While downloading Gentoo Linux in the background I read that Rafe has just installed it. Something in the ether? Since I've got my Solaris box which I can fiddle on from the office, I don't really have much use for my third PC at home, a crusty P5 (what the kids today would probably call a P1) languishing with a two-versions old install of FreeBSD. But I'm probably going to be teaching some Unix sysadmin stuff in the next week or two, so I figured I'd use Gentoo to teach on.

Why Gentoo? Because it seems like the cleanest Linux distribution, and I want to start with a stripped down box and build it up by hand. If you're going to teach a class on cooking, you wouldn't show your students how to put frozen meals in the microwave, you'd want them to know how to make dishes from scratch.

I would use FreeBSD or OpenBSD, but most of the students (my coworkers, actually), have at least tried Redhat Linux at home, and especially in the Turkish and European markets, I think "Linux" is better CV fodder. It's one thing for me to run a niche-market, high-testosterone system for my own purposes, but I have a responsibility to my students. Gentoo should give me the brand value of Linux combined with the dirty-hands learning experience of *BSD.

I'm still working out how to structure my "Unix From Scratch" course. Maybe the best thing is to sit down together and install Gentoo on a PC, then create user accounts and customize their dot-files. After that we can add stuff to the box like Apache and other apps, and eventually get into snort, crack, ipfilters, etc. I think the best approach is hands-on, where I'm learning and figuring some stuff alongside them, so they can see how the process of figuring stuff out works.

Are there any Unix blogs out there? There has been a boom in Java blogs lately, but there don't seem to be any specifically on Unix. I guess most Unix geeks with blogs have a wider focus. This section of my site is mostly filled with Unix stuff because that's where my head is right now, but I don't see it as a Unix blog.

This weekend I've started re-reading the UNIX System Administration Handbook, AKA "The Purple Book" or simply The Book. This is the third edition of the book I was recommended as the "Red Book" back when I stared as a Sysadmin, some 6 or 7 years ago (damn, has it really been that long?). When the new edition came out a little while back there was a lot of bitching because it's price has bloated to $68, but it's still a worthy tome.

The main appeal of this book is that it's a practical, real-world guide for sysadmining from a bunch of crusty old-school Unix geeks who know their stuff inside and out. They don't talk about managing Unix boxes in an idealized environment, instead they assume that you, like they, are dealing with a network including a hodgepodge of various flavors of Unix (as well as those pesky Windows boxes).

I started to read it from the beginning, planning to read it through, but quickly got distracted by wondering what it has to say about particular issues I'm dealing with now, so I've been jumping around it. Towards the end there is a chapter about dealing with the organizational politics, including tips on how to retire old systems in spite of the users who refuse to learn new things. When they talk about dealing with power outages, they suggest taking advantage of the opportunity to leave crusty old machines you want to get rid of power off, and wait to see if anyone complains; if they don't, it's safe to get rid of.

This book covers a lot of topics, and no, as some Amazon reviewers complain, it doesn't cover them in depth. But it's not shallow. The authors rightfully assume you can learn more details about configuring DNS or whatever from other sources, and they refer you to plenty of good places for more info. But they do more than just introduce you to what a topic like DNS is, they discuss the practicalities that you won't get from the vendor documentation, like how to make it play well with other parts of the system, what it's hazards are, and what alternatives to consider. What does this book give that others don't? Why. They explain why to do things, which means you'll understand how to figure out the best way to do them.

Looking over the Amazon reviews, I should also point out that this is a systems administration book. Users and even power users may find this book has almost nothing of interest to them. Even someone running a Linux box or two at home probably doesn't care about how to set up a backup system for dozens of boxes, or managing hundreds of user accounts. I suggest looking over the table of contents before you fork over the $68. Also be aware that the book doesn't teach everything you need to know to be a systems administrator - you'll need to learn how to use the shell, write scripts, and use many tools, somewhere else, not to mention having reference material on hand.

I recommend Unix Power Tools for learning how to really, really, use Unix. These two are the foundation of my Unix library.

What this book has in it is the stuff you're not going to get from vendor or tool-specific resources. It's the kind of lore you would learn from working with a group of crusty old systems admins.