Product: 1849694605

Well there was some, albeit practical, nonsense. The author insists that you should have a case for your Raspberry Pi - and I agree. Without one, you are very likely to short the thing out at some point and render it useless. So to that end there is a small section in the book that tells you how to make one. Out of paper. Sweet.

The preface clearly states that this book is not aimed at the casual hobbyist or those using the Raspberry Pi as the learning tool that it was intended as. Instead, it is declared that the information contained within is for anyone that wants to utilize the capabilities of the Raspberry Pi for purposes that are more utilitarian in nature. This basically means that you are going to be learning about Linux server functionality and system administration from a practical standpoint, and this book selectively delivers on that promise. In any case, while you may not learn much specific to the Raspberry Pi, the device does provide a convenient context for learning the concepts related to Linux that are presented in this book.

The book starts out with the basic hardware setup. One thing I found a bit confusing in this section was a list of lists of hardware requirements for various uses of the Raspberry Pi even though the context was just that of an initial boot. Reading through these lists, I wasn’t sure where the author was headed and it seemed like a sidetrack to me. Additionally, the fact this is a 1st edition book is unfortunately evident by some of the awkward verbiage present throughout. Many of the recipes presented also tended to repeat some information over and over, which after a while started to just seem like page filler.

Throughout the book, there is a generous quantity of references to related third party content for each topic, which is nice to have in one place for when you need more detail or want to explore a particular topic in greater depth. I would consider pretty much everything presented in the book to have practical value. If you happen to be utilizing the device as a fully functional computer, this book covers many concepts you will actually find yourself putting to use. That said, I felt the section on installing a wiki to be a bit out of place considering the context of everything else in the book, though it did provide an example on how to install a more complex web application in general.

If nothing else, the Raspberry Pi has given me enough consistent and fearless exposure to Linux to where I can actually start using it on a day-to-day basis. Along those lines, this book has helped to solidify that experience by exposing more of the inner workings of the Linux operating system that I wouldn’t have otherwise immediately ventured into on my own. If you are already a Linux expert, this book may be a bit remedial for you, however if you are new(er) to Linux, this book covers several practical system administration tasks in clear detail that you will eventually want to just know how to do off hand. All-in-all this is a very useful book, especially if you are new to Linux, which I know many Raspberry Pi users are.
Rating: 4
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