Linux in a Windows World

Contents of This Book

This book is organized in five parts, plus two appendixes. If you want a good general grounding in how Linux can be deployed on a network, you can read this book cover to cover; however, most chapters are self-contained enough to be useful on their own. There are a few exceptions to this rule, though. As already noted, if you’re not sure how to deploy Linux, you should read Part I for some basic tips. Chapter 4 (on Samba share definitions) depends on Chapter 3, so you should probably read those two sequentially. Likewise, the remaining chapters in Part II depend on Chapter 3. If you intend to use a remote authentication database from Linux rather than deploy Linux solely as the repository for such a database, you should read Appendix A with any of the chapters of Part III. Kerberos depends on all the systems having matching clocks, so you should read the NTP section of Chapter 15 in conjunction with Chapter 9. Some backup strategies described in Chapter 14 depend on Samba information, particularly as described in Chapter 3 and Chapter 4. These interdependencies are pointed out in the chapters themselves.

Part I

This part of the book provides an overview of how Linux can be used to improve an otherwise Windows-dominated network. It consists of two chapters that describe Linux’s features and provide an overview of strategies for deploying Linux. This material is targeted at readers who have the least experience with Linux or who aren’t sure precisely how Linux ...