Clinton - Linux in action

Its impossible to reach the end of a books long and sometimes tortured production cycle without reflecting on what it took to make it through. In the case of Linux in Actionas with my Learn Amazon Web Services in a Month of Lunchessurvival required the talent and dedication of every part of the Manning teams deep bench.

Once again Frances Lefkowitz, as development editor, added significant clarity and purpose to each chapter, relentlessly keeping me focused and on track. Both Reka Horvath and John Guthrie patiently tested all the books projects and added valuable operational insights along the way. The copy editor, Frances Buran, seems never to have met an adverb she approvesat least not when used by me. But the accuracy and grace of the text in its current form clearly indicate the quality of her judgment.

In her role as project manager, Deirdre Hiam effectively shepherded us through the last mile, successfully keeping all the many moving parts in sync. Each of the books peer reviewers has left an important mark. They may not realize it, but all of their valuable observations were carefully noted, weighed, and, where possible, applied. Many thanks, therefore, to Angelo Costo, Christopher Phillips, Dario Victor Duran, Flayol Frederic, Foster Haines, George L. Gaines, Gustavo Patino, Javier Collado, Jens Christian B. Madsen, Jonas Medina de los Reyes, Maciej Jurkowski, Mayer Patil, Mohsen Mostafa Jokar, and Tim Kane.

This book is about more than just Linux administration skills. It also tries to impart the larger sense of responsibility successful administrators have for the servers and systems under their care. I was lucky to have benefited from a great mentor at the start of my career as a Linux system administrator. Peter Fedorows attention to both fine operational details and the big global picture make him an especially effective admin. His dragging me kicking and screaming into the world of Linux virtualization hooked me on containers long before containers were cool. When everythings said and done, at least some of Peters guidance is, no doubt, reflected here.

And finally, none of my professional (or private) projects would get off the blocks without the cheerful and helpful participation of my dear wife. We fully share the hard work, but the successes are mostly her doing.