Best books about Novell Suse

Suse is a challenger to Red Hat dominance in enterprise space. SLES 10 SP1 actually is a pretty stable version, in some ways preferable to RHEL 4.x.  It has better support of Xen and better integration with Microsoft Active Directory.

OpenSuse 10.3 comes with two year support and that means patches. The number books devoted to Suse are small but there are some reasonably good titles that can help. Of course much depends on your experience and needs. 

Reviews

[Oct 18, 2007]  openSUSE Linux Unleashed

by Michael McCallister

• Paperback: 744 pages
• Publisher: Sams; 1 edition (November 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 067232945X
• ISBN-13: 978-0672329456

This is actually a new edition of SUSE Linux 10.0 Unleashed  older book by the same author.

[Sep 1, 2007]  SUSE Linux 10.0 Unleashed

by Michael McCallister

• Paperback: 672 pages
• Publisher: Sams; Pap/Dvdr edition (November 16, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0672327260
• ISBN-13: 978-0672327261
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.9 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: based on 11 reviews. (Write a review.)

Need intermediate Linux skills immediately? Here u go, January 17, 2006 By Yoshiro Aoki "yoshiro (mark) aoki" (usa) - See all my reviews     "SuSE Linux 10 Unleashed" is a clearly written book that allows for plowing at the speed of light through it, though with some bumps along the way. There are many references throughout regarding the book's CDs, but there are no CDs. It's a single DVD. There are thus examples of inconsistencies (and prior editions) here and there. And some software mentioned in the text must be loaded from the DVD first, so be aware. Chapter 14 (Creating Websites) would have been better after chapter 26 (Managing Apache). Resizing partitions (in ch.18) is in theory correct but in practice a bit lacking. In fact, attempting to shrink a reiserfs will toss a warning your way explaining that partition shrinking is not well tested. The book did not catch this, and overall glossed the partitioning subject over a bit. Also, the Apache server installation (ch.26) would have better advised users to obtain the package from YaST -> Network Services -> HTTP Server rather than going the Software Management route. Otherwise, readers might not pick up BIND (as I saw it in my experiments, anyway). The book touches on a very wide range of technologies, so the coverage of a specific piece may be on the light side (Samba, for example, is but a page), but thankfully, this is not always the case. 4 stars.

Disappointing, July 29, 2006 By David F. Douthitt "ssrat4" (Beloit, WI United States) - See all my reviews     The book appears as if it tries to cover too much too quickly, and as if it was released in haste. There are conceptual errors as well as factual errors. Many products are never mentioned - such as AutoYaST (the auto-install tool). The "versions" of SUSE listed in the Appendix only lists the various current releases, without mentioning OpenSUSE (which is mentioned elsewhere). The description of SUSE Linux 10 in that appendix reads like a marketing piece. SUSE Linux 9, 8... are never mentioned. PostgreSQL is mentioned as an industrial strength database contained in SUSE Linux in the beginning - and is never mentioned again, despite a complete chapter dedicated to "Databases" (should be renamed "Using MySQL" instead...) The description of the C shell makes arbitrary (and incorrect) comparisons between "interactive" shells and "scripting" shells - the focus of the C shell was to bring C-like syntax and operations to the shell script, and to introduce new concepts like history and command-line editing to the interactive shell. The comment is made that C shell is not for scripting - with no facts to back it up. The Korn Shell is mentioned, without mentioning that the Korn Shell is now open source. pdksh is discussed very briefly, without noting that its goal was to be completely compliant with ksh88 - and without mentioning that pdksh is *not* on the DVD included in the book. In the section on emulators, Xen is mentioned - without mentioning that it no longer requires changes to the guest operating system. Basilisk II is mentioned as a 68k Macintosh emulator - without mentioning that the newest Macintoshes use a PowerPC processor (and now the Intel processor). It is, however, mentioned that Mac OS X is being put onto Basilisk - but I suspect that a 68k version of Mac OS X might be a real surprise to a lot of people. PearPC is never mentioned - and neither is User Mode Linux, which just happens to be in the Linux kernel. The knowledge of ext2 v. ext3 seems to be spotty - or at least explained erroneously. ext3 does not "read" ext2 files - ext3 *is* ext2 with an additional journaling file. It is possible to convert ext2 to ext3 - and even possible to convert from ext3 to ext2 (with loss of journaling) - with no loss of data. Some of the web editors (such as Bluefish) are described as "anti-WYSIWG" - which is not the case at all. The Linux kernel is described as "once monolithic [...] but now uses modules" - which is completely incorrect. The Linux kernel remains monolithic to this day; a modular kernel is not the opposite of a monolithic kernel. For those who are interested, read up on microkernels v. monolithic kernels... The author mentions the -ac (Alan Cox) kernel patches - without mentioning the -mm patches, the -dj patches, and without mentioning Andrew Morton anywhere (that I saw). He also does not mention that applying any -ac patches to a SUSE kernel would likely fail (since all distributors such as Novell have tuned and patched their kernels themselves). There is also no mention anywhere of the SUSE PowerPC version, or the SUSE IBM zSeries version, or any other - none at all. The author's credentials, when checked, do not list him as a system administrator, help desk administrator, professional engineer, Novell technical employee, certified CLP or CLE (Novell's certifications), or anything like that. Instead it lists him as a technical writer who's used SUSE Linux since 5.3. All in all, the book was a disappointment - even if it did contain some decent information. Borrow the book if you like - you might learn something - then give it back and be thankful you didn't buy it.

[Sep 20, 2006]  Linux Network Administrator's Guide Books Terry Dawson,Gregor N Purdy,Tony Bautts

• Paperback: 338 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 3 edition (February 8, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0596005482
• Average customer review: based on 5 reviews.

Automating UNIX and Linux Administration (The Expert's Voice)

by Kirk Bauer

• Paperback: 600 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.22 x 9.20 x 7.02
• Publisher: APRS; 1 edition (September 1, 2003)
• ISBN: 1590592123
   
• Average Customer Review: Based on 5 reviews.
   
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: 22,795
   

Average tech book for the Linux crowd - not Unix crowd, May 17, 2004
If what you want is a bok that's a cross platform as the title suggests, this might not be a book worth buying. Examples in this book make horrible assumptions, along the lines of removing all native commands and replacing them with GNU commands. In a Linux only environment, this may not be a problem. In many other environments where enterprise level support isn't a concern, this may also be acceptable. But the place where automation is needed the most is the larget enterprise production environments. While ideas and basic tennets outlined in this book are what you ultimately need, the scope of the examples have problems scaling beyond 20-100 systems, let alone 5,000+. As for the basic tennets, you can cheat and be reminded what they are: common configurations, keep good documentation as to the differences, and manage systems, in a secure manner, in a common fashion that relies on the common configuration and documented differences.

The errors and ommissions in this book should be easily caught by any technical senior administrator of the OSes in question. For me, that's Solaris and Linux.

For a Linux only environment, it is a solid book. The writing style is drier than most of the manuals I read from various Unix/Linux vendors, and truly is the first tech publication since I supported PBX systems to put me to sleep.

As for the "subjective" analysis of various tools to assist in automation, I was highly disappointed. On various occasions, only 2 or 3 tools were discussed in an attempt to make the assesments fair. In each case, I came up with twice as many tools that I use on a regular basis, that were also F/OSS (as was usually the criteria the author used to talk about a product) that perform similar, if not identical, tasks much better. And those tools aren't that new: most predate the tools he refers to. Plus, most Linux distributions come with them installed and configured by default!

Since all I got out of the book were the above tennets that I already have known for the past 10+ years, I was VERY disappointed. Just make sure you know who you're letting borrow your copy, and what is expected that they'll take away, otherwise you'll end up with junior admins scripting their way into destroying your enterprise.
 

**** Building Secure Servers with Linux

by Michael D. Bauer

• Paperback: 464 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.12 x 9.18 x 7.00
• Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates; 1st Edition edition (November 2002)
• ISBN: 0596002173

This a useful book. not fluff that s usually sold as security books.

???? Linux System Administration (Linux Library)

by Vicki Stanfield, Vicki Stanfield, Roderick Smith, Roderick W. Smith

• Used & new from $22.85
• Paperback: 608 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.52 x 8.96 x 7.50
• Publisher: Sybex; ; 1st edition (February 15, 2001)
• ISBN: 0782127355
• Average Customer Review: Based on 14 reviews. Write a review.
   
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: 32,868

A honest book for Linux primers, April 15, 2002     Reviewer: A reader from Milano, MI Italy This is a honest book for a Linux primer. It is simple and clear, but with some strange holes (p.e. nothing on ext2 fs attributes, or FTP). There are also several errors (typos or similar) in the examples and figures that I would like to be removed in a next edition.

Solid Book, December 20, 2001
 

Reviewer: A reader from Montgomery, AL United States

Great book to get you started with Linux Admin. Covers many issues a sys admin is expected to know. However it doesn't cover ftp. It just mentions it.

It has a pretty good chapter on Sendmail.

To get your server up and running I would recommend Kabir's RedHat book.

Stanfield's book will help you mantain the server.

Don't miss the all new Linux Administration Handbook ISBN 0-13-008466-2.

True Linux System Administration, June 22, 2001
 

Reviewer: A reader from silver spring, MD United States

One of my Unix lab professors once said that Unix was so vast that one lifetime is not enough to really get to master all aspects of it. After reading several Unix/Linux books, this operating system still remained somewhat of a mystery.

Thanks to the authors of this book, I can really say that I'm well on my way to a decent level of proficiency. No question, this book is of the highest quality. The material is presented and explained in such a way, you get a sense that the authors truly possess a profound understanding of the SA and Linux fields. The book tries to be distribution neutral by covering Redhat linux (vesion 6 to 7) and dishing out to other distributions (especially Debian) when things are done differently.

Unlike other books that are recipe oriented or adaptations of technical documents, this is a true SA book because it helps you gain control of your Linux system.
 

Brings the beginners to the next level..., September 30, 2002
 

Reviewer: john_patrick_hoke (see more about me) from Floral Park, NY United States

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 :)

Well Written and Current, June 20, 2002
 

Reviewer: Alex Valentine (see more about me) from State College, PA United States

Linux System Administration does a great job of covering a vast amount of Linux topics with just the right amount of detail for most users. This book appeals to a wide variety of readers, it is written in way that doesn't scare off newbies, but manages to have enough meat for experienced Linux users. The great thing about this book is it spends a fair amount of time explaining how to do things on a variety of distros.

Parts of the book that stand out in my mind are the chapters dealing with kernel recompilation, scripting and security. The kernel recompilation chapter is by far the best material I've seen on the subject to date, it almost makes kernel recompilation sound too easy. The security chapter is good starting point for sysadmins that are new to Linux. The book also provides a nice little introduction to scripting, although if your going to be a Linux sysadmin, the Orielly books on bash and perl are a must.

There were very few things that I didn't like about this book. One thing that stands out in my mind is the author's insistence on using paper journal books for logging system changes. With the proper backup procedures in place, a web based system log is a much more efficient way of keeping tracking of changes. Overall, the book is must read for anyone new to Linux and is also a good pickup for seasoned Linux users. I've been recommending this book over Running Linux as of late, since the Oreilly offering is showing its age.

??? Linux Administration Handbook

Evi Nemeth, Garth Snyder, Trent R. Hein, Adam Boggs (Contributor)
Used & new from $32.00

• Paperback: 890 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.35 x 9.20 x 7.00
• Publisher: Prentice Hall; ; 1st edition (March 25, 2002)
• ISBN: 0130084662
• Average Customer Review: Based on 9 reviews. Write a review.
   
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: 4,137

Evi Nemeth is now retired and I doubt that she understands problems of Linux administration in depth. She ended her career on classical Unixes. Looks like overrated and overpriced general sysadmin book. Might be useful from the point of view of general philosophy of administration. 

for admins, not your mom, December 4, 2002
 Reviewer: Kip Perkins (see more about me) from Old Hickory, TN United States

I picked up this book because I have used the 2nd and 3rd editions of UNIX Administration Handbook for years. This book is easy to read and provides some entertainment with the authors' insight into Linux administration.

As with it's brother the UAH, this book follows the same format but IS updated to reflect the Linux specifics. I picked it up also because it covers RH 7.2 and the UAH only covered 6.2.

This book is a must for people who admin linux servers for large corporations, small businesses, or simply are running their own mail/dns/web server from their DSL connection at home.

If you are looking for a book that gets you setup on KDE or GNOME, this is not the book. If you want to learn and use the power of a networked Linux server, this is for you.

I have worked with UNIX for 6 years, Linux for 5 and recommend this book to anyone who will admin it.

Beginning SUSE Linux: From Novice to Professional, Second Edition (Beginning: from Novice to Professional) (Paperback)

by Keir Thomas

• Paperback: 728 pages
• Publisher: Apress; 2 edition (November 10, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590596749
• ISBN-13: 978-1590596746

Beginning SUSE Linux, Second Edition - table of contents

2:50 AM PST, November 20, 2006

Here's the table of contents for Beginning SUSE Linux, Second Edition:

PART I - Introducing the World of Linux
CHAPTER 1 - Welcome!
CHAPTER 2 - A History and Politics Lesson
CHAPTER 3 - The Realities of Running Linux

PART II    Installing SUSE Linux
CHAPTER 4 - Preinstallation Steps
CHAPTER 5 - Installing SUSE Linux
CHAPTER 6 - Solving Installation Problems

PART III    The No-Nonsense Getting Started Guide
CHAPTER 7 - Booting Linux for the First Time
CHAPTER 8 - Getting Everything Up and Running
CHAPTER 9 - How to Secure Your Computer
CHAPTER 10 - Personalizing SUSE Linux: Getting Everything Just Right
CHAPTER 11 - SUSE Linux Replacements for Windows Programs
CHAPTER 12 - Managing Your Files

PART IV    The Shell and Beyond
CHAPTER 13 - Introducing the BASH Shell
CHAPTER 14 - Understanding Linux Files and Users
CHAPTER 15 - Working with Text Files
CHAPTER 16 - Taking Control of the System
CHAPTER 17 - Cool Shell Tricks

PART V    Multimedia
CHAPTER 18 - Digital Music
CHAPTER 19 - Movies and Multimedia
CHAPTER 20 - Image Editing

PART VI    Office Tasks
CHAPTER 21 - Making the Move to OpenOffice.org
CHAPTER 22 - OpenOffice.org Overview
CHAPTER 23 - In Depth: Writer
CHAPTER 24 - In Depth: Calc
CHAPTER 25 - In Depth: Impress
CHAPTER 26 - In Depth: Base
CHAPTER 27 - In Depth: Evolution
CHAPTER 28 - Running Microsoft Office Under SUSE Linux

PART VII    Keeping Your System Running
CHAPTER 29 - Installing and Removing Software
CHAPTER 30 - Managing Users
CHAPTER 31 - Optimizing Your System
CHAPTER 32 - Backing Up Data
CHAPTER 33 - Scheduling Tasks
CHAPTER 34 - Accessing Computers Remotely

APPENDIX A - Glossary of Linux Terms
APPENDIX B - BASH Command Index
APPENDIX C - Getting Further Help

The Definitive Guide to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (Definitive Guide) Books

• Hardcover: 720 pages
• Publisher: Apress (December 11, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590597087
• ISBN-13: 978-1590597088
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.1 x 1.6 inches

Advanced SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Administration (Course 3038)

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Administration (Course 3037)

Etc

Society

Groupthink : Two Party System as Polyarchy : Corruption of Regulators : Bureaucracies : Understanding Micromanagers and Control Freaks : Toxic Managers :   Harvard Mafia : Diplomatic Communication : Surviving a Bad Performance Review : Insufficient Retirement Funds as Immanent Problem of Neoliberal Regime : PseudoScience : Who Rules America : Neoliberalism  : The Iron Law of Oligarchy : Libertarian Philosophy

Quotes

War and Peace : Skeptical Finance : John Kenneth Galbraith :Talleyrand : Oscar Wilde : Otto Von Bismarck : Keynes : George Carlin : Skeptics : Propaganda  : SE quotes : Language Design and Programming Quotes : Random IT-related quotes :  Somerset Maugham : Marcus Aurelius : Kurt Vonnegut : Eric Hoffer : Winston Churchill : Napoleon Bonaparte : Ambrose Bierce :  Bernard Shaw : Mark Twain Quotes

Bulletin:

Vol 25, No.12 (December, 2013) Rational Fools vs. Efficient Crooks The efficient markets hypothesis : Political Skeptic Bulletin, 2013 : Unemployment Bulletin, 2010 :  Vol 23, No.10 (October, 2011) An observation about corporate security departments : Slightly Skeptical Euromaydan Chronicles, June 2014 : Greenspan legacy bulletin, 2008 : Vol 25, No.10 (October, 2013) Cryptolocker Trojan (Win32/Crilock.A) : Vol 25, No.08 (August, 2013) Cloud providers as intelligence collection hubs : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2010 : Inequality Bulletin, 2009 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2008 : Copyleft Problems Bulletin, 2004 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2011 : Energy Bulletin, 2010 : Malware Protection Bulletin, 2010 : Vol 26, No.1 (January, 2013) Object-Oriented Cult : Political Skeptic Bulletin, 2011 : Vol 23, No.11 (November, 2011) Softpanorama classification of sysadmin horror stories : Vol 25, No.05 (May, 2013) Corporate bullshit as a communication method  : Vol 25, No.06 (June, 2013) A Note on the Relationship of Brooks Law and Conway Law

History:

Fifty glorious years (1950-2000): the triumph of the US computer engineering : Donald Knuth : TAoCP and its Influence of Computer Science : Richard Stallman : Linus Torvalds  : Larry Wall  : John K. Ousterhout : CTSS : Multix OS Unix History : Unix shell history : VI editor : History of pipes concept : Solaris : MS DOS :  Programming Languages History : PL/1 : Simula 67 : C : History of GCC development :  Scripting Languages : Perl history   : OS History : Mail : DNS : SSH : CPU Instruction Sets : SPARC systems 1987-2006 : Norton Commander : Norton Utilities : Norton Ghost : Frontpage history : Malware Defense History : GNU Screen : OSS early history

Classic books:

The Peter Principle : Parkinson Law : 1984 : The Mythical Man-Month :  How to Solve It by George Polya : The Art of Computer Programming : The Elements of Programming Style : The Unix Hater’s Handbook : The Jargon file : The True Believer : Programming Pearls : The Good Soldier Svejk : The Power Elite

Most popular humor pages:

Manifest of the Softpanorama IT Slacker Society : Ten Commandments of the IT Slackers Society : Computer Humor Collection : BSD Logo Story : The Cuckoo's Egg : IT Slang : C++ Humor : ARE YOU A BBS ADDICT? : The Perl Purity Test : Object oriented programmers of all nations : Financial Humor : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2008 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2010 : The Most Comprehensive Collection of Editor-related Humor : Programming Language Humor : Goldman Sachs related humor : Greenspan humor : C Humor : Scripting Humor : Real Programmers Humor : Web Humor : GPL-related Humor : OFM Humor : Politically Incorrect Humor : IDS Humor : "Linux Sucks" Humor : Russian Musical Humor : Best Russian Programmer Humor : Microsoft plans to buy Catholic Church : Richard Stallman Related Humor : Admin Humor : Perl-related Humor : Linus Torvalds Related humor : PseudoScience Related Humor : Networking Humor : Shell Humor : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2011 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2012 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2013 : Java Humor : Software Engineering Humor : Sun Solaris Related Humor : Education Humor : IBM Humor : Assembler-related Humor : VIM Humor : Computer Viruses Humor : Bright tomorrow is rescheduled to a day after tomorrow : Classic Computer Humor

The Last but not Least Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage and those who manage what they do not understand ~Archibald Putt. Ph.D

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Last modified: March 12, 2019