Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

The Complete FreeBSD 10 Years Old, Now Free

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the free-reading-material dept.

sjg writes "'The Complete FreeBSD', long regarded as one of the most valuable reference works for new and seasoned FreeBSD users alike, has recently celebrated its 10'th anniversary. To celebrate this auspicious occasion, Greg Lehey, author of The Complete FreeBSD and longtime FreeBSD contributor has released the work for download under the Creative Commons license."

44 comments

  1. Torrent Here by tpwch · · Score: 2, Informative

    since its going pretty slow, help save their bandwidth. here is a torrent: http://www.tpwch.com/temp/the_complete_freebsd.tor rent

    --
    Posted by a Debian GNU/Linux user
    1. Re:Torrent Here by lee7guy · · Score: 3, Informative

      Another torrent http://tinyurl.com/nkw6f containing the PDF and sources, from the OSNews article a couple of days ago...

      --
      Ceterum censeo Microsoftem esse delendam
    2. Re:Torrent Here by tpwch · · Score: 2, Informative

      oops, accidentaly used the bold tag instead of the link tag. clickable version of the url: http://www.tpwch.com/temp/the_complete_freebsd.tor renthttp://www.tpwch.com/temp/the_complete_freebsd .torrent>

      --
      Posted by a Debian GNU/Linux user
    3. Re:Torrent Here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If that's a torrent containing a file called goatse.jpg, then I'm going to be very upset.

    4. Re:Torrent Here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thx for the torrent, site is down, coral cache is broken, and the book is a must-have !!!

      PS: it's the TPB tracker, don't expect it to answer the first time...

  2. Creative Commons by Stradenko · · Score: 2, Informative

    Specifically licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 license.

    "Creative Commons" is far too vague to be meaningful.

    1. Re:Creative Commons by jmorris42 · · Score: 1

      Exactly why RMS no longer endorses their use. Because this particular license is about as 'Free' as a download of Internet Explorer.

      --
      Democrat delenda est
    2. Re:Creative Commons by bcrowell · · Score: 1

      My printed copy (4th edition, 2003) says, "This material may be distributed only subject to the terms and conditions set forth in the Open Publication License, Version 1.0.8 or later." So now we have a somewhat goofy situation. It's always been legal for you to photocopy the printed book and sell copies on eBay, because the OPL is a real honest-to-god free license. But now there's a digital version of the book that you can copy but not sell. I guess you can have it digital or you can have it free-as-in-speech, but you can't have both.

      --
      Find free books.
    3. Re:Creative Commons by bcrowell · · Score: 4, Informative

      Ah, I finally got through to the web site. He explicitly says that he's open to having other people produce and sell the book commercially, but he's using the noncommercial CC to force them to contact him and discuss it before he gives the go-ahead.

      --
      Find free books.
    4. Re:Creative Commons by Eivind+Eklund · · Score: 3, Informative
      I'll follow that up with saying that Greg's usually a fairly easy guy to deal with.

      Eivind.

      --
      Doubting the existence of evolution is like doubting the existence of China: It just shows that you're uninformed.
    5. Re:Creative Commons by Arandir · · Score: 1

      Because this particular license is about as 'Free' as a download of Internet Explorer.
      This isn't software, it's a book. While technical in nature, it is still someone's personal expression. Once you modify it, it's not longer personal.

      --
      A Government Is a Body of People, Usually Notably Ungoverned
  3. Coralized links by __aaitqo8496 · · Score: 3, Informative

    http://www.lemis.com.nyud.net:8090/grog/Documentat ion/CFBSD/

    The complete book in gzipped PostScript form (about 2.8 MB).
    The complete book in gzipped PDF form (about 5 MB). This version has minor format problems with ligatures. If possible, use the PostScript version.
    The complete sources for rebuilding the book (about 9.5 MB), gzipped tar.

    1. Re:Coralized links by In+Fraudem+Legis · · Score: 1

      Thanks :)

      --
      Per Aspera Ad Astra.
  4. Worthwhile, even outside of *BSD by fak3r · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This book is worthwhile for anyone running a server, not just *BSD users. There's plenty of specifics of running servers and configuration that makes this an invaluable aide to any sys admin. Honestly I think it gets a little slow when it walks you through the installer (!) but I guess that's why it's "complete"! Recommended.

    --
    fak3r.com
  5. Should be good... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    ..Anyonw with a beard like that must know UNIX!

  6. A few notes by temojen · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I wouldn't use postscript files from random sources in a local viewer (but I would on a printer). PostScript is a turing-complete language with filesystem and network access.

    Gzipped PDF? They do know about the Gzip compression option in the PDF standard, right? Use the PDF compression and you can open it directly in Acrobat, XPDF, kghostview, Preview, or whathaveyou.

    1. Re:A few notes by compass46 · · Score: 1

      Gzipped PDF? They do know about the Gzip compression option in the PDF standard, right?

      Ummmmm, I'm guessing Greg realized it would take him 2 seconds to type `gzip file.pdf` rather than integrating it into the doc sources and rebuilding...

    2. Re:A few notes by Arandir · · Score: 1

      You should STILL have to zip it up afterwards. Otherwise when someone clicks on the link the PDF gets displayed in the browser instead of downloaded. While we all know how to use a right click to download, it does prevent hordes of Windows and Mac users (and even a few KDE and GNOME users) from tearing you a new asshole for your rudeness. Trust me, I know from experience.

      --
      A Government Is a Body of People, Usually Notably Ungoverned
    3. Re:A few notes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thats what the mime header is for

      (as long as you aren't using IE)

    4. Re:A few notes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ... it does prevent hordes of Windows ...

      So.. as long as you aren't 90% of those guys. Great. You fucking tool.

  7. If the site ever comes up again by putko · · Score: 1

    You should make sure to check out the picture of the author. He looks like a he could be a Unix hacker!

    The book is excellent too of course, which is why this is so cool.

    Also, the book is truly excellent. He's got very, very useful stuff in there.

    My only more favorite author on the same topic is Lucas, who has a few books out from "No Starch Press".

    --
    http://www.thebricktestament.com/the_law/when_to_s tone_your_children/dt21_18a.html
    1. Re:If the site ever comes up again by TheRaven64 · · Score: 3, Informative
      You should make sure to check out the picture of the author. He looks like a he could be a Unix hacker!

      The author was a member of the FreeBSD core team for a little while. That's about as much of a UNIX hacker as it's possible to be...

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    2. Re:If the site ever comes up again by freshman_a · · Score: 3, Informative


      The author was a member of the FreeBSD core team for a little while. That's about as much of a UNIX hacker as it's possible to be...

      To add to that, he's also a NetBSD developer, MySQL developer, Vinum Volume Manager developer, and has contributed code to the Linux kernel.

      So yes, I'd say he's one helluva UNIX hacker.

      --
      Slackware
    3. Re:If the site ever comes up again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But he's certainly no ESR! People can be forgiven for not knowing what he's accomplished.

  8. Great book by GomezAdams · · Score: 1

    Greg Leahy writes one of the finest *IX books ever and now it's free. Highly recommended. I got my first copy with FreeBSD 2.2 in it. I learned more about UNIX in one place from the book that anywhere else.

    --
    Too lazy to create a sig...
    1. Re:Great book by Timex · · Score: 1

      Greg Leahy writes one of the finest *IX books ever and now it's free. Highly recommended. I got my first copy with FreeBSD 2.2 in it. I learned more about UNIX in one place from the book that anywhere else.

      Greg is a very interesting guy. I've had several opportunities to talk with him.

      I also have a signed copy of the third edition! :D

      --
      When politicians are involved, everyone loses.
  9. Mirrored here to help reduce bandwidth... by Xaroth · · Score: 0

    Service Temporarily Unavailable

    The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to maintenance downtime or capacity problems. Please try again later.

    Apache/1.3.34 Server at www.lemis.com Port 80

    ---

    Hope that helps!

    --
    That green slime had it coming.
    1. Re:Mirrored here to help reduce bandwidth... by afabbro · · Score: 1
      Well, perhaps if they were running FreeBSD...

      Apache/1.3.34 Debian mod_gzip/1.3.26.1a mod_tsunami/3.0 PHP/4.4.2-1 mod_fastcgi/2.4.2 mod_auth_pgsql/0.9.12.1 mod_ssl/2.8.25 OpenSSL/0.9.8a mod_choke/0.06
      --
      Advice: on VPS providers
  10. Corel uses 8080 now not 8090 by Exstatica · · Score: 1

    http://www.lemis.com.nyud.net:8080/grog/Documentat ion/CFBSD/

  11. Cheap printing/binding? by cerberusss · · Score: 2

    Often I encounter PDFs online which I'd like to read in/on the backyard/holiday/couch. Besides the obvious buying, does anyone have tips on specific printershops/chains that cheaply print and bind stuff like this? Prices, perhaps?

    --
    8 of 13 people found this answer helpful. Did you?
    1. Re:Cheap printing/binding? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0596005164/qid=11 40868624/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-7332469-2586209?s=b ooks&v=glance&n=283155

    2. Re:Cheap printing/binding? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What about putting them on a PDA? On a palm its pretty dreadful when switching between pages but bearable. On a WCE PDA it's not bad though.

  12. Which version? by eric76 · · Score: 1

    Which version is this?

    I already have the 3rd edition that I bought a few years ago.

    1. Re:Which version? by LurkerXXX · · Score: 2, Informative

      "Fourth Edition"
      "Tenth anniversary version, 24, Febuary 2006"

  13. Re-Think the "It's Gotta Be As Big As" mindset by ivi · · Score: 1

    After noticing that the author's download server had gotten SlashDotted,
      I took the time to browse the book's History.

      I was taken aback to find that he had acted (IMHO) sheepish in response
      to someone else's input of the form: "It needs more pages" ('reminds me
      of the Emporer's line - in Amadeus - "It needs more notes" ...both mind-
      less comments on a work by people not interested enough to get -inside-
      the heads or hearts of the creators).

      For all kinds of reasons, writing bloated books (with "more pages") just
      doesn't work for me:

      - while carrying a ref. book to a work site: the more pp's the heavier
      - when trying to find info: the more words needed to be read, the slower
      - when promoting a FOSS Op Sys: the bigger their book(s), the harder the sell
      - until the publishing world goes all electronic: more trees must die
      - while authors get paid (or books get sold) by the word (page) counts:
            * dead-tree versions will be unnecessarily more costly
            * less time is available for more creative endeavors
            * the signal-to-noise ratio will be lower than optimal
            * the risk of authors getting RSI is higher than optimal

      In sum, it just seems like we're following the commercial crowds, ie,
      rather than designing elegant creations that we can be 100% proud of.

      Still, I want to THANK the Author for releasing this book via the CC.

      My 2.2 cents... what'cha think?

    1. Re:Re-Think the "It's Gotta Be As Big As" mindset by Arandir · · Score: 1

      - until the publishing world goes all electronic: more trees must die

      In case you didn't know it, paper comes from trees raised on farms.

      --
      A Government Is a Body of People, Usually Notably Ungoverned
  14. Minor correction by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Okay. This is picky, I know. Otherwise I agree 100%. The Emperor actually told Mozart, "Too many notes." In reality, the perfect book is like a good skirt--long enough to cover the subject, yet short enough to still be interesting.

    1. Re:Minor correction by WinterSolstice · · Score: 1

      lol - I loved that bit:

      Emperor Joseph II: Your work is ingenious. It's quality work. And there are simply too many notes, that's all. Just cut a few and it will be perfect.
      Mozart: Which few did you have in mind, Majesty?

      -WS

      --
      An operating system should be like a light switch... simple, effective, easy to use, and designed for everyone.
  15. misquote by overbom · · Score: 1

    "Too many notes" is the line you're thinking of.

  16. Re:*BSD is Dying by turbidostato · · Score: 1

    Of course, *specially* here this had to come out.

    Thanks for your dedication, Mr Anonymous Coward.