Reviews for Solaris Advanced System Administrator's Guide (Sun Microsystems Press)

1. A don't learn Solaris book.

   Rated 1 out of 5 stars, July 12nd, 1999

   I can't see how a book like this gets published, but there is no other Solaris book so many people are stuck with it. Examples are lame and only touches the surface. Sun Educational Services has excellent books that you get with the course (about $1500/5 days) that's better. Why don't they publish that instead?

2. The book needs work

   Rated 1 out of 5 stars, February 12th, 1999

   I bought both Solaris books because I couldn't find anything else on Solaris. To my disappointment, I found countless typos and no in-depth info whatsoever. Sometimes I wonder if the author knows the subject herself... Now, if you're looking for a great book on system administration, check out UNIX Sys Admin handbook by Evi Nemeth and friends... It's slightly overpriced, but worth the money! I hope J. Winsor continues to improve on both Solaris guides, because both of them definitely need to be beefed up. I was hoping Sun would read the books before putting their logo on them.

3. I'd give this zero stars, if I could.

   Rated 1 out of 5 stars, February 12st, 1999

   I could entertain the notion that the author really doesn't know much about the subject at hand. The omissions and lack of detail are stunning. Imagine the author dumping the man pages and other Solaris documentation into wordprocessor files and arranging them into imagined "Administrator Guides" and you have an idea of what might have happened.

4. Waste of paper...

   Rated 1 out of 5 stars, October 12rd, 1998

   I have both of Winsor's Admin guides. The first was suitable for junior admins but close to useless to anyone who new Unix Administration on System V R4 variants and a little about Solaris 2.x. But this book I bought in hopes that when I had problems getting specifics from Sun's spartan man pages I could get a more in depth answer in it. No such luck. VIRTUALLY every time I turned to it the information I already knew was there and the information I needed was stated to be beyond the scope of this book or just not there. If this is Sun's idea of advanced system administration then what was it I was looking for? I would not recomend it to anyone. Shell scripting in an advanced Admin book? Try Advanced user book. I teach Unix and Unix System Administration and the users I turn out must know more than what Winsor expects Administrators to know.

5. What a waste of money.

   Rated 1 out of 5 stars, September 12nd, 1998

   The Administrator's guide is OK. But this one, the Advanced System Administrator's Guide is terrible. I finished the shell script part and the the first two parts. I find out the authors did not explain things clearly. I got confused from time to time. The written style is so boring that one will lost interests easily. Sometimes I had to force myself to read further chapters. I am not sure the author know the subject very well herself. It is totally a waste of money and time for me. I would give a 0 star is there is such option.