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Rating: 
Summary: Nobody comes close. The 2nd Edition is THE book to read.
Review: I am a senior engineer for network security operations, and fairly new to Linux. I bought this 2nd edition of LA:ABG to gain familiarity with installing, configuring, and optimizing Red Hat Linux 7, specifically. Steve has written THE book for beginning Linux system administrators, and I heartily recommend it.LA:ABG never wavers from its primary goal: to give new sys admins the knowledge to build and maintain Linux services. The novelty of this "beginner's guide" is Steve's belief that "beginner" does not equal "GUI." Steve explains each service using its command line interface, since that may be the only available interface in an emergency. He also explains how to compile each software package from source, useful when one needs to upgrade or replace applications. I was surprised by the number of helpful commands and options packed into this 2nd edition. Even when I knew a command, Steve added a new twist; use ps -auxww vice ps -aux for process listings, or netstat -natup vice netstat -a for active sockets. I repeatedly wondered if Steve hadn't read my mind before writing LA:ABG, since most questions were answered seconds after I formed them. Steve also explains new aspects of the 2.4 kernel and Red Hat 7 (xinetd, iptables, etc.) that other so-called "Red Hat 7" books neglect. On the down side, the book had a few typos, and pages 527-8 seem to misinterpret TCPDump output. I would have liked more information on SSH, too. Be aware that the book is Red Hat-oriented, since it contains a "publisher's edition" of RH 7. Workarounds for other distros are given, and Steve even criticizes certain aspects of Red Hat's file structure! If you're new to Linux, and not the sort who buys "Dummies" books, definitely read LA:ABG, 2nd edition. It is the best introductory Linux book I've read, and is strong enough to satisfy novices and intermediate-level users. (Disclaimer: I received my review copy free from the publisher.)
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Summary: Excellent Coverage of Linux Administration
Review: I can't say enough about this book. First of all, I appreciate the fact that the author doesn't assume I'm an idiot. I especially appreciate that he uses the introduction of each chapter to not only cover how the subsystem works as a whole, but how it came to be the way it is. After reading this, I don't feel like the hows and whys of everything is so arbitrary and as a result, I've become a better troubleshooter. The author covers all of the major subsystems (printing, disks, etc.) in a very clear and organized manner. His writing style is fluid, personal, and makes me feel like he's along for the ride of getting everything configured with you. My favorite chapter is actually the networking chapter where the author goes into detail about how TCP/IP actually works from the point of view of a system administrator who has to troubleshoot networks as well as systems. As any sysadmin will tell you, if it's plugged into a wall, you're responsible for it. Anyway, if you want to learn how to be a system, buy this book.
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Summary: Awesome Beginner book for linux
Review: If your the type of person who handling Windows for a couple of years now and want to discover the infamous Linux great potential and save TCO of your company, then try read this book first and see for yourself =), it's awesome!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Great beginners guide.
Review: This book is a quick walk-through of lots of linux-networking topics. Because of this wide scope there's not much room for depth. You should buy other books for that, and Shah gives recoomendations in each chapter. It is also very readable! You should be able to get a pretty long way in setting up your own server with this book. But if things go wrong it isn't going to tell you what to do! (i.e. it tells you of ways the system can disable accounts because of disk quotum violations, but it doesn't tell you how to re-enable them afterwards...)
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Summary: Converting from NT to Linux? This is your book
Review: This book is a very solid introduction for those who know their way around computers and operating systems in general. It's good to find books that don't treat the user like complete weenies or books that go so techincally deep but speak of very little... This book as a lot of analogies between the Linux and NT world, including some pretty nice network blueprints showing how a NT network would be server-wise, compared to a Linux network. Overall this was a great intro level book. My highest recommendations to everyone.
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