Practical UNIX

Introduction

Welcome to UNIX!

UNIX systems are valued because of their great reliability. Often they run for months or years without any system problems or crashes. UNIX systems usually offer the best performance, the most throughput, and the easiest support for large numbers of concurrent users when compared to any other computer configuration. UNIX offers unparalleled scalability, allowing a computer system to serve as a single-user workstation or as a server supporting hundreds or thousands of concurrent users accessing a common database.

Tip for Beginners Look for a “Tip for Beginners” at the start of every chapter in this book. This introduction lists the types of readers that will benefit from this book. It also summarizes each chapter ...