Product: How Linux Works

Another great title published by No Starch Press. If you are a Linux power user, Brian definitely knows how to properly feed your desire to know more about whats happening under the hood, without getting into the details of titles such as The Linux Programming Interface or Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment. Easy to read and follow, its a long long talk about many of the topics that make Linux what it is today.

I don’t remember a single tech book published by No Starch Press that did not deliver. How Linux Works certainly does. It gives the reader a good understanding of many hot topics of the Linux internals without getting too technical. Its like a long long talk with one of those friendly geek guys that has been tinkering the kernel forever.

Brian covers many different subject. Among them, I have absolutely enjoyed the chapter dedicated to the booting process. Here the author gives you both an overall and a specific vision of the whole process, from boot loaders to the different major init implementation (systemd, Upstart, and System V).

Another juicy chapter is that dedicated to networking and firewalls. Lots and lots of concepts to learn and notes to take.

The book ends with several chapters dedicated to developers. These cover some basic shell scripting and developing. Not my favorite part of the book. Mainly, there are other titles that cover those subject in depth (see above).

Overall, a very nice title for anyone interested in knowing how Linux works, without getting too technical.

Suggested readings:
Linux Shell Scripting Cookbook: a very similar title, but focused towards scripting and thus, a little more oriented to System Administrators, rather than Power Users.

As usual, you can find more reviews on my personal blog: http://books.lostinmalloc.com Feel free to pass by and share your thoughts!
Rating: 4
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