Linux Transfer for Network Admins
Linux has always been popular as a Web server, but its penetration into the desktop market continues to grow. At the same time, companies are getting increasingly tired of security problems and privacy, licensing and pricing issues with Microsoft Windows. As a result, more and more companies are taking a look at using Linux as a file server that communicates with both their Windows and Linux desktops.

But the core architecture of the Linux operating system is fundamentally different than Microsoft Windows. While many of these differences are transparent to an end user, they aren't to a network administrator responsible for setting up a file server and using it as the manager of user rights and permissions over the network. Such an administrator has to know the concepts as well as the functions of the internals of the operating system.

This book delves into how the Linux operating is constructed and how it works, all from the point of view of an administrator experienced both with computers in general and Windows architecture in particular. Then it covers the installation and configuration of a network file server, with user management as well as file and directory sharing, again, discussed with the perspective of a Windows network administrator in mind.

Finally, the book describes how to implement sample scenarios – connecting Windows and Linux workstations to a file server as well as sharing other resources, such as printers – and how to replace a an existing Windows domain controller with a Linux server.

Companies are considering Linux as their tool of choice not only for back room Web servers and firewalls, but also for the workhorse file servers that their entire user base depends on. This book shows the experienced Windows network administrator how to convert from a Windows-based server to a Linux based one.

Michael Jang (RHCE, Linux+, LCP, MCSE) is currently a full-time writer, specializing in operating systems and networks. His experience with computers goes back to the days of jumbled punch cards. He is the author of a definitive guide to the most popular Linux distribution, Mastering Red Hat Linux 9 (Sybex). His other Linux books include Mastering Linux, Second Edition (Sybex) and Linux Networking Clearly Explained (Morgan-Kaufmann). He also writes books on Linux certification, including the best-selling Red Hat Certified Engineer Linux Study Guide (Osborne/McGraw-Hill), Linux+ Exam Cram (Coriolis), and Sair GNU/Linux Installation and Configuration Exam Cram (Coriolis). He has also written or contributed to books on Microsoft Operating Systems, including MCSE Guide to Microsoft Windows 98 (Course Technology), Exam Prep for Windows 98 (Coriolis), Exam Prep for IIS 4 (Coriolis), and Mastering Windows XP Professional, Second Edition (Sybex).

Elizabeth Zinkann is a logical Linux catalyst, a freelance technical editor, and an independent computer consultant. She was a Contributing Editor and Review Columnist for Sys Admin Magazine for 10 years. (Her most recent reviews have taken refuge at http://www.equillink.com.) Her articles have also appeared in Performance Computing, Linux Magazine, and Network Administrator magazines. As an independent computer consultant, she has built Linux servers, maintained Linux, Solaris, Macintosh, and Windows computers, programmed databases, and taught Linux, UNIX, computer hardware basics, and Internet essentials. In a former life, she also programmed communications features, including ISDN at AT&T Network Systems.