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Point and Click Linux
SimplyMepis is a KDE-centric Live CD Linux which is also well suited for hard-drive installation. Before talking about Point and Click's text, Mepis itself deserves some description, because it's the basis for the examples in this example-laden book.
Not many years ago, books that came with a Linux distribution usually had the user prepare an initial pair of floppies, cross his fingers, and sacrifice at least a hard drive partition just to try it out by installing either from a CD or over the network. If the user wanted to keep an existing Windows partition, things were even more complicated, because there were no newbie-friendly non-destructive partition editors. Having bored (suffered) through that process, and seemingly tried every possible combination of boot+root floppy images before hitting the one that actually worked all my hardware enough to let the installation begin, I'm a big fan of Live CD Linux distros: this is progress.
Until sometime last winter, I would have suggested that any Linux book come with a copy of Knoppix, which is so astoundingly useful it's nearly impossible to overpraise. (I'm glad to see that several books are now coming bundled with it. Marcel Gagne's Kiss the Blue Screen of Death Goodbye and Knoppix Hacks both come with pressed versions of Knoppix.) Mepis, though, deserves the acclaim that's been heaped on it in the last several months, and makes a perfect choice to include with a book for Linux newcomers. And while a Live CD has obvious advantages, a user can follow the bulk of this book with any computer running KDE under Linux (or one of the BSDs, for that matter).
Mepis is at present my most-used distribution; I've used it recently to:
- Rescue data from a friends' grandmother's malware-hobbled Windows PC, on which the Windows goo was so thick that even booting up was at best a sometimes thing. (Switching her to Linux entirely is the next project.)
- Install Mepis's version of Debian on several of my computers; in fact, Live CDs like Mepis and Knoppix are the only way I've installed Linux for the past year.
- Show some kids TuxKart. (One of them beat my all-time high on his first attempt. Beginner's luck.)
Compared to Knoppix and most other live CDs, Mepis has what I consider a slightly friendlier feel; in particular, it gathers several of the more annoying and potentially intimidating sysadmin tasks into two groups, each with an icon on the desktop: the "System Center," for tweaking display, network and mouse parameters; and "User utilities," which for now contains only a "Clean User Space" program to clear one's browser history and cache, as well as purge the current bash history and recent documents. (Most people, at birth, don't even know what "sysadmin" means; having desktop icons to common admin tasks is considerate of new users.)
Though it will work on a wide range of x86 machines, like any Live CD (and any OS, really) Mepis benefits from running on a fast system with lots of RAM. 128MB of free RAM is what I'd call a realistic minimum; my system is perfectly run-of-the-mill by current new-PC standards (Sempron 2800+ processor, 512MB of RAM), and far more than necessary.
Get clicking
Point and Click Linux is aimed squarely at those new -- including perfectly new -- to using Linux at all, and it would make a fine non-intimidating manual for someone sitting down at his first computer.
To that end, Roblimo does not assume that the reader will be installing Mepis onto his hard drive; the whole point of the book is that all the point-and-click magic can be tried on a typical Windows PC with nothing more than a reboot. That said, current hard drives are much faster than current optical drives, and a system installed to a hard disk makes saving files a simpler process. I had brand-new system bought from a local megastore which was all set for a Free operating system, and decided to put this version of Mepis onto it. I used this book as my guide to the system, as I suspect a new user would -- as an actual step-by-step guide, not a random-access source of knowledge. So I installed the system and then tried the examples throughout.
The first four chapters make up a section called "Getting Started." Chapters here stray toward the short and snappy rather than comprehensive; all four of these might be condensed into a single chapter in a book meant for technophiles. Getting Started details some of Linux's advantages (lack of spyware, quick bug fixes, low price), booting Mepis from the CD-ROM drive (or installing it to hard disk) and working with KDE. The level is perfect for a literate but ignorant user: Roblimo explains in simple terms how to log in to the system (user "demo," password "demo" for the live CD), moving about on the KDE desktop, and using the KDE panel and K menu. He sneaks in one application in this section, too (KWrite), not so much as an application in itself, but because it demonstrates how other well-behaved KDE programs should act when it comes to opening and saving files, navigating the directory structure, etc.
An early snag: Chapter 4's instructions on reformatting a hard drive to let Windows and Linux both exist happily on the same PC didn't work for me. I was installing onto a brand new hard drive, and I thought I'd give dual-booting a shot to see what Windows was like nowadays, and so followed the instructions on setting up a machine to dual-boot. The disk-partitioning and formatting program QTParted (as user friendly as anything I've seen in that category on any platform) recognized the Windows partition that came with the machine, and let me shrink it to make room for installing Linux. But after divvying up the hard drive space and actually copying Mepis onto the drive, the machine would happily start Linux, but never actually booted Windows -- only generated an error message that it couldn't. I repeated the whole process, with the same result. It could be a quirk of my hardware (or more likely, pilot error, since I don't see similar complaints in the Mepis forums), but I never did get it to boot into Windows.
For many users, though, a functioning Windows install is probably a non-negotiable requirement. If any readers run into the same problem I did, and can't just shrug and toss Windows completely, my happy-overkill advice would be to invest in a second hard drive and skip all the hassles of dual- or multi-booting. (Storage is cheap, and it's hard to have too much of it.) If your drives are big enough, it also means you can back up the important data from each one onto the other, which is a nice bonus. Since Windows is to me only a curiosity, I decided not to pursue the partitioning problem -- I did the install one more time, this time choosing to use the entire hard disk.
That hitch aside, the book is straightforward, practical and accurate. It's also limited to a small subset of tasks and activities, which is perfectly reasonable given the intended audience.
Section II, "Linux Applications" is the book's largest, mostly because here too chapters are divided by application, rather than throwing several apps into a small number of longer chapters. It's also the most important, in my view, because the point of using Linux -- for most people, at least -- is not to simply appreciate its aesthetics, but to get things done. ("Getting things done" includes playing games!)
The applications covered start with Kppp (also given its own video segment on the DVD) -- a handy choice, because while Mepis will automatically detect and set up a DHCP broadband connection, readers who don't have broadband set up will benefit from many of the other apps (email, web-browsing, IM) only if they have a working Internet connection. Since I'm using a DSL connection, I didn't need to follow the advice here, but as a long-time Kppp user, I can vouch for the accuracy of its instructions. Yes, readers will need a Linux-friendly ISP and a phone line; the book as well as the video address this reality.
With Internet connection in place, the section proceeds apace, introducing Mozilla across not one but four separate chapters. (An introductory chapter to the Mozilla suite, followed by one apiece on Mozilla as a browser, email client, and web-page editor.) Firefox and Thunderbird are given a quick mention, but for the purposes of this book, Mozilla it is. I've recently moved almost completely to Firefox as a web browser, and I wish that Firefox had been emphasized instead, but the same principles apply at any rate. Windows users unused to browsers besides IE are likely to be pleased with the lucid instructions on blocking pop-up ads.
Chapters 10 through 15 also introduce a software suite in several easy chunks, this time the OpenOffice.org applications. While 5 chapters in 30-some pages is clearly not enough to make anyone an expert, it is plenty to establish the basic operations it takes to create and manipulate documents containing text, numbers and graphics in OO.o. The short (one-page!) Chapter 15 succinctly addresses working with Microsoft Word: "But don't expect 100% compatibility with MS Office. You won't get it. Instead, expect to get enough compatibility for everyday work, with some of the 'frills' left out."
The other chapters introduce some of the other Linux standbys included with Mepis: the multi-IM wonder Kopete (my current favorite AIM client), The GIMP, Frozen Bubble (fair warning is given about its addictive nature) and more. Especially worthy of note is the finance application called CheckBook Tracker, which is simpler than GNUcash but allows for low-key tracking and balancing of passbook accounts, and is a good start for putting money management on a computer. I'd never heard of it before reading this book, and I'm impressed.
A third section, "Beyond the Basics," is still pretty basic by Linux-world standards, but provides some appetite-whetting for new users, with instructions on the rudiments of installing new software using Kpackage, changing the look of one's desktop, cooperating with Windows (using Samba, Win4Lin and CrossOver Office), and customizing the included firewall application. Worms and the viruses aren't the problem under Linux that they are for Windows users, but they certainly could become more of a problem, and it's good to have some information on limiting outside access to one's PC.
While Kpackage is a perfectly competent package, I hope that the next version of Mepis will include by default the even-friendlier Synaptic as well as Kpackage. This section is one where I wish the short chapters had been at least a bit longer, because much of the coolest software for Linux is out there waiting to be grabbed. Maybe that's for the next set of readers up the totem pole, though.
However, a nice chapter (written by Joe Barr) at least gives some of the command-line rudiments that readers will need to get beyond pointing and clicking, which even in a book about getting along with the GUI is useful information.
A few appendices round out the book; one gives additional information on Mepis, and the other two list currently popular distributions and books, for readers who want to take the next steps toward Linux proficiency.
The small screenThe included video -- 13 short videos, actually -- are fun, and a nice touch. They illustrate in what will for experienced users be excruciating detail the same things the book talks about. When Roblimo says "put it in your computer's CD drive," you see his hand putting the disc into his computer's CD drive. When he says to move the mouse to a certain point, you see his pointer (helpfully highlighted with a translucent yellow circle) move to the appropriate spot.
For new users especially, I think it's much easier to follow something being done on screen than it is to interpret written instructions. The production on the DVD is what you might expect from the guy who for years ran a site called cheapcomputing.com; strictly functional and a bit rough around the edges, with adequate but lo-fi sound and picture, including Roblimo's web-cam captured face as he talks the user through each step. Having a human face on screen blunts the strangeness of watching someone else's disembodied pointer move around the screen pointing and clicking away, which is the case with some video-training material.(One wrinkle: unless you have both a CD ROM drive and a DVD drive in your PC, you won't be watching the videos and running Mepis as a live CD at the same time. Mepis will be occupying at least one optical drive until you decide to exit it completely.)
You can probably tell already whether Point and Click Linux is suited for you, and the answer is likely No. Just the same, I discovered a few things about Linux and KDE that I'd never tried before reading the book, and know at least a dozen people I think would benefit from a copy.
You can purchase Point and Click Linux 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.
the idea behind a Mac with OSX?
I can't wait to get my hands on kernel 'XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX'.
Being a linux newbie myself, I purchased this book and it was a great read. Much easier to read than some other tech books. I'd recommned it anyone, cept the hardcore power users.
Want to learn about anything sexual? Check out the sex wiki:
Point and Click Linuxcomes with version XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Gee, Linux is way ahead of Apple these days. They're only up to OS X.
Thanks for the informative review. Sounds like an interesting book/package. One of the reasons why I hardly use linux (although I've got it set up on a dual partition) is that basic tasks seem to have such a steep learning curve. Perhaps this book might help me overcome those.
The friendliest digital photography forums on the net!
Was he looking over your shoulder and threatening you with unemployment when you typed that? Holy typos Batman!
EvilCON - Made Famous by
as long as my mom, who can be called a computer idiot but still manages to do her work with MS Office, tells me "what's that K icon where START should be", I call bullcrap on any point-and-click Linux.
The reason I should say this is because my mom is extremely typical. Things "power users" take for granted (or, rather, don't even think about for one second) are very puzzling to many average computer users. Not to mention the scare factor of going away from something well known (Windows + Office).
This said however, I commend this new effort to promote Linux, but sadly I doubt it'll change much from all the previous such attempts.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
I'm generally not a nut about formatting, grammar, or spelling but my god. That review was like an unholy trifecta of the English language gone terribly wrong.
I really wanted to read the review and get something out of it, I just kept fumbling over the writing.
Dear Slashdot "Editors"... Please for christmas, can Santa bring you all an unabridged grammar book and a spell checker.
Yes Francis, the world has gone crazy.
>> Point and Click Linuxcomes with version XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.
Does it come with a parental advisory?
This Linux book is 1337!
You're right, I wouldn't steal a car. But if it were possible, I sure as hell would download one!
And for those tasks for which no-one has seen fit to write a manual... just become a subject expert and WTFM.
Whatever.
It's inappropriate for Slashdot to review its boss's book. Far better is to wait for someone else (not related) to review it then link to the review with a disclaimer.
There is one problem with the KDE alsa user permissions, when you create a new user after install. A easier to understand root user permission tool might help, so one would not have to understand unix group and user permissions. If the Gui had a more bonehead simple help file the issue would go away. Of course typing $man ls -l or $man chown before you su to create a new account does help. But how can someone who is a small buisiness who needs an alternative to the MS treadmill afford the time to learn these things? That said I firmly believe that prepackaged Mepis like Linux distros are the future.
If any readers run into the same problem I did, and can't just shrug and toss Windows completely, my happy-overkill advice would be to invest in a second hard drive and skip all the hassles of dual- or multi-booting.
This is exactly how I have my primary box set up. Are you suggesting that newbies open their cases and swap drive plugs when they want to change OSes? (Been there. Done that.)
If not, how on earth does it save one from dual booting?
Methinks you had some other concept in mind, relating to partitioning a single drive, but the way it came out a newbie reading it would end up confused beyond redemption.
KFG
...that guy with the late-night infomercials who calls himself "the Computer Doctor" or somesuch nonsense. You know: "...and the lesson plays like a regular video on top of the application, so you can work along."
The last ad I saw from him, he was hawking a CD tutoring on "avoiding identity theft" of which he said "I decided to do this special CD because I was recently a victim myself."
Now THERE's a guy you should be taking advice from.
(Actually having stupid users write tech tutorials isn't that bad. Only they understand the problems of other stupid users firsthand.)
Someone had to do it.
That should get him at least 2% more on the ol' annual review...
Good review, but still funny that its his boss's book lol.
News Reporters Make Tasty Polar Bear Treats!
An early snag: Chapter 4's instructions on reformatting a hard drive to let Windows and Linux both exist happily on the same PC didn't work for me. I was installing onto a brand new hard drive, and I thought I'd give dual-booting a shot to see what Windows was like nowadays, and so followed the instructions on setting up a machine to dual-boot.
:)
That's because Linux doesn't play well with NTFS (mounts it read-only), and NTFS (or some variant thereof) lies under WinXP. If you were truly starting with a new hard drive, your best bet is to set up your partitions ahead of time, install XP where you want XP and Linux where you want Linux.
Messing around with the partition-size probably hosed whatever checksum XP does on the partition, and it refused to boot from it.
Not really newbie-friendly, is it?
The only surefire protection against Microsoft infections is abstinence. - The Onion
That clearly says "let" - the book must be pretty basic ;-)
/>
<groans
Was he looking over your shoulder and threatening you with unemployment when you typed that?
If he won't fire Michael Sims, he won't fire anybody.
Every bit of information in it will be obsolete by the time the next build is out.
Why document linux/oss at all? There are so many inconsistencies between versions of all the major oss projects you may as well just keep starting from scratch.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
If the video has a session on "here's what 'put the CD in the drive' looks like", then that's aimed below the Windows-knowing to the totally-computer-ignorant. If you already know Windows well enough to know how to put a CD in and click the mouse on stuff, you don't need the video. And if you don't know how to put a CD in, no OS in the world can help you with that step...
Since when is hosing an XP install a problem, though good old dd with dev urandom works better. I love breaking windows been doin' it ever since I was a kid.
It is from Timofee. So I'm not surprised.
Here's why:
Rosco seems to think that point and click == Windows. It seems to me that your calling "bullcrap" to point-and-click linux because it doesn't have a 0 learning curve when your coming from windows.
Your mum would take a week or so to become fully productive in an OS such as OSX which some configure to be the most usable operating system in existance. Is OSX bullcrap?
Do yourself (or your mother) a favour. Buy a box of SUSE 9.2 (personal is nice, pro has more apps) or MEPIS, read the manuals, play with it a little and then you can stand there and tell me that point-and-click linux is bullcrap.
Timothy... you're fired. :)
Laws are for people with no friends.
Click here or here.
No, it isn't. I'm sorry that you evidently don't understand why, but this is not the forum to discuss why there is a large number of people that prefer the Linux UI to the Macintosh UI. Given the immense amount of advocacy from people like you, you can rest assured that they are more than aware of the alternative and have made their choice deliberately.
I am sofa king we todd ed.
LilMikey.com... I'll stop doing it when you sto
He speaketh /.dinglish.
An American dialect of type written origin. Some say this was cured by grammer and spellchecking algorythms. In olden times one learned grammer and spelling. Historically American schools actually once taught academic subjects, before the advent of modern Windows point and click diction.
That's it!
I'm off to GNU/Hurd
I laughed my head off when I read that too - such brown-nosing bullshit. Timothy is a wanker.
You are starting the shutdown procedure
"I'm not impatient. I just hate waiting." - My Dad
that's the cause of a lot of trouble in this world.
is that a dell?
Mod parent up!!!!!!~1!!eleventy-one
Sleep is futile.
Interesting. As I loaded /. I was burning a freshly downloaded .iso of Mepis. I need to bring it home to my parents on Thankgiving vacation to do a little rescue, and perhaps a little showing off.
As much as I'd like to agree with you, Microsoft and Windows weren't a glint in anyone's eyes when the decline of the American school system began.
You want to know who isn't running Firefox 2.x? They spell it "definately" and "rediculous".
Bet this is a trusted computing Pheonix-Microsoft feature . I seem to remember Pheonix and MS hooking up on the trusted computing intiative.
Well I never voted for 'im
And yet you still found time to comment...
Although a supercilious comment such as yours should be modded to oblivion, a definition of supercilious should suffice.
There is a known problem with the combination of specific version of parted, the 2.6 kernel, LBA disks and certain bioses. From what I've read, due to changes in how the 2.6 kernel "sees" the partition table, parted creates a munged partition table that will happily boot linux but results in a dead windows partition. To avoid this, you can upgrade libparted or simply create the partitions using fdisk before running the install utility.
The mere fact that there has to be a book and a DVD to show people how easy linux is, is a complete usability contradiction. Here is a quick lesson about what users do. 1. They just want to turn it on and start working on it. 2. They do not want to read a damn thing. This is sad but true.
So if an operating system needs a manual to start using it, it is unusable. Mac OS X is a great example, the manual they have is less than 40 pages. Why? Because for new users, it makes sense.
In two years it will be an expensive boat anchor unless you put MEPIS on it, Mepis makes the cooolest linux box yet. However I digress, if your bios is a phoenix-MS trusted computing one you will need to trick it to run anything other than what you have permission to run. You better hurry up and register your copy of xp home then hope you do not have to reinstall more than 3 times when you screw it up trying to run a real OS.
man-files aren't very newbie-friendly.
Yah, the fact that the Start icon doesn't say it's a start icon has always annoyed me, too. In my fvwm, I had a little running stick figure icon with the simple, and short, 2 letters "GO!" on it. In Gnome, before so many configuration options were thrown out, I made the Gnome foot be the "G" in "Go!" Distros, desktop environments, and software vendor desktops (eg novell's liitle java desktop on X) all have their little logo where the start menu. It wouldn't be too much intrusion to help the average user out and add a "Go" or the more playful "Go!" next to the logo!
KLAATU, BORADA, NIh*ahem*
This is really inappropriate commercial shilling.
+--------------------- You idiot! I told you we were facing the wrong way!
good show, sir, good show.
Not to nitpick, but i think you meant Sun's JDS (Java Desktop System).
WE DON'T NEED NO BLOG CONTROL.
So anyone 'o walks up and announces 'imself king is one? You mean, like I can announce "I am king of the US", and tell Georgie-poo to leave the White 'Ouse, and I don't even need some obscure ritual with a watery tart?
mark "the Baron of NASA is sitting
next to me...."
novell has one too. very limited. just a desktop and some novell admin apps. java's been around long enough for more than a few ppl to have whipped up a wm and a taskbar/panel with it. (what i noticed that was a little cool was that it just used xfree, like you might expect it to)
KLAATU, BORADA, NIh*ahem*
Alright! Feature #1! I'm sold. :)
Astro
Someone actually wasted mod points on a post poking fun of a goatse... nice.
LilMikey.com... I'll stop doing it when you sto
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Affiliate link in post. Mod Amazon money spammer down.
I am very pleased to see people giving MEPIS some attention, and some positive attention at that. While MEPIS certainly owes a debt of gratitude to Knoppix for the outstanding work that has been accomplished on that project, I've been suggesting and recommending SimplyMEPIS to anyone who wants to try out a Linux system for the first time with little risk. More than that, though, I've been recommending SimplyMEPIS to moderately experienced Linux users who want to learn how to use a Debian-based system effectively. SimplyMEPIS is simply one very fine desktop system. It installs effortlessly, has a well chosen set of default applications, and it doesn't get in your way, should you happen to be an experienced user that just wants to use a Live CD as a quick way to install a flexible system.
I recommend SimplyMEPIS, not just to beginners, not just to Linux enthusiasts, but for anyone who wants an immediately useful and usable desktop system, but for people who ALSO want to expand, extend, customize, and build a flexible desktop computer system. This is as close to an ideal way to start as you can get right now.
Brian Masinick, masinick at yahoo dot com Linux
These responses should not be centered around the ideas that "fuck, you mom is stupid" and "well cars aren't all the same". These responses should be pointing to themes that are windows-esque or at least designed with an eye towards ex-windows users.
Sure, maybe when the computer has been around for 100-ish years or to the people who have had computers around them all their life could you make those arguments, but for the general populus it's only been around for 20-odd years. People used to jump out of the way of trains that were shown on movie screens, people used to refuse to ride in cars... why? Because it wasn't something they grew up with, it was something completely new to them.
Teaching someone how to drive an automatic car, then giving them a stick (manual) car and berating them for not being able to do it is not constructive. Some people are quite literally afraid of their computers (just like people were afraid of movies, photographs, cars, etc, etc). Is their fear logical? No, but that doesn't mean you can discount it either. If you can only feel superior by putting some else down, then please, for the benefit of humanity, shut the hell up. For those of you who can offer HELP to someone asking for it, please, do it without exerting your superiority over them... else one day they simply won't ask anymore.
"1984" was ment to be a warning, not a guidebook. You hear that Kim Jong-il!? BushCo?!
Someone who knows the pain I've went through trying to get someone weened off of Windows and made something usefull.
I'd go on a Vegan diet but the delivery time from Vega is too long. --brownkitty
A good magic sword might be helpful...