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Linux for Dummies, 5th Edition
Not everyone can Read The Fine Manual Wiley's "For Dummies" series tends to provoke polarized reactions, so here's fair warning: I love them more than I loathe them -- partly out of contrarianism, partly because I often fall well within their target demographic. If the folksy, self-deprecating tone of these books infuriates you as it does many people, most likely it's because you aren't part of the target audience. No one likes being talked down to. On the other hand, for many people who might otherwise be interested in switching to Linux (or at least playing with it more), being told to look at man pages is like being told to drive up a brick wall, and books like Linux for Dummies are a welcome resource both to learn from and to point out to others. (For more technically oriented novices and intermediate users, I might rather point out Jon Lasser's Think Unix! )
A series of bracketed command-line options (followed by terse explanations of what each one does) works perfectly, to those familiar enough to use them. Man pages are a great memory aid, reminder, and basis for experimentation ("Hmm, can I combine the -a and -v switches?"). What man pages aren't is consistently friendly and approachable; this book is. This is not a knock on man pages: the thing is, they're written by and for "computer people," which is not the same as everyone who wants to use a computer. Not everyone is a power-user, or wants to be, and on areas outside their usual domains, even power users can sometimes use a bit more hand-holding.
Promises, promises Linux for Dummies' back cover says it will teach the reader how to work with popular Linux distributions (specifically, Fedora, SUSE and Mandrake), choose an ISP and configure dialup access, understand bash syntax, install and use OpenOffice.org, and manage the Linux file system. It does all of these things, to a reasonable depth, but don't expect a heavy tutorial on any one of them: the whole point is naming and defusing common newbie problems. A DVD included with the book contains Red Hat's Fedora Core 1 and source code, making it a reasonable way to obtain that distro as well.LeBlanc is a good instructor; since she does computer training professionally, it's not surprising this book is organized well for self-directed learning, albeit at a pace that readers installing Gentoo on obscure hardware would likely find boring -- Chapter 6, 82 pages in, is titled "Dip in those toes." To be fair, by that point the book has zipped right through readying a system for and then installing a Linux distribution, and booting up for the first time. Not bad, really.
The early chapters leading up to that toe-dipping fulfill parts of the back cover's promises, by going through a graphical Fedora installation step-by-step (showing the user how to fill in each blank and go on to the next stage), then adding in the next chapter Mandrake- and SUSE-specific differences, emphasizing the similarities more than the idiosyncrasies.
The book's later chapters cover connecting to the Internet (via ethernet or modem), using a number of commonly included programs for email, web-browsing, word-processing and other workaday tasks, manipulating several types of files (for plaintext, this book leans understandably toward vi over emacs, but where are pine or joe?), navigating and lightly tweaking both GNOME and KDE, playing music and video files, and securing and updating one's system. Since there's clearly no way one book can address all of these things to the satisfaction of an advanced reader in 360 pages of text, don't look at the book that way: instead, the text provides a chatty overview of big issues (a few hundred words on why to avoid unnecessarily running as root, say), links to websites around the net for longer explanations, and skips completely religious wars about text editors, licenses, and proper window management.
When it comes to applications, this book is oriented toward desktop use; Apache doesn't even make the index. Chapters 7, 8 and 9 cover connecting to and using the Internet. Chapter 7 is all about the technical side of this -- setting up a working connection (with a friendly, necessary warning that not all modems, and not all ISPs, are equally adept at handling anything other than Windows), assigning IP numbers (or using DHCP) and using tools like traceroute to verify that things are working right. 8 and 9 cover various Internet tools, leaning toward Mozilla and Evolution for web-browsing and email, respectively. (Konqueror gets a one-line mention as a web-browser here, which is a bit short considering its strong KDE integration and dual life as a file browser.)
Working with file permissions and directories (both with and without a GUI) occupies Chapter 10, while 11 goes strictly into working from the command line. It's no In the Beginning Was the Command Line , but it does an admirable job of introducing the most necessary command line tools without straying into esoterica: things like ls, cd, pwd, man, clear and kill, in other words, the ones without which it would be hard to get around a system.
Chapter 14 is solely about using OpenOffice.org; it covers the drawing, presentation, spreadsheet, math and word-processing modules well enough to get started with each one. While there's a lot to be said for Abiword (clean, quick) and KOffice (frame orientation is very useful), OO.org is probably the most sensible office software to focus on in a book aimed at a non-expert audience. (And for the moment, anyhow, I find it the most compatible with Microsoft's office suite, which lends it considerable power in the form of network effects.) The chapter provided does as much justice to the suite, with lucid first steps outlined for common tasks like writing a text document and doing simple calculations with the Math module, as roughly 30 pages can be expected to.
By contrast, Chapter 18, devoted to securing one's system by way of passwords, network management and use of SSH, is only 13 pages long. (For the moment, that may be enough for this book, but I suspect by the next edition it won't be.) Still, quick but workable explanations of connecting from the Linux desktop to remote machines via ssh, and connecting Windows clients via ssh to your new Linux box, at least close some of the most obvious security holes, as does the advice to close down unneeded ports and daemons.
Screenshots throughout (cleanly printed greyscale) are well-chosen; this is one of the improvements that this edition has over the 1st edition I gave to my father a few years ago. Most of the screenshots reflect the author's choice of GUI programs over terminals, including graphical utilities for things like setting security options. By choosing Fedora's, LeBlanc sidesteps arguments about KDE vs. GNOME aesthetics -- since the images use the default Bluecurve theme (which looks just about identical under both of the most common windowing environments), I'm not even sure which environment was used to create most of them.
Two appendices close the book: the shorter (second) one lists the contents of the included DVD and system requirements; the longer one which precedes it provides a listing of common commands from alias to xxd (about which more below).
Along for the ride The included DVD is a compromise between audience (self-diagnosed computer dummies) and practicality (fitting six CDs' worth of Fedora into a book jacket with minimal fuss). The machine I set aside to play with Fedora doesn't have a DVD drive, so I used a standard download from Red Hat to play along with the examples. (I didn't bump into any contradictions between screen and page, but that's Situation Normal, since I used the same distribution.)
(Aside: though for various reasons Fedora does make a wise choice in a book like this, I hope future editions, or competing books in the non-expert-user niche, will use Live CDs such as Knoppix instead. That would open them up to users who want to mess around with Linux more before crossing their fingers and wiping a hard drive.)
There's one more freebie -- a single-sheet tear-out reference sheet listing common commands and a few of their options, including a list of the right commands to mount CDs under the Red Hat and Mandrake (identical) and SUSE (just slightly different enough to confuse). It only has to get used a few times to be worthwhile.
The gloss ceiling The same brief-and-breezy approach that makes the book worthwhile for some purposes (like not abandoning the audience) sometimes just makes it confusing; in several places the compromises necessary in boiling down a complex subject for a beginner audience made me itch to pencil in suggestions.
A few more pages worth of one-line summaries would have made the Appendix A, (the one on common Linux commands), far more valuable. As it is, LeBlanc lists a number of general categories (Printing, System Control, Communication, etc), summaries each category, and lists several built-in commands relevant to each.
Under the heading of 'Communication,' for example, she points out that sysadmins find the listed utilities "useful for providing information about users and communicating with them," then provides a handful of commands: finger, wall, write, and who. And while the section starts out with the advice to look up each command's man page if curious, this section strikes me as filler in its current configuration -- it could be struck to make more room discussing Live CDs, or vector drawing apps, or Mozilla's mail client as an alternative to Evolution.
Many applications are given short shrift simply because an adequate treatment of more window managers, graphics programs (two and a half pages dedicated to the GIMP is more than most programs get), music players and all the rest would have meant a far thicker book. I wish a few pages had been spared for at least capsule descriptions of pico and nano (my favorite text editors for Dummies -- err, "future experts" -- including me), Xchat, and gaim. Also on the wishlist: Wiley would commission LeBlanc to write a similar book aimed squarely at schools, in which applications like Scribus and some of the many Edutainment packages could be emphasized instead.
Since I've been dealing (arguing) with a wireless network in the time I've had this book, there's one other thing I wish this text didn't skip, which is a tutorial on connecting Linux systems via 802.11. The typical distro's autodetection abilities and set-up tools have improved to the point where this would be no more complicated to explain (and probably more useful) than the provided explanation of connecting through a modem.
The Upshot for Dummies Linux for Dummies isn't for everyone; it leaves out far more than it includes, leading to what would for advanced users be egregious omissions. However, for new, intermediate and merely rusty users, this book easily justifies its $30 pricetag -- as a confidence boost to the absolute beginner, and a refresher to everyone else. Linux, for various reasons of various worth, can certainly be cryptic (the same can be said of Windows and probably every OS under the sun), but a little bit of executive summarizing can inspire a would-be user, so he can actually enjoy and understand using it. Kudos to LeBlanc for providing that kind of catalyst.
You can purchase Linux for Dummies, 5th Edition from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, carefully read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
(for plaintext, this book leans understandably toward vi over emacs, but where are pine or joe?),
Pine? I think the reviewer means Pico. It's great, but not included on some distros, which is probably why it wasn't covered. I agree it should have been mentioned, though, especially since it's pretty much self-explanatory. (Joe is too, but the Ctrl-key combinations strike me as odd.)
One man's -1 Flamebait is another man's +5 Funny.
I start up Linux in a GUI. I know I can switch to a shell screen with ctrl-alt-f2 (or other f keys). I could also open a shell from the GUI, but in this case I want to switch with the ctrl-alt-f2 trick to see the original start-up dialog while the system was booting. OK, this works fine. But how in the world do I get back to the GUI??? I would have expected it to be anothet ctrl-alt-Fx key, but none get me there. I spent hours last night searching on Google with no luck.
What's the magic way to switch back to the GUI, and how does a Linux noob learn all of these little tricks that the Linix geeks just think everyone should know? Sure, I know about man, but without knowing what to look up (if it's even there at all), it really doesn't help.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
To expect joe user who discovered the control panel 2 years ago to be ready to go through the arcane details of something is to expect more than a lot of people expect of themselves. The only people that I got into linux would of discovered it on their own and learned it on their own. My mom and sister asked me to free up the 4 gig linux partition that I installed for them last christmas recently when they realized they had not booted into it in 6 months. For all of what people hate about windows, it get things done and for most it comes with the box and winning over someone is like convincing that the engine in their brand new truck needs to be replaced with a fuel cell based system.
An Education is the Font of All Liberty
Yeah, a revision. And while I haven't seen this 5th edition, it has to be WAY better than the first edition was. Each chapter looked like a bunch of lecture notes tossed together by some people who taught CS classes in their spare time (I think there were 3 authors). The disc distributed with the first edition didn't seem to match the instructions in the text at all. Other than an interesting chapter on disk partitioning, it was a total wash.
you've learnt how to do something through searching for answers on the net you almost certainly have huge gaps in your knowlege. The net is good for filling gaps, but you have to know where the gaps are first. An expert is where you learn that, and they don't give all their information away in a structured way in one place for free. They do it for money, they have to, it takes time. They do that in the form of books. Read one some time.
You assume that I haven't read any books on the subject. Thats a pretty hefty assumption there bucko, care to back it up with anything from the post? I have read books on the subject, and they really weren't much of a help for me. Honestly for most things, I just find trying something out and viewing the output to be most helpful. Then using the internet to help me out if I get stuck. But everyone learns differently, I'll admit that.
You assume people want to spend time to learn it. I dont have to go learn to drive everytime I get into a different car thought do I. As to your points
a) an irrational fear due to the image of *nix's being some arcane, command line driven OS for geeks
Weakest argument ever. The majority of people dont even know what unix is, and more importantly they dont care.
As to the fear of change it more 'pain in the ass because it doesnt work like windows does for me'. It might be unfortunate but its a fact MS got there first and Linux has a ways to go before it sufficiently emulates Windows to be a painless transition for the user. Just look at the no of posts on the recent cut and paste paradigm for gods sake.
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
It's an holdover from the days of 6-letter filenames. So, amusingly, it is missing for user-friendliness.
(although you probably knew that and were trying to make a funny.)
was Linux for Dummies a long time ago. It got me up and running, that was it. After that I got sick of Redhat's RPM hell and switched to Debian. My problem with that book was that it just showed me very basic stuff, none of the cool stuff that I wanted to do, like getting into the guts and figuring out what all the files mean, where they sit, and what they do. I don't think they even got into compiling software, which I think would be a pretty important thing for beginners, especially if you want to install programs and such. All that's available via man and Google. Google's the Linux for Dummies who don't mind pecking around the net for tips. I feel the beginners should begin with debian and not redhat - I feel that it's easier to learn with. Besides, if you're only going to play around on the web and read an email or two, does it really matter?
I also reply below your current threshold.
Boxen isnt a word either. That's just utterly stupid.
Unlike virii which was coined by stupid people trying to sound smart and thus unintentionally sounding even more stupid than they really are, boxen was coined by actual smart people to sound stupid on purpose.
Of course that's never prevented a lot of stupid people from using the word too, resulting in stupid people sounding stupid on purpose unintentionally.
Ow! My head hurts.
Of course really smart people know that it is too a word (I messed around with making harpsichords in my youth, which traditionally use boxen keys):
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=boxen
KFG
Having bought (and returned) a book from Wiley in the past, I can further develop the author of this article's impression that they tend to put in a lot of filler. I bought a book called Hack Attacks Revealed, thinking it might be a good primer on network security (it's not! I am embarrased to have purchased it in the first place, hence AC) and a bit of fun to read, but it turned out to be mostly filler, devoting at least half of the thousand pages to screenshots of windows backdoor frontends.
Most of the information in the Wiley books can be found elsewhere, in much more detail. They are a company that, in an opportunistic fashion, looks to sell books with as little new information or effort on their part, merely exploiting the so called "hacker" craze or exploiting ill informed users.
I have to mount it, I do - doesn't work.
Even if it works, I try to format it - you guessed it, doesn't work.
I'm using SuSE, btw, and in their YaST tool they allow me to load LILO onto a floppy so that I don't have to mess up my boot sector on the harddisk. Yes, you are right again - it doesn't work! The floppy drive goes whirr-click for one second and immediately I get the message that LILO was successfully installed onto the floppy. So I reboot, three times. Right you are; it doesn't work, it hangs after saying "LI".
No wonder this system is still so rare among people who are actually trying to accomplish something with their computers! After all, they don't have to spend a half an hour to format a floppy, only to fail in the end!
Something is terribly wrong here. And yes, I followed the instructions, even the instructions that I get from man or the command itself.
Help me out here, or stop promoting this abomination of a system.
"If joe bob can pickup a car manual and take apart an engine than he surely can follow a step by step FAQ on installing a sound card driver or even compiling his own kernel with all the GUI kernel compiler hacks out there."
Interest level plays a much bigger role in that capability of Joe Bob than you're letting on. Joe Bob loves cars, no biggie. I can use myself as an example. I've worked in Linux before. I more or less understand the fundamentals necessary to pick it up and run with it. The problem is, I'm just not interested in mucking around with conf files etc. Call me spoiled. Installation of a sound card in Windows is put in card, boot up machine, pop CD in, hit OK a couple of times. Sometimes, you need to reboot, and blammo you're done. Dual monitor? no problem. Display properties, Nvidia panel, two or three mouse clicks and I'm up. With good experiences like this, is it really such a shock that I'm not all that interested in a.) hunting down the info/FAQ off the web I need b.) finding the right files, c.) dealing with the troubleshooting issues that arise? I'm not interested. I just want the damn thing to work.
I am envious of the Linux users out there. You guys have some good stuff working in your favor. If I had a stronger interest in programming or something, it'd probably be a fun 'challenge'. But if Windows is doing it for me, and I'm low on both time and interest level in Linux, is it really all that unreasonable that I just keep using it?
The UNIX command line presents the user with the "parser puzzle". The system knows the syntax, and the user has to satisfy the system, without much help. And, typically, the user gets zero help from the system in keeping things consistent. Of course users are bitching.
Keeping things consistent is the real problem. But I've written on that before. For now, let me point out that the command line lacks a basic function we expect in everything else in computing - undo. Think hard about why that's the case. It's not fundamental that command lines can't have undo. Command line systems that support undo exist. It's just that the UNIX model doesn't support it. If you want to think about this clearly, understand what a transaction is in the SQL sense, and how commit and revert work in the database world.
The input side of UNIX commands is cryptic, but the output side is worse. Especially for scripting. One of the fundamental design mistakes of UNIX is that programs have arguments on the input side, but all they return is a single integer. If programs called other programs and got answers back in argc/argv, or the environment variables, scripts would be much more effective and reliable. Error messages from programs that called other programs might look like the designer had a clue. Scripts tend to blindly plow ahead, even when doing something totally bogus, or fail at the first problem, leaving the system in some wierd state. That's not a good thing.
I've been using UNIX-like systems since 1978. I'm not impressed with people who think they're l33t because they know most of the options to "ls" and can write simple regular expressions. If that describes you, go read "The Inmates are Running the Asylum" before replying.