Rating: 
Summary: A MUST have for NT/Win2k Network Admins
Review: Are you tired of Linux books written for former Unix admins? Or ones that constantly knock Microsoft products? (hey, we may not LOVE Microsoft but we usually have to LIVE with it's products). Are you an experienced NT/Win2k Admin? Then this book is a MUST have for your collection.Mark (along with Dan York) attacks Linux from an NT/Win2k point-of-view. As a NT/Win2k admin, I KNOW Win2k/NT file permissions...what makes Linux file permissions different? I KNOW how to set up a DNS/DHCP server in NT/Win2k...how do I set up a LINUX DHCP/DNS server? What makes a Linux web server different from IIS in NT/W2k? Mark/Dan do NOT waste your time re-explaining concepts we already know. Instead, they explain how to do the same stuff we've been doing for years in NT/Win2k in Linux. Even if you're not running any Linux in your present environment, you probably will some day. I highly recommend this book!!
Rating:
Summary: He produces yet another invaluable masterpiece
Review: i barely knew how to spell linux and last night after browsing through this book i set up both a web and dns box. these men are serious about relaying the "how-to's" about difficult technology to the common man and they are absolute masters at it. hands down this book is exactly what it says it is. a linux book for windows administrators. it will show you how to tightly integrate linux into a windows network in several different ways. the thing that i learned early on about linux is that there is usually more than one way to do something and that is what i loved about this book. it shows many different ways to do the same thing so when you get stuck doing something one way, they say, "ok then, we'll try it this way. i have looked at all, and i do mean all of the books available on linux and there is absolutley no comparison. this includes the oreilly collection which we all know are some of the finest books on the market. girls/guys....do you want to save yourselves a ton of money in licensing costs and integrate this powerful little beast into your lan? stop reading this review and go buy this book. you will not need anything else. going through this book is the most usefull fun that i have had since getting into IT. keep em' coming mark! you are the absolute king of the tech writing world!!
Rating:
Summary: An EXCELLENT Quick-Start Guide to Linux for Windows Admins
Review: I have been a Windows Administrator for over 8 years, and I have been installing Linux for test purposes since 1996. The trouble was that once I got Linux installed, I never could do anything with it, it was just too frustruating to use. Using this book as a guide, I managed to set up a fully functional Linux test server in about 1 week of free time (and with three kids, two under the age of two, there is not that much free time to be had). This book quickly walks you through the similarities and differences of Linux and Windows, and does not spend ANY time with redundant subjects like "What is a network," "What is TCP/IP," etc. like a lot of other books tend to do. Mark is very good about pointing you to other resources so that you can go further on any given subject if you want. I HIGHLY recommend this book to anyone interested in Linux, especially if you already have some sort of Windows background. On the same subject, I recommend all of Mark's books, as I feel that they are some of the best resources to be had for the area that they cover.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best Linux books I've read
Review: I haven't had a chance to pick up this 2nd Edition yet, but the first edition blew my mind. I'm already a big fan of Minasi and was worried that he might take a negative approach toward Linux considering the fact that he is probably THE authority on Windows networking. To the contrary, he is extrememly honest in telling you when it is best to use Windows and when it is best to use Linux. It is one of the only "cross-over" books out there and it was unbelievably helpful in my quest to learn Linux. My problem with Linux books is was that I either had to buy something in the area of "Linux for Dummies" or an O'Reilly book that, while it was high quality, assumed that I already had 5 or 6 years of Linux/Unix experience. If you already know Windows NT/2000 and are looking to learn Linux, there is no better book out there. As a companion to this book, I would also recommend "Linux for Windows Addicts" by Miller. Minasi's book is great for the server administrator and focuses mainly on the command line. "Linux for Windows Addicts" takes more of a GUI approach and is more useful toward using Linux for desktop systems.
Rating: 
Summary: Good introductions for a Windows Admin
Review: I know most of the people reviewing this book gave it glowing reviews but I just wasn't won over by it. I had high hopes as I am quite familiar with Minasi's writings and I've been curious about Linux for some time now. So I was hoping this book would really help me launch my Linux understanding.
The book does some things really well. For instance, Minasi repeatedly draws parallels between the Windows and Linux world to help the reader understand the Linux concepts. This is often effective.
My biggest gripe is I think the book is overly biased. I found that throughout the book Minasi was moaning about how hard it was to perform certain functions or how arcane the Linux lingo was. After a while, it just got tiring. I didn't buy the book for his opinion on whether the OS was good or not; I simply wanted to learn about Linux from a perspective that was intuitive to me.
I give him credit for trying. It's probably the best book on the market for a Windows Admin who doesn't have any Linux experience. But the best on the market does not necessarily make for a good book.
Ultimately I felt like Minasi was trying to say, "Linux is a novelty. If you have the time, check it out; but it's really not worth your time." This got annoying after a while.
I'm looking for another book now.
Rating:
Summary: Worth the money for NT Admins trying to use Linux
Review: I've read through a good portion of this book and it's been great so far. Mark Minasi's writing style is easy and pleasant to read. He doesn't treat you like you know nothing about computers, but gives everything in terms that are familiar to NT admins. The book progresses well through installing Linux, running command-line programs, then on to the GUI programs. He goes into reasonable detail on basic "services" in Linux - how to install, configure, basic troubleshooting. Obviously, this isn't an in-depth Linux book, but it's a great start for NT admins like me. This book does concentrate on the Red Hat distribution as that's what seems to be common in the business environment. He mentions other distributions along the way, but focuses on Red Hat for his examples. What I really liked was the way he writes on the strengths or weaknesses of one system versus another. If NT shines in one area, he tells you why he thinks it shines. If Linux shines in an area, he'll tell you why it's great. He does the same for areas that aren't so great as well. All in all, a great book for NT Users/Admins who know NT well and want to start using Linux. Written in an easy-to-read format without diminishing the amount of information or dumbing down the material. Only wish that there were more books like this on Linux.
Rating:
Summary: Worth the money for NT Admins trying to use Linux
Review: I've read through a good portion of this book and it's been great so far. Mark Minasi's writing style is easy and pleasant to read. He doesn't treat you like you know nothing about computers, but gives everything in terms that are familiar to NT admins. The book progresses well through installing Linux, running command-line programs, then on to the GUI programs. He goes into reasonable detail on basic "services" in Linux - how to install, configure, basic troubleshooting. Obviously, this isn't an in-depth Linux book, but it's a great start for NT admins like me. This book does concentrate on the Red Hat distribution as that's what seems to be common in the business environment. He mentions other distributions along the way, but focuses on Red Hat for his examples. What I really liked was the way he writes on the strengths or weaknesses of one system versus another. If NT shines in one area, he tells you why he thinks it shines. If Linux shines in an area, he'll tell you why it's great. He does the same for areas that aren't so great as well. All in all, a great book for NT Users/Admins who know NT well and want to start using Linux. Written in an easy-to-read format without diminishing the amount of information or dumbing down the material. Only wish that there were more books like this on Linux.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant Book
Review: If you are interested in learning Linux and already familiar with Windows this book is great. It gives you a balanced non-biased views of what Linux can and can't do in comparison to Windows.
It also saves you a lot of time by explaining Linux to someone who already understands Windows - This book skips all the generals that apply to Windows and Linus and gets down to what you really know!
Rating:
Summary: Good, Not Great
Review: Most people reviewing this book either love it or hate it. I won't go to quite that extreme, but I do have to say that the book missed the mark in a number of areas. While it is most certainly a matter of editorial discretion, the author seems to have a habit of giving some subjects hardly any mention at all, while providing us with pages of agonizing details on other subjects that most readers will simply want to skip over. Probably the biggest lost opportunity in this book is the author's one sentence devoted to Webmin, which is unquestionably the single most useful tool for Windows admins transitioning over to Linux. There are entire books devoted to Webmin that will have most Windows admins running a Linux server in no time, and without having to learn any of the exhaustive command line skills that the author recommends. For those who DO want to learn Linux from the inside out, there is an amazing lack of depth when it comes to basic command line skills. This book would have been immeasurably more useful if it devoted a chapter (or appendix) to explaining some of the more useful commands. I learned more about grep than I ever wanted to know, but there are dozens of just as useful commands that the author never touched upon. So, if you want to learn the most basic command line skills, you are going to need to buy another book. As some of the other reviewers mentioned, the author comes off as being a bit snobbish when it comes to Linux; quick to complain, slow to compliment. I would rather have had the author use the space reserved for complaints and grumblings with some useful information. It does get a bit old after awhile. That being said, the author does do a good job of keeping your attention and moves from chapter to chapter in a very logical manner. Unlike many Linux books, the chapters in this book do not seem thrown together at random. It's a book that you will most likely want to read from cover to cover, instead of just using as a reference. Despite the author's occasional whining, I really enjoyed the book's flow and progression through various topics. The book must have been very up-to-date at the time, but is starting to show its age. The author bases all of his experience with RedHat, who is now dropping out of the "consumer" market, and only offering a very expensive server version now. Thus, RedHat is not the Linux distribution that most of you will want to start off with. All in all, the book was well worth reading, despite its age and shortcomings. This would be a good first book for you to read if you are a Windows admin trying to learn Linux, but you will definitely need other books on the subject before even considering deploying a Linux server on your network.
Rating:
Summary: Skip first three or four chapters
Review: Skip the first three chapters, 37 pages, you'll miss nothing except some bad info about Windows 2000. If you can use Partition Magic to prepare your disk for installation and the nic was identified during setup, skip Chapter 4 and start at page 101. If you can make up your own mind on where to use Linux or NT (the author didn't understand 2000 Dir. Svcs. yet so he only compared Linux to NT), skip Chapter 10 and stop at page 471. That leaves 370 pages of Linux info. provided by the co-authors. Browsing through these chapters, X seems to be an important feature. That matches with my limited understanding. Lots of important topics are mentioned but none covered very deeply. The comparisons with Windows technology weren't that important or were just uninformed (DNS comparisons ignored services) and most features, RPM for instance, don't benefit from a Windows perspective. Too bad they wasted 200 pages on fluff. That's why it gets a three. Don't pay retail for this book, it is already dated material and should be heavily discounted. As an MCSE Network Admin on NT & 2000, I saw 2000 and Server 2003 leave NT in the dust along with Linux. Directory Services and group policies are vital to distribution and central management. Linux has only SNMP so far. Soon Linux will be ready for [self-installing on] client desktops which may be it's future. Directory-based services and integrated business software (Exchange, CRM) will run on proprietary server OS's from IBM, Windows, and maybe Oracle OS in the future. Clients will stream XML of secure managed code from these servers and back via open protocols. JIT compilers and local code libraries will assemble client executables that use remote web services and data. Admins: read about web services and Mono on Linux.
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