Our look is the result of reader comments, our own experimentation, and feedback from distribution channels. Distinctive covers complement our distinctive approach to technical topics, breathing personality and life into potentially dry subjects.

The animal featured on the cover of Essential System Administration, Third Edition, is an armadillo. This insect-eating mammal is native to South America and has spread through the southern United States. Unlike most insectivores, the armadillo has teeth-rootless pegs set far back in its mouth. These teeth allow it to supplement its diet of termites, scorpions, and other insects with snakes, poultry, fruit, and eggs.

The armadillo's name, "little armored thing," was given to it by the Spanish when they invaded the New World. This "armor" is an outer layer consisting of numerous bony plates with a horny covering. This shell is hinged at the middle of the back, allowing the front and hind sections freedom of movement. In some species, this covering extends over the face and tail as well as the torso and limbs.

Armadillos range in size from the great armadillo, at 5 feet in length, to the fairy armadillo, at 5 inches. The most common of the armadillos, the 9-banded armadillo, is about the size of a house cat.

Leanne Soylemez was the production editor and copyeditor for Essential System Administration, Third Edition. Sheryl Avruch, Jane Ellin, Colleen Gorman, and Darren Kelly provided quality control. Æleen Frisch wrote the index.

The cover image is a 19th-century engraving from the Dover Pictorial Archive. Emma Colby produced the cover layout with QuarkXPress 4.1 using Adobe's ITC Garamond font.

David Futato designed the interior layout. This book was converted to FrameMaker 5.5.6 with a format conversion tool created by Erik Ray, Jason McIntosh, Neil Walls, and Mike Sierra that uses Perl and XML technologies. The text font is Linotype Birka; the heading font is Adobe Myriad Condensed; and the code font is LucasFont's TheSans Mono Condensed. The illustrations that appear in the book were produced by Robert Romano and Jessamyn Read using Macromedia FreeHand 9 and Adobe Photoshop 6. The note and warning icons were drawn by Christopher Bing.

The book also still benefits from the work that Sheryl Avruch, Nicole Gipson, Seth Maislin, Kismet McDonough, Lenny Muellner, Kiersten Nauman, Dominic Newman, Clairemarie Fisher O'Leary, Chris Reilley, Mike Sierra, Ellen Siever, Mary Anne Weeks Mayo, Norm Walsh, and Frank Willison did on the second edition, and that Kismet McDonough and Ellie Cutler performed on the first edition. Edie Freedman designed the cover of the book, forever linking system administration and armadillos.

The online edition of this book was created by the Safari production group (John Chodacki, Becki Maisch, and Madeleine Newell) using a set of Frame-to-XML conversion and cleanup tools written and maintained by Erik Ray, Benn Salter, John Chodacki, and Jeff Liggett.