"Robert P. J. Day" <rpjday [ at ] crashcourse [ dot ] ca> wrote: > a general question for the masses -- what value do you see in >linux books... I've been a consumer of such sys admin fare and other dead tree computer related media. I find the value in these is seldom the "set this configuration parameter" and "type this command," but rather in 1) clearly presenting the interactions (dependencies and transactions) between system elements (be they libraries, applications, services, etc); and 2) a consistently applied method of "best practices" that considers maintenance as well as configuration and long term use. As a self identified amateur on the subject, I recognize that these elements are what I seldom find when Googling subjects like, "debian wheezy imap mail server configuration", or "kvm bridgeutils configuration". You get a lot of magic bash commands, but seldom any clue about why they're necessary, or what best practices you've borked by using them. My trusty "pro Linux systems administration" (apress, 2011, I think) remains my go to for so much, even though it grows a bit dated. -- Sent from my handheld. Please excuse any errors in spelling and formatting as these can be difficult to correct on such a device. Any errors in common sense or logic are entirely my own.