Re: obtaining system administration books ETC from O'reilly and asociates.

[lark@world.std.com (Lar Kaufman)]

O'Reilly & Associates has been publishing UNIX titles since 1987; the
first title was UNIX Text Processing (actually published via Hayden Books
under O'Reilly copyright, before O'Reilly opened their own press).  It 
is undeniable that they publish the authoritative manuals for a number of
UNIX topics, including the previously mentioned _Sendmail_, 10 volumes on
the X Windows System (not counting specialized versions for Open Look and
Motif), UUCP, and so on.  For those who are wizards enough to be comfortable
with HOW-TOs, it may seem that no other documentation is necessary.  But
more likely, you're just not aware that better, more complete information
is available.  O'Reilly's books on Perl are definitive, as are their books
on Python, Sed and Awk, UNIX Power Tools (freeware utilities, tips, and 
scripts), BSD 4.4, and so on.

O'Reilly was the first commercial publisher of a non-LDP volume, _Running
Linux_, which I co-authored with Matt Welsh.  It is considerably more than
a reprint or rehash of LDP materials, since it is a coherent, comprehensive,
and thorough treatment of all major topics for Linux users.  It includes
the benefit of my experiences documenting various UNIX implementations since
1983, running and using serial network hosts and BBSes, and experiences with
global networks since 1983; and Matt's experience as a programmer and 
educator at Cornell.  So when we document a topic, we steer the user to
the best solutions, not to a particular distribution.  Some things we 
document that aren't even in *any* Linux documentation, e.g. Kermit, Zmodem,
printing "magic filters"...

I apologize if this sounds like an ad for O'Reilly or for _Running Linux_;
I don't mean it that way.  The main point is that commercial publications
are in *many* ways better than LDP documents.  And although O'Reilly is the
most complete UNIX publisher in the industry, they aren't the only ones who
provide good UNIX books.  (I find that Prentice Hall's _UNIX System 
Administration Handbook_, by Nemeth, Snyder, Seebass and Hein, is the most
comprehensive authority for configuring and troubleshooting UNIX systems,
for example.  I wouldn't turn to the LDP equivalents with any similar
expectation of finding a sure and correct answer.)  So if you need good
answers, sure, the LDP work is wonderful and largely responsible for the
success of Linux as an OS, but you should still seek out a good professional
volume.  The fact that ORA is one of the few publishers committed to making
books available for adaptive access is a significant argument for looking 
at their offerings.  Another is the fact that two years ago they committed
to update their UNIX books to include Linux coverage.  For example, the
latest _Using and Managing UUCP_ includes complete coverage of all the
available UUCP implementations for Linux, in addition to the standard
commercial BNU and Version 2 versions.  

Lastly, O'Reilly was an early supporter of Linux.  The LDP documents 
were surveyed, and only Olaf Kirch's Network Administration Guide was
deemed of good enough quality to be an O'Reilly publication.  An O'Reilly
editor, Andy Oram, professionally edited the NAG and suggested revisions
and pointed out gaps to fill, which were then passed back to the Linux
community via the LDP (and subsequently published by SCC and others
without acknowledgement of O'Reilly's contribution).  O'Reilly's Linux
series books are good, and the only reason there aren't more titles in
their Linux Series is that O'Reilly doesn't publish redundant titles.
You won't find a Linux guide to WWW Server Administration, for example,
since O'Reilly has a definitive book on Apache already, and that would
clearly be the primary software to use.  Not to mention O'Reilly's books
on network security, firewalls, and so on...

But the latest thing is that O'Reilly is becoming increasingly aware of
the need to make books available for adaptive access.  In 1990, O'Reilly
& Associates, in partnership with HAL Computer Co., established the
Davenport Group, an advisory study group to develop standards for 
portable documentation that resulted in the Docbook DTD and a suite of
utilities for publishing books in hardcopy (via Ghostscript) and
electronically (via troff to ASCII, and via HTML).  O'Reilly has worked
and consulted with Recordings for the Blind and Dyslexic, National
Braille Press, the International Committee on Adaptive Document Design,
and others to advocate and develop open standards for accessible
documentation.  And the next editions of _Running Linux_ and the _Linux
Multimedia Guide_ will be specifically enriched to include discussion
of access issues and reviewed to make sure that topic discussions will
be usable by persons with print disabilities, or accessible alternatives
will be given.

OK, this may be considered an advocacy of a specific commercial enterprise;
to the extent this is true I apologize.  But I'd be happy to hear about 
other publishers and software companies with a comparable commitment to
open systems disability access.

And let's not lose the ultimate point: get the best documentation you can,
and if the publisher hasn't made it available to you, ASK for it--you have
a right to reasonable accomodation.

-lar
 "Gree comes of the French word gree, good liking: and it signifies in our
 law, contentment or satisfaction; as in the statute of 1 R.2, c. 15, to
 to make gree to the parties is to give them contentment or satisfaction for 
 an offence done unto them."- Les Termes de la Ley, 1st American Ed., 1812.

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