I've spent the last several weeks writing, revising, and editing a project called The OpenBSD 4.0 Crash Course for O'Reilly Media. It is designed to quickly teach you the basics of how to install, configure, use, and upgrade the OpenBSD operating system as a desktop or server. It's specific to version 4.0, and I plan on writing a new version for each future OpenBSD release. If you've wanted to learn OpenBSD or are anxious to get into the BSDs in general, this is your best starting point. I decided to pitch it as an electronic guide because it doesn't need to be particularly long, it's possible to copy-and-paste commands from it to your terminal window, and you can print out a hard copy if you want. It's now available for download for U.S. $9.99 from O'Reilly, and I plan on donating a portion of my royalties to the OpenBSD Project so that it can continue to produce great software. Each section is designed to be like my how-to articles -- concise and easy to understand. There are no preambles or politics; just good information. Below is a sample from the book to show you what you can expect from it.

Full Story.