The Opportunity

Earlier this year I received an email from Jonathan Gennick, an editor at Apress books. The subject of the email was “Tech edit a book” and he asked if I was familiar with SQL Server on Linux. I excitedly replied “yes…I think I’m your guy for this”. In 2017, I had the opportunity to tech edit another book on SQL Server on Linux and had to back out of that project and this was a fantastic second chance to still be able to work on a topic I really want to participate in and help move forward. I replied to Jonathan and asked who the author is…he replied…the author is Bob Ward.

The Author

If you’re active in the SQL Server community you know Bob. Ever present at the major conferences and Principal Architect for on the SQL Server Product Team. Bob has a unique combination of world-class engineering skills and the ability to communicate extremely complex technical details in simple, approachable terms. My first experience watching Bob speak was at SQL Intersection 2014 Fall edition in Las Vegas. At this conference, I saw one of his legendary 3-hour sessions on SQL Server internals. He delivered a session on SQL Server’s memory management system. I remember being amazed by how he took a very complex topic and made it very approachable and understandable to the audience, I even tweeted about it here. 

The Book

Knowing what an exceptional communicator Bob is and having the opportunity to tech edit a book written by him, this was a no-brainer. I wanted to do this project. We kicked off the project and the first chapter was delivered its title is “Why SQL Server on Linux”. This chapter alone makes the book worth every penny. In this chapter, you’ll learn about the journey of putting SQL Server on Linux. You get first-hand anecdotal stories straight from Bob’s experiences getting SQL Server working on Linux. I remember reading that first chapter and thinking, this is a stellar intro to the book, I literally don’t want to stop reading.

In each chapter, Bob brings his years of experience to help tell the reader what they really need to know about SQL Server on Linux, how it works and how to have a successful SQL Server on Linux deployment. And throughout the book, Bob brings historical anecdotes describing how the various facets of SQL Server got to where they are today. And he also calls out the work of the PMs and members of the product team for the features or innovations they’re responsible for as they’re discussed in the chapters of the book. Bob even takes time to give credit to various members of the SQL Server community and their contributions. This book is as much about the people and journey, as the technology being discussed. 

Getting the Book

The book is still in the final stages of the publishing process and it’s currently available for pre-order online at Apress’ site and also on Amazon. Oh, and at the time of me writing this post, the book is currently number 1 in the “Linux Servers” new releases category and number 18 in the overall “Linux” new releases category on Amazon! Congrats Bob on the book and the successful release!

Bob wrote a blog post about his experiences writing the book, check it out here!

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