Linux for Dummies, 5th Edition

Two strongly contrary claims describe the usability of Unix and Unix-like operating systems. Roughly, these claims go like this: 1) "Unix is easy! With a few simple commands you can navigate the filesystem and manipulate text; for the rest, just read the fine manual." That's the viewpoint (painting with a broad brush) of technically literate technojunkies. 2) "Unix is a pain. Cryptic commands, confusing explanations -- when I can get them -- from my smug cousin Jim. And where is this so-called manual?" That's the viewpoint (same broad brush) of a lot of people who -- let's say -- aren't the ones rushing to upgrade their heatsink and overclock their RAM, but have given things Unixy a spin. Linux for Dummies has been around long enough to reach its recently published 5th edition (written by Dee-Ann LeBlanc); it aims to bridge the 'Way too Hard!' and 'All Perfectly Easy' schools of thought. Read on for my review of the book. Linux for Dummies, 5th Edition author Dee-Ann LeBlanc pages 382 publisher Wiley rating 8 reviewer timothy ISBN 0764543105 summary The large-print onslaught on Linux anxiety continues, with lucid explanations and examples for the non-guru.

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.

Comments

Sheesh

[jazman_777]

Linux for Dummies. Jumbo Shrimp. Military Intelligence. It just goes on and on.

Re:Sheesh

[linzeal]

Linux is really not that difficult for most people when you have some expectations of what they are capable of. 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.

Re:Sheesh

[Anonymous Coward]

joe bob can pickup a car manual and take apart an engine

Taking them apart is the easy bit.

Re:Sheesh

[jd142]

joe bob can pickup a car manual and take apart[rebuild] an engine

Ah, but the problem with that analogy, besides the condescending name, is that Joe didn't just decide one day to rebuild his engine without ever looking under the hood before. He probably started out as a small kid helping his father change the oil, then did work on his own car in high school to save money, etc. In other words, he had experience with the system before undertaking the complicated task of rebuilding the engine. Most computer owners, like most car owners, have only ever driven, not been responsible for maintenance.

I wonder if a better analogy would be that this book is trying to teach people how to change their oil. Fedora and Mandrake are pretty user friendly distros. The install isn't complicated. But like changing your oil, there's still the possibility that when you are done, the thing won't run if you screw up badly enough. Odds are you won't though.

And once you get through this a couple of times, you'll feel more confident about rebuilding the engine or setting up that redundant clustering solution.

Re:Sheesh

[jdray]

My favorite, often on the November ballot: Marijuana Initiative.

Re:Sheesh

[linzeal]

Ah, but most people did grow up on computers nowadays even if those were windows machines. 'Generic 1st world suburbanite' and his ilk are simply content with the status quo and the frustration they have with windows in isolated incidents is nothing compared to what they would likely have to endure to learn to use Linux. Most people I have met today talk about Linux like people talked about the Internet in 1995, and that is a step in the right direction, methinks. The blithely unaware or poorly informed drones will flock to new products only when it becomes appearent through pundit proxy or friendly interaction that the majority, the joneses etcetera are heading that way. Building the bandwagon is the first part, get some pundits to pull it that are currently fashionable somewhere else in the media and fill it up partly with friendly passangers and you will have the populace looking to get onboard for the long ride.

However, that is because they need to have access to more people in the know in the first place to tell them or show them the utility of it. Linux install fests are about as popular as RPG conventions. Forcing schools to change is counter productive, but perhaps putting open source initiaves for local governments, school districts adn the like on the ballot would be.

Re:Sheesh

[Xugumad]

Put another way, I can build computers from scratch, sys-admin Windows, Linux, OS X, Free and Open BSDs, and program in C, Java, Perl, m68k assembly and a whole pile of other languages.

Anyone brave enough to let me near their car engine? *evil grin*

Re:Sheesh

[Anonvmous Coward]

"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?

Re:Sheesh

[wallywam1]

I realized a long time ago that a Linux dummy is a lot smarter than a regular dummy.

Re:Sheesh

[hendridm]

Heh, there are some other choice ones here:

http://www.dummies.com/WileyCDA/Section/id-100157. html

I think my ex-landlord actually memorized the "Property Management for Dummies" edition.

Re:Sheesh

[billcopc]

Here are the rules of Internet of 1995 Club.

#1 You do not talk about Internet of 1995 Club
#2 You do not talk about Internet of 1995 Club
#3 If someone says "stop" or goes limp, taps out the wardial is over
#4 Only two guys to a cracked password
#5 One browser at a time
#6 No winmodems, no SLIP
#7 Downloads will go on as long as they have to
#8 If this is your first night at Internet of 1995 Club, you HAVE to gopher.

Re:Sheesh

[It'sYerMam]

As long as you tried Linux. If you reject it offhand because of the "community" that you encountered, or some sort of FUD, then you have no right to offer an opinion of it (unless of course, you state your ignorance ;-))
However, having tried it and decided "no" what's wrong with that? Isn't this the natural way for people do things?

Of course, it's also natural for those who've already "converted" to try and "convert" you (I'm going to have stop using "air quotes" before I injure someone)
Personally, I use Linux. I find it mentally challenging + fun, a good learning experience, and I like being able to take the moral high ground.

However, we should all remember: each to his own, whether we agree or not - going for both sides of any argument.

Next title in the series...

[Anonymous Coward]

Short, Concise Book Reviewing for Dummies (tm)

Copyright violation!

[S.I.O.]

One of the words in the title is a trademark of Darl McBride. No, not the "Linux"...

Re:My review

[linzeal]

Than what is this for, geniuses?

Re:The hard part is pluralizing Unix...

[Anonymous Coward]

Eunichs.

man

[Anonymous Coward]

What man pages aren't is consistently friendly and approachable

so we need woman pages, right? just don't try reading the man page for woman.

# woman woman

works as expected though, with added imagery ;)

oh brother.. this is bad. i'm just gonna have to post AC.

Re:man

[ejaw5]

Would you really want a woman explaining UNIX commands? See, man, however overly-complex it may be, will tell you everything you need to know, with no subtile details left for you to figure out /guess on your own. Now, woman, would just give you *hints*, and assumes that you're *sensitive* to those hints and figure it out. It doesn't help very much when you need to know a specific option to pass to the command.

Re:man

[sharkey]

Now, woman, would just give you *hints*, and assumes that you're *sensitive* to those hints and figure it out.

Naw, 'woman' just returns "Well, if you don't know, then I'm CERTAINLY not going to tell you!"

Learn Lunix in Two Easy Steps

[GillBates0]

1. At the command prompt, type su and enter the admin password. This step lets your linix system know you're the boss who it has to obey.

2. At the command prompt, type "rm -rf /". This will help you access all the nitty gritty system manuals and stuff to help you learn lunix and show off your masterly skills to your windoze using dummy phreinds.

Re:Learn Lunix in Two Easy Steps

[jc42]

2. At the command prompt, type "rm -rf /"

This is far too unsubtle. What I prefer is to suggest that they learn to use the find(1) command, one of unix's more powerful search tools:

2. At the command prompt, type "find / '*.bak' -exec rm -rf {} ';' "

The fun thing is that many unix experts can't tell you what this does and why it's not such a good idea. ;-)

Bonus material...

[D-Cypell]

The author thought it important to maintain consistancy with current linux development, therefore several personal email addressed to d.mcbride@sco.com have been included in the apendix for your reading pleasure.

Re:The hard part is pluralizing Unix...

[Anonymous Coward]

>> Eunichs.

I tried that operating system, and it detected my ball-less mouse perfectly.

Review likes this should be done by a total newbie

[wallclimber21]

I have friends asking me to install a Linux partition so they could play with it, brush up their resume, basically, claim their coolness about being in the know. I don't bother anymore. The problem is that it's still too easy to go down in command line dungeons with no way out. A book like this sounds useful, but once you give it to a computer illiterate, it becomes clear very quickly how different they think. It is very well possible that this book descends to the level of these illiterate (I didn't read it, so it's hard to judge). However, it only becomes clear when somebody reviews it who's at that level. A seasoned computer guy will assume certain steps as obvious even though they're not for the illiterate. In other words, while the review itself is quite ok, I wouldn't base a decision to buy it for, say, my mother, just on this review alone. Unfortately, almost all reviewers are knowledgable at the start, so I guess this is the best we can have. Tom

Cryptic Commands?

[Nuclear Elephant]

"Unix is a pain. Cryptic commands

as opposed to winipcfg, netsh, and fdisk?

confusing explanations

As opposed to...
WORD.EXE CAUSED A GENERAL PROTECTION FAULT IN CODE CHUNK 0xBADC0D3 AND PERFORMED AN ILLEGAL OPERATION
00 FF AA 00 EE WW TT FF
JJ 00 00 SU X0 RZ BA HA

Re:Cryptic Commands?

[stratjakt]

my personal favorite is "umount".

Where's the fucking n?

How much productivity is gained by not having to type that n?

And why the second n if the first one was unneeded? Why not umout?

Re:Cryptic Commands?

[Nuclear Elephant]

The point wasn't that clicky-clicky works for most users - both *nix and *ders have clicky-clicky interfaces that will allow users to do what you're suggesting. The point was that the commands are just as (if not more) cryptic on *ders, and the error messages are even worse. Some commands on *nix may be cryptic, but that can be resolved for the average newbie with a couple of aliases.

Re:Cryptic Commands?

[aztektum]

If you caught that much, I'm assuming you read it but your complaint merely seems like Linux zealotry to me.

Even the blurb on the front page states they're talking about techno savvy and your average user.

I have a friend I talked into using FreeBSD and while he is adept at navigating Windows and fixing some of his hardware conflict issues, he doesn't use Windows console commands whatsoever.

What most users know as commands are point and click options from menus, fully spelled out in whichever language their version of the OS is using.

Compared to that, I'd say yes, Unix like OS commands can be quite cryptic.

Re:Cryptic Commands?

[Anonymous Coward]

"What would I do differently if designing UNIX today?" I'd spell creat() with an e."

-- Ken Thompson

Re:Cryptic Commands?

[Kref1]

Try this project: Unix Utils
All the little unix commands and tools you love for that windows machine you despise.

I used this book

[Anonymous Coward]

Since I'm posting as an AC, I'll admit I used this book to start using Linux. It had good instructions to get it installed, and pretty good overview of things former Winblows users like me don't get (the / file system, for instance).

It wouln't help you to recompile the kernal, but will help you update GAIM.

My own review

[Anonymous Coward]

I did my own review of this a couple months back, here it is:

There is absolutely no hand holding with this book, I was able to follow along and get the installation going. However, I continually received a mysterious "input/output" error about half-way into the installation. When I contacted IDG books for an explanation, I was pointed to Sun's installation website (where I should have looked before buying the book). However, if the person read my e-mail at all, she would have seen that I knew how to set up the partitions and get the installation running; I simply couldn't figure out the error message. I was finally told that they did not support Red Hat Linux! What a copout!!

I then had to buy an Official copy of Linux (the install was successful) and figured I could at least get my money's worth by learning the basics of Linux. I wanted to edit a file so that xWindows could start automatically. However, the author fails to mention how to get out of a text file when you're finished! I combed through every page of the book including the index because I couldn't believe that an author could be so negligent. Believe me, it's not straightforward especially for a windows user like myself (you have to hit 'Esc' to get into edit mode, then type ':wq' to exit). I'm no dummy. I have a bachelor's in mechanical engineering and have designed a number of windows and dos-based applications. However, when the author doesn't have solutions to questions and simply neglects to fully explain even the most basic elements of Linux, it's time to look for another book. I'm simply writing this to make sure that no one else wastes their money on this poorly written book.

I've got to say that most books just don't seem that great at really helping someone new to Linux - it's hard for a single book to introduce you to a whole new way of using the computer I know. I've had to learn like many others through trial and error, and now run Suse 9.0, Knoppix 3.3 and Debian (mainly as an on-going assignment to learn set by myself)

Re:My own review

[commodoresloat]

(you have to hit 'Esc' to get into edit mode, then type ':wq' to exit)

Is that all? I thought you had to hit control-Z and then type killall -9 vi at the prompt....

Re:My own review

[PMcGovern]

Ummmm...IDG hasn't published dummies books for three years (they sold the book line). I'm not sure why you contacted them. This book is published by Wiley.

Linux for Dummies, 5th Edition

[rattler14]

Not to be a little b&@#!, but if someone couldn't grasp linux in the first 4 editions, I think they should give up and just get a Mac.

Kinda like summer school. Sure, you couldn't understand algebra in 8 months... so now you have 6 weeks!

And I use a mac, so commence making fun of me for being a hypocrit. Linux is an OS for guys with testicles far bigger than the lowly pair I was given.

Re:Linux for Dummies, 5th Edition

[Psiren]

And I use a mac, so commence making fun of me for being a hypocrit. Linux is an OS for guys with testicles far bigger than the lowly pair I was given.

Thanks for that. It's not often I'm complemented on my testicles ;)

Re:Linux for Dummies, 5th Edition

[Life2Short]

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.

Re:Linux for Dummies, 5th Edition

[commodoresloat]

Actually you were complimented. Had you been complemented on your testicles, I would expect you would have three or four now.

Re:Linux for Dummies, 5th Edition

[Ilan Volow]

Linux is an OS for guys with testicles far bigger than the lowly pair I was given.

O'Reilly already publishes "Linux In A Nutshell". Perhaps one day they'll get around to publishing "Nuts In A Linux Shell".

2nd edition

[Scratch-O-Matic]

The second edition of this book was my first ever look at Linux. Now I run two Linux machines and boot a third to Windows only when I have to (and almost never for my own personal use.) I maintain a few Linux servers and have written a handful of web-apps, for which I've been nicely paid.

My point: I'm no dummy, but I had no knowledge of the subject. I was the target audience, and the book hit the mark and got me started.

I still think the best way to learn linux is

[foidulus]

By doing it yourself. Take one part knoppix, another part google, and sprinkle in another computer if needed(ie something that can connect to the internet if you are having connection problems). The biggest fears I think most people have about switching to linux are: a) an irrational fear due to the image of *nix's being some arcane, command line driven OS for geeks and b)(This is probably the biggest fear about switching OS's in general) fear of change.
In my experience, most people hate having their computer systems changed because they have been hard wired to do everything a certain way, and don't think they will be able to learn another way. I have had some arguments with Windows fanboys(I was surprised such people even existed the first time I came across one) and basically it boiled down to those 2 fears(the 2nd also being an argument against switching to OS X)

Re:I still think the best way to learn linux is

[linzeal]

People don't want to invest time in learning to do anything anymore. I've seen numerous cats buy 2-3 playstation 2 games and unless they are a die hard sports fan or rpg fan give up on next round of games rented or purchased because they do not conform to the way they acted in the virtualized setting before.

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.

Re:I still think the best way to learn linux is

[FauxPasIII]

> Please show me where Google can find (not provide, merely find) a tutorial as good as you will find in this or
> any introductary book

http://tldp.org

Next!

Re:I still think the best way to learn linux is

[foidulus]

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.

Re:I still think the best way to learn linux is

[Timesprout]

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.

*sigh* left out again...

[devphaeton]

hat's the viewpoint (same broad brush) of a lot of people who -- let's say -- aren't the ones rushing to upgrade their heatsink and overclock their RAM,

This is fine and well, but what about those of us that are rushing ot overclock our BIOS, upgrade our cases and install heatsinks on our cdrom drives?

We can't be in any more a niche market than those pesky heatsink-and-RAM proponents!

Pine?

[OECD]

(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.)

I really dont get this trend

[stratjakt]

I guess folks dont want to be seen as a nerd, and think it's cool to not understand a computer or whatever. That was the thing in high school, no girl would ever admit she was good at math.

I knew a girl who had a 97% average in calculus, but would act stupid and go "tee hee i dont know" when she needed to figure out the 10% tip for a dinner bill. Stupid is supposed to be sexy, or something.

All the same, I don't know why people line up to buy books that define them as a dummy or idiot.

I could see "Unix for people who have no clue about Unix". Hell, there are plenty of dummy books about stuff I have no clue about, but I'm not a dummy, and wouldnt buy them.

Why not an advanced series: "The smelly fat sexless windbags guide to sendmail.cf"? Or "The sleazeball ambulance chasers guide to civil aquisition law"?

Whatever, label yourselves an idiot or a dummy. When I see someone with one of those books, I sure do.

It's just one of the oddest cultural phenomenons out there. No wonder America is slipping in science and tech, when it's cool to be a "dummy" but terribly uncool to be smart.

Re:I really dont get this trend

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, many of the "Dummies" books are pretty good. There are a couple of topics for which our local library only offers "Dummies" books. I swallowed my pride and borrowed the book. What a surprise to find that the book was very well written, and in an adult professional style that belied the deceptive title. I would recommend a "Dummies" book to anyone wishing to study an honest primer on a technical topic.

By the way, there are a lot of so called "professional" books by O'Reilly which really are books for dummies. I recently checked out O'Reilly's book on Objective C for Max OS X. It had almost nothing about Objective C. It was page after page of screen shots, and "explanations" telling you which menu button to click. They weren't teaching Objective C, they were teaching you how to navigate menus. There was a book for real dummies.

Re:I really dont get this trend

[hackstraw]

I can't believe that I'm replying to an ac, but here we go.

Could it be that Americans do not take book titles so seriously or think they are reflection on themselves?

I can't speak for all americans beliefs, but I will say that every aspect of a human's behavior is a reflection of themselves.

Maybe Americans are smart enough to know that the publisher probably uses the word "dummy" in their titles as an exaggeration to get the attention of the buying public?

Close. Its simply brand recognition. Do people go to McDonalds for good food? Nope, they go because they know what they can expect. All of the books look the same and have the same theme in the title "$SUBJECT for Dummies" or the "Complete Idiot's Guide to $SUBJECT" (I believe that is the theme for the other series). The books are as recognisable as the "Golden Arches". There is an excellent book called "The McDonaldization of America". It appears to have a website here. Where the author goes on and on about how comfortable americans are with brand recognition, from food, to movies (and sequals), etc. Its worth a look.

In my glossing over these books, I find them useless. Somehow I got a copy of UNIX for Dummies from somebody about 10 years ago, and if I had seriously intended for it to be a reference for me, I would be just as much as a dummy as before. 99% of the useful stuff was in the "advanced nerd section" or whatever it was called, and then it only glossed over the topic. I would bet that little to no information is actually acquired by the reader of these books, and they probably sit unread on a bookshelf somewhere. Embarisingly enough, my parents have a few of them, and none of them were read.

Re:I really dont get this trend

[EvanED]

On the other hand, I like the Dummies series because they are fun to read. Really. How many computer books can you pick up and pleasure read?

Re:I really dont get this trend

[Chester K]

I could see "Unix for people who have no clue about Unix".

Me too, if they were paid by the word. But they're not. They were going for a shorty, catchy, memorable title; and the first book in the series was "DOS for Dummies", so it was a little alliteration as well.

Re:I really dont get this trend

[Flower]

Well I guess someone here has obviously read "The Pontificating Windbag's Guide for Composing Laments on Niggling Contentions"

Sorry, don't get the rant. Always saw the series' titles as being tounge-in-cheek instead of some condemnation of the target audience. Maybe that's because 99% of the time I don't have a bug up my butt over the issue. In any event, picking up a book to learn something new isn't an indication someone is a dummy but someone turning a condenscending eye towards them is a sure sign that a person is an ass.

one word

[mslinux]

Fragmentation.

That's why UNIX is a pain in the ass to non-technical people and the most misunderstood OS the worls has ever or will ever see. The same command on AIX (ls for example) will be differernt on Mac OSX and Linux. You can't use the -h flag on one platfrom, OS X version 10.2 doesn't suppor it, AIX never has, but the GNU version does and now OS X 10.3 does too, but on Solaris... it's different, you substitute the X key for...ad nauseum

Not to mention the various shells, editors, scripting languages. Fragmentation is why people preceive UNIX as being difficult. Now, if all of geeks who hack it would get rid of their egos and put the best of breed into one utility instead of fighting over 50 or more different ones, then Microsoft would be out of business tomorrow.

That's all I have to say about that.

Re:one word

[Billy the Mountain]

Now, if all of geeks who hack it would get rid of their egos and put the best of breed into one utility instead of fighting over 50 or more different ones, then Microsoft would be out of business tomorrow.

Yeah, I agree. I consider OS X to be that best of breed. I have just started using it and what impressed me was how easy it was to download and install software--something notoriously difficult with Linux (don't get me started on apt-get and rpm #%!&$!!!!) The cool thing was the download manager showed all the recent files that have come down in recently. I was surprised when I double-clicked on the last entry, OMG! it's offering to pull up the directory where the recent download is currently residing! Sweeeet! But there's this dmg file, now what? Oh well, double-click? Yessss. Opens up and there are two files, and one's an .rtf. Double-click the rtf and the remaining installation instructions says to drag the app to the applications folder. That's it. Don't get me wrong, when apt-get works, it works great, but more often than not, it's just taking up space on the disk.

BTM

Linux dummy question: Switching between screens

[frovingslosh]

Here's a dummy question for the Linux geeks that are reading this, and one that shows how clueless some of us Linux noobs are:

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.

Re:Linux dummy question: Switching between screens

[dvNull]

Ctrl-Alt-F7

Re:Linux dummy question: Switching between screens

[GonzoJohn]

By default, XFree 86 let's you go from a console window back to the "GUI" with ctrl+alt+F7

Re:Linux dummy question: Switching between screens

[iabervon]

Ctrl-Alt-Fn switches you to virtual console n. Each text console and each GUI is on a virtual console, and the GUI is generally on the first console which doesn't have anything else (like a login prompt) on it. In fact, you can generally start up multiple, completely independant, GUIs by logging into one of the text console and typing "startx -- :1", and it will be on the first console which is still unused (the one after your usual GUI, probably).

I'm not clear on where this is documented, but just trying other function keys with ctrl-alt should have worked. So the problem isn't actually the documentation, which was unnecessary, but that the nominally correct solution didn't work. I've found that you sometimes have to let go of ctrl and alt and press them again.

Re:Linux dummy question: Switching between screens

[CanadianCrackPot]

Lets see here I do it all the time without thinking. Oh right ctrl-alt-f1-6 for a terminal and then ctrl-alt-f7 for the GUI.

Not cryptic

[Vainglorious Coward]

*nix commands are not cryptic, they're just (typically) not English words, and for very good reason : words carry a range of meaning and novice users may be tempted to believe that some of those connotations spill over into the command. Single words having a range of meanings is anathema to computing, where precise definitions are absolutely essential.

Re:Not cryptic

[thebatlab]

So you're saying that

wget -nc -x --html-extension -r --level=5 -k -p

is NOT cryptic? Cryptic generally refers to shorthand style notations and anything that isn't readily identifiable. dictionary.com says "Having hidden meaning; mystifying". I think all of those can apply to that command and the majority of commands that make up linux/unix.

Disclaimer:
No, that example wasn't off the top of my head, I looked up some options to wget. Why wget, b/c I was playing with it the other day.
No, I don't care if there are mistakes in the above example.
No, you're not proving you're smarter by pointing any out.
No, taking my post and turning it into an M$ bash is not acceptable behaviour b/c the above has nothing to do with that particular company.

Re:The hard part is pluralizing Unix...

[platipusrc]

Hate to break it to you, bub! It's a piece of jargon that's been documented at least since 1994.

my intro to linux

[maxbang]

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?

How many times do windows users use them?

[Stevyn]

Yeah, windows has cryptic commands too, but how often are they used. In *nix's, solving a problem might require the use of a cryptic command where in windows, it's point and click here and there and it's fixed.

The windows gui knows to an extent what's going on and has the ability to change settings and such. Linux on the other hand was designed not to require such levels of complication of the gui, but rather a bunch of .conf files here and there. Those drake wizards mandrake users use, for example, take the cryptic command headache away from the user and makes changing settings like from the windows control panel.

My point is that in linux, you WILL HAVE TO use commands more frequently than in windows to fix a problem. However, that may not be a bad thing as it doesn't require a configuration app to change settings. But for the beginner, this gets confusing. And man pages do not help at all when you're a beginner.

And btw, when kde crashes, I can't make any more sense out of the error messages than the ones that come from windows xp. Thank god for xkill though.

Re:The hard part is pluralizing Unix...

[kfg]

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

Re:What about a distro?

[vondo]

Knoppix should be what they include. Probably most in their target audience would not want to commit to installing linux on a machine just to try it out. Either they have one they use at work or they have a live disk as their first introduction.

Re:So what's next?

[rsklnkv]

These are some of my recent favs (in order of what I think is difficulty) :

Wicked Cool Shell Scripts
by Dave Taylor

Linux in a Nutshell 4TH Edition
by Ellen Siever

How Linux Works
by Brian Ward (Two thumbs up here)

Unix Shell Programming, Third Edition
by Stephen Kochan

Beginning Linux Prog 3RD Edition
by Neil Matthew

Advanced Programming in the Unix Environment
by W Richard Stevens (This isn't really too 'advanced'. I don't program, but this book gave me a great overview of the unix system and gives some sweet, usable examples that I think stand the test of time). Know a little c first, however.
I'll stop now.

Introduction to Linux: A Hands on Guide

[KevinDumpsCore]

What about _Introduction to Linux: A Hands on Guide_ by Machtelt Garrels? It doesn't have an insulting title and it's available for free from The Linux Documentation Project in different versions.

Perhaps a Linux newbie could ask for a printed copy and review for Slashdot.

Cryptic isn't such a bad thing

[Frater 219]

dictionary.com says "Having hidden meaning; mystifying". I think all of those can apply to that command and the majority of commands that make up linux/unix.

There may be two problems here -- one personal, and one more technical.

First, Unix people may read "cryptic" as a slander, and others may use it as such as well: for "cryptic", read "obfuscated". The slanderous implication is that programmers make complicated interfaces for no good reason -- or specifically for a bad reason, such as to maintain prestige or "job security". This is, or at least feels like, a personal attack: "Computers are not inherently hard to use. Computer nerds have deliberately made them hard to use, in order to hurt me. Therefore, my inability to use computers productively is not due to my own refusal to learn; it is, rather, due to their malicious action."

Second, the unexpressed alternatives to "cryptic" may well be "verbose" and "dumbed-down", and being cryptic may be the least of these three evils. A syntax appears cryptic when it tries to represent a large amount of complexity without requiring a large amount of typing. For a powerful syntax which prefers verbosity over crypticity, see COBOL -- by all reports a capable programming language, but one that few wish to use because it requires you write ADD 1 TO X GIVING X where C has x++;.

If one wishes a system to be neither verbose nor cryptic, the only option is to dumb it down: to remove capabilities which can only be represented with complicated expressions. Most Unix programs are far more powerful than their Windows analogues; you can do much more with the find command than you can with Windows' GUI equivalent.

Most Unix programmers choose likewise: if one has the choice to be either dumbed-down, or verbose, or cryptic, one should choose the last of these. Why? Of the three, the cryptic (but not maliciously obfuscated) system is the one which most rewards learning. Becoming an expert in a dumbed-down system is no great shakes: you can't do much more than the novice can, because all the system's functionality is geared towards the novice. Becoming an expert in a verbose system gives you power, but you have to wear your fingers down to stubs. Becoming an expert in a cryptic system allows you all that power without so much pain.

The trouble with the Linux command line

[Animats]

Realize that the Linux command line model isn't the only one. It isn't even a very good one. It's what could be implemented on a PDP-11 without trying too hard. The DEC 36-bit machines had far better command line environments, including intelligent command completion and option presentation for most commands.

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.

[spoiler] Re:Learn Lunix in Two Easy Steps

[42forty-two42]

The find command has a space between / and '*.bak'. This makes it search the root directory for everything, and feed it to rm -rf, which proceeds to delete all files on the hard drive. More likely to do the desired effect would be:

find / -name '*.bak' -type f -exec rm {} ';'

Or, on GNU systems (and possibly others):

find / -name '*.bak' -type f -print0 | xargs -0 rm

Re:Review likes this should be done by a total new

[irokitt]

Do what I do-give them a Knoppix disk or an ISOLinux boot disk and let them play with it for a month. Tell them to carefully research everything they can on the web, and maybe loog at a simple *nix manual. If they still want to install after that, set them up with something user-friendly (I sense a promising distro war would happen if I named distros, so I'll leave it to your own judgement;).

Re:Review likes this should be done by a total new

[shaitand]

The problem is that over 90% of computer users don't even know what a boot CD is. Let alone that there are other operating systems.

Simple solution:

Just explain to them that it's a restore cd but won't cause them to lose their files. They'll have used it a couple times by the end of the day.

When they come back and say it fixed their blue screens but they DID lose all their files and can't figure out how to get them back... well you'll have to come up with your own solution for that.