The Debian Administrator’s Handbook has been written by two Debian developers who are keen to share their knowledge. Accessible to all, this book teaches the essentials to anyone who wants to become an effective and independent Debian GNU/Linux administrator.
It covers all the topics that a competent Linux administrator should master, from the installation and the update of the system, up to the creation of packages and the compilation of the kernel, but also monitoring, backup and migration, without forgetting advanced topics like SELinux setup to secure services, automated installations, or virtualization with Xen, KVM or LXC.
Free Sample Chapter: The APT Tools
Do you want to verify that the book is really worth your time? Click here to download a sample chapter covering the APT tools and make up your mind. apt-get/aptitude and other associated tools are crucial to any Debian user and they are at the heart of Debian’s reputation.
Then you might want to have a look at the table of contents to discover all the other topics that are covered in-depth just like the sample chapter above.
Get a Copy And Help Liberate the Book
We would really like to see the book integrated into Debian, and therefore to see it published under a license that complies with the “Debian Free Software Guidelines”. This means that the book would be freely available. But like everybody, we need to live and feed our family, and we believe that we are entitled to have a decent payment for the work that we do.
With this project, our aim is to prove that it is possible to earn money even with a work that is published under a free license. That’s why we have set up a “liberation fund”. If this fund reaches 25,000 euros, the book will be distributed under a free license (GPL2+ / CC-BY-SA-3.0). You can follow the progress here:
To contribute to the “liberation fund”, pick the amount that you want below, and click on “Order now”. If you contribute 10 EUR or more, you will get a copy of the ebook as soon as it’s available, and this even if the liberation target has not yet been reached. Make sure to benefit from this now as when the book will be available for sale, this will no longer be true. The contribution to the liberation will be whatever you accept to give on top of the book’s public price.
Thanks to the success of the crowdfunding operation, we’re currently busy translating the book from French to English (the original book — Cahier de l’Admin Debian Squeeze — has been published by Eyrolles). We’re hoping to complete the translation in the first quarter of 2012, which means that the book could be availabe in April 2012. But it’s up to you to decide whether it will be freely available or not… we believe it’s important that the book be published under a free license. And so does the Debian leader:
Stefano Zacchiroli (Debian Project Leader): Debian has since long resolved that books, as well as other documentation material, should be kept at the same high freedom standard we require for software.
The scarce availability of free (as in Freedom) books about Debian is hence doubly unfortunate. It means that there is little book-like material that helps spreading Debian and its values, while at the same time embodying those values showing off their advantages. But it also means, ironically, that we have little such material that we can distribute as part of Debian itself.
I welcome any initiative that might help closing this gap. I also encourage authors of books on the topic of Debian to release their work under a license compatible with the Debian Free Software Guidelines.