Book Review: The Best of Hack and / by Kyle Rankin

I was fortunate enough to learn about and acquire a copy of Kyle Rankin’s latest publication The Best of Hack and /: Linux Admin Crash Course. I had been familiar with Kyle’s work for quite some time and really enjoyed his Linux Journal column. I looked forward to it every issue. He was (and still is) a command-line warrior (and guru). In the later years of Linux Journal and after joining the editorial team, I was also fortunate to work with the guru himself.

Anyway, The Best of Hack and / consists of a collection of Rankin’s articles from his days at Linux Journal. There were two motivating factors that led to this publication: (1) to consolidate all the best and most useful articles in a single format and (2) to preserve what amounts to a very large archive of articles. Who knows if the ones available on-line will continue to remain accessible in the years to come.

As for the content itself, the author writes in a very easy to digest style and the book layout is formatted in such a away that it is straightforward to read and follow, especially where command-lines examples are provided.

The book serves as a wonderful tool and addition to a Linux system administrator’s arsenal with wonderfully detailed HOWTO guides, tips, tricks and more.