Best Books To Learn and Master FreeBSD

FreeBSD is an operating system created to be fast and secure, powering modern servers, desktops, and embedded systems. This operating system is based on U.C. Berkeley’s “4.4BSD-Lite” release, with some “4.4BSD-Lite2” enhancements. This article will recommend the best available books that will help you learn and understand the key concepts and internals of FreeBSD Unix operating system.

FreeBSD adoption is widely witnessed in these sectors – Internet Service Providers, Private companies, researchers, Computer professionals, Students and among other internet facing solutions that demands for high availability, reliability and top-notch performance. FreeBSD is also used by a number of home users all over the world in their work, education and recreation.

FreeBSD Applications Support

FreeBSD is designed to provide your favorite applications with a robust and full-featured environment. A wide variety of applications are supported on FreeBSD, example: office suites, web browsers, command line administration tools, graphics programs, email readers, programming environments, network servers, and many more.

The standard way of installation Desktop and all other applications on FreeBSD is through Ports Collection.

Versions of FreeBSD

There are two standard release of FreeBSD available to end users:

FreeBSD-STABLE

This is the development branch from which major releases are made. The packages that land here have been thoroughly tested on the CURRENT release and bugs fixed. As of this article update, the latest release form the 12-STABLE branch is version 12.1 , released in November 2019. For the 11-STABLE branch, it is version 11.3 released in July 2019.

FreeBSD-CURRENT

FreeBSD-CURRENT is the “bleeding edge” of FreeBSD development. The users of FreeBSD-CURRENT are expected to have a high degree of technical skill. If you’re a less technical user, consider using the FreeBSD-STABLE instead.

This release contains the latest source code for FreeBSD and includes works in progress, experimental changes, and transitional mechanisms that might or might not be present in the next official release.

How to Learn and Master FreeBSD

To easiest way to learn any technology or system is by consistent experimentation. I recommend you install FreeBSD OS, play with it while building Labs for different use cases. By getting a good book to complement the process, a much shorter time will be required to become a master.

Below is a list of books that I’ll recommend for users who want to master FreeBSD Operating System.

1. Absolute FreeBSD, 3rd Edition: The Complete Guide to FreeBSD

The Absolute FreeBSD, 3rd Edition is the latest, updated edition of Michael W. Lucas’ definitive volume on FreeBSD-based systems. This release adds:

• Coverage of modern disks
• The ZFS filesystem
• IPv6
• Redesigned jail and packaging systems
• Virtualization
• Among dozens of new features added in the last 10 years.

In this book you’ll learn:

• How to best install FreeBSD to meet your needs
• Which filesystem to use in your environment
• How to back up and restore critical data
• How to tweak the kernel, and when not to
• Network configuration, from activating interfaces to selecting congestion control algorithms
• How to manage UFS, ZFS, and other critical filesystems
• FreeBSD’s software packaging system, including how to build your own package repository
• How and when to upgrade
• Techniques to build your own FreeBSD
• Advanced security features like blacklistd and packet filtering
• How to monitor and adjust performance
• Container-style virtualization with jails
• Diskless systems
• Panic management and bug reporting

Grab a copy now:

2. The Design and Implementation of the FreeBSD Operating System

This is book offering by Marshall Kirk McKusick. This books covers the new topics in FreeBSD up to 11. You can use this guide as both a working reference and an in-depth study of a leading contemporary, portable, open source operating system:

• Explains highly scalable and lightweight virtualization using FreeBSD jails, and virtual-machine acceleration with Xen and Virtio device paravirtualization
• Describes new security features such as Capsicum sandboxing and GELI cryptographic disk protection
• Fully covers NFSv4 and Open Solaris ZFS support
• Introduces FreeBSD’s enhanced volume management and new journaled soft updates
• Explains DTrace’s fine-grained process debugging/profiling
• Reflects major improvements to networking, wireless, and USB support

3. UNIX and Linux System Administration Handbook: 5th Edition

The UNIX^® and Linux^® System Administration Handbook, Fifth Edition, is today’s definitive guide to installing, configuring, and maintaining any UNIX or Linux system, including systems that supply core Internet and cloud infrastructure.

The author of this book are world-class, hands-on technologists who offer indispensable new coverage of cloud platforms, DevOps philosophy, continuous deployment, containerization, monitoring, and many other essential topics.

This comprehensive guide covers best practices for every facet of system administration, including:

• Storage management
• Network design and administration
• Security
• Web hosting
• Automation
• Configuration management
• Performance analysis
• Virtualization
• DNS
• Security
• Management of IT service organizations.

Get a copy today and master FreeBSD Unix operating system.

Other relevant Books

Below are other FreeBSD mastery books specific to some areas: