anything that you might not have thought of will be revealed.   The whole publication was written by an international committee of programmers and IT experts so you can see that it has all of the thoroughly professional features that Wrox Press books are known for.  
 

Review

Most of the things that you might want to know about the deployment of Linux are here for the reader to absorb and reflect on.  The first chapter is very good for those people who so far haven't seen or used anything but MS Windows.  A short 29 page tour of GNU/Linux is given and all of the legal and technical stuff that you might have reason to argue with are shown to be credible and (in fact) more flexible and reliable than any other manufacturers software.  The next part goes on to settle your complaint about MS Windows not working with Unix systems on a network.  The Samba network file server is explained, SWAT and smb.conf configuration are made particularly easy to understand with the use of graphics and sample config files.  Next stop is the workgroup server.  File and print sharing and setting up a fax server.

The internet is run by Open Source software.  To quite a few people this is a well known fact.  Other folk just don't seem to know.  Either way it's a fact that Apache is the most widely used internet server software.  One interesting comment made here is how can the use of software that is produced in this way pay the programmers who produce it.  We are referred to The Magic Cauldron by Eric S. Raymond.  For more information see......   http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/writings/magic-cauldron/magic-cauldron.html       Further discussion is all about TCP/IP,  Firewalls and Proxies and Web Application Servers.  One of the more useful but general chapters is about the deployment of Web and FTP servers and later on a chapter about a data driven web site and e-commerce with Linux. This is a refreshing change from some of the other stuff that has been seen on the internet and was to do with Linux.  For more info see....  http://www.trainingpages.co.uk

Databases provide quite a bit of time in the working day for most IT people.  So, you aren't one of them ?  Well, you are extremely lucky aren't you :-)  There are many other books about databases which should be refereed to after reading the chapter about them.  The reference to them here is general and it does give some valuable pointers.  MySQL, PostgreSQL and Oracle are mentioned and an introduction is given.  There are also example config files.

LDAP isn't the sort of thing that you find lying around on a shelf and the comprehensive chapter on LDAP and directory services is something of a bonus.   Setting up an internet gateway isn't something that isn't generally known about either and the firewall and proxy chapter at page 273 gives a good introduction to packet logging and useful firewall tools.  Coupled with this the section on cryptography gives a complete listing of what can be done with security options.  The GNU Privacy Guard is also mentioned and explained.

Distributed systems are gone into in some detail over 100 pages of text which of course gives you the full explanation of what's what.  Finally at chapter 15 a case study is shown so that you can understand that what has gone before isn't just some kind of black magic or fairy story.

If you want to get on with it then you may well find this book to be one of the useful tools that you should have bought before you started on the implementation of Linux on your network ?  If nothing else it's well worth reading for the informed comment alone.
 
 

Review by Richard Ibbotson