Point and Click Linux

Robin "Roblimo" Miller is well-known in the open-source world for advocating cheap, user-friendly Linux computing and demonstrating that it's not only possible but available, right now. (He's also a writer and editor at NewsForge, and the editor in chief of OSTG, of which Slashdot is a part, and therefore one of my bosses; take that for what it's worth.) Roblimo's new book Point and Click Linux really consists of three things: the book itself, an included copy on CD of the Debian-based SimplyMepis Linux distribution, and a DVD featuring Roblimo's multi-part narrated video guide for getting started with Linux, Mepis and KDE. "Getting started" is key; this book is for the interested beginner, not the power user. Read on for the rest of my review. Point and Click Linux author Robin "Roblimo" Miller pages 270 publisher Prentice Hall rating 9 reviewer timothy ISBN 0131488724 summary Friendly, casual, hands-on approach to Linux; blasts users' fears that Linux is hard to use for everyday tasks. The Linux with which to point and click

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 screen

The 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.

Comments

Commendable, but...

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

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.

Re:Commendable, but...

[Anonymous Coward]

It's unavoidable - there are idiosyncrasies that must be (un)learned. Having a "start" menu is a really dumb idea - it's not there to start things, it's to DO things. This is how I learned that, many many years ago in middle school:

User: "How do I turn off the computer? I read that I can't just hit the power button."

Me (irritated): "Yeah, well, first you open the Start menu and..."

User: "What?! To stop the computer, I click on the start button?"

Me: "Well, yes, of course that's how... Wait, yeah, that's a good point. It doesn't make any sense at all to put the shutdown command there. Anyway, that's how it works."

User shrugs and shuts down the computer.

Re:Commendable, but...

[wfberg]

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.

While it IS extremely typical, it's not an issue that should be addressed by linux distributions changing. Even moms should learn to cope with stuff like that. It's not like fridges all have identical handles, people don't even complain as much about cars being different models (or even stick shift in stead of automatic gear), they cope and adapt, even though operating a car in the wrong way is a million times more likely to kill them. Guess what, the differenlty shaped and colored steering wheel does the same thing!

Re:Commendable, but...

[yamla]

In that case, don't ever consider installing Longhorn for your mother when it is finally released. If the K icon confuses her, she'll be completely lost with all the user interfaces in Microsoft's next operating system.

For that matter, better keep her with her current version of office. Microsoft often adds new features and rearranges existing layouts when they release a new version of Office.

Also, for the love of god, don't ever get her a new car. New cars often look and feel quite different from older models. I have to adjust my sideview mirrors manually, for example, but my girlfriend has power mirrors. I doubt your mother could handle a much more significant difference like that.

Personally, I consider it rather sad that your mother cannot handle a change like that.

Re:Commendable, but...

[kfg]

. . .what's that K icon where START should be", I call bullcrap on any point-and-click Linux.

Conversely, when I first started up Windows 95 as a "power user" with decades of computer experience on big iron, minis and micros and perfectly at home with Windows 3.11 I couldn't figure out how to do anything.

There was not only no command line, but no menus and no icons of any interest to me (No, I didn't want to hook up to AOL), no nothin' that would even let me type a memo. Yeah, there was this really stupid button labeled "start," but I was already started. I didn't want to "start," I wanted to open the preinstalled copy of Office and type something.

I basically stared at it for about five minutes and then said aloud, "Where the hell are my programs?"

At that point my wife came over and showed me. She'd been using 95 at work for a few months already.

At which point I said aloud, "Well, that's really stupid, and who the hell would look for their menus at the bottom of the screen anyway?"

So . . .I guess Windows isn't "point and click" either, since, even as an experienced Windows user, I had to be shown what to point at and click on.

At least the big "K" is a button right where a current Windows user would expect the menu button to be.

Look, It's "Point-and-click" Linux, exactly as advertised, not "Exactly like your current version of Windows" Linux. Just like every version of MacOS is point and click, and just as Windows 3.11 was point and click.

Even though they all differ markedly.

And for what it's worth, my 70 year old mom, who has only been using micros for about a year, both Windows and Mac (Mac OS8 at home, Windows (in languages she doesn't read) in internet cafes when she's traveling), was able to get down and dirty with KDE set up for a "power user" in about 2 minutes flat.

How do you know your mom is "extremely typical." You have a mom data point of one.

KFG

Re:Commendable, but...

[jedaustin]

If your mother had never seen m$ windows then what would she expect?

Just because your mom has used windows doesn't mean linux should look exactly like windows to be easy to use. If the computer came pre-installed with linux, they would learn it just like they did with windows.
My wife who had no experience with either had no trouble figuring out where the games were or how to send email.

My mother is completely baffled by windows.
She calls me with the MOST retarded questions on earth, and it takes me a few minutes to figure out just what she is talking about. She has the complete set of 'video professor' cd's and still doesn't get it.

Windows is not the end all of 'easy' you make it sound. It's easy to me, because I've been using it since v3.0. It's only easier if you already have experience with it.

A live CD, a book, and a DVD is more than most windows users get.

Re:Commendable, but...

[jeif1k]

tells me "what's that K icon where START should be", I call bullcrap on any point-and-click Linux.

You mean the "Start" button that is, among other things, used for shutting down Windows? Yes, that's one of the features that usability alone dictates Linux shouldn't emulate.

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.

Yes, which is why Linux should copy Windows's usability problems. Linux has to do better, and that breaks compatibility. Linux has to appeal to the next generation of users, both here and abroad, not to the old Windows and Macintosh fogeys, who keep complaining and will never be really satisfied with anything other than the platform they grew up on anyway.

If your mother refuses to use Linux because she can't deal that the "Start" menu has a "K" on it, that's her problem. Most people are smart enough to figure it out that a menu that looks the same and is in the same place roughly does the same thing even if it has a K on it (the menu down there is already a concession; I think the Gnome default is preferable and clearer anyway). And most people also find savings of thousands of dollars in software enough of a motivation to get off their lazy butts and bother engaging their brain for a few minutes. But, ultimately, what your mother considers a "good UI" after years of having her mind warped by Microsoft software simply doesn't matter because the choices she makes don't matter to the long term future of the Linux desktop.

inappropriate

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:inappropriate

[stratjakt]

More than half of all slashdot articles are thinly veiled advertisements.

Either it's a link to one of Apple's press releases, or to Roland Piquepilles blog, etc..

This is not really any different.

Re:Isn't this

[Anonymous Coward]

Creating powerfull yet easy to use software has been the idea behind every operating system ever created.

Two, two, two drives in one!

[kfg]

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

Re:Two, two, two drives in one!

[kfg]

If only we had some sort of software that allowed us to specify which devices (virtual or otherwise) to boot from when the system comes up...

Yeah, that would be pretty slick. Someone should grub around a bit with that idea. Then we could dual boot.

KFG

Re:Two, two, two drives in one!

[handslikesnakes]

Some sort of Linux loader? Hmmm, that's an interesting idea.

Re:Two, two, two drives in one!

[kfg]

Some sort of Linux loader? Hmmm, that's an interesting idea.

Yeah, exactly. Someone should Stitch one up.

KFG

Look...

[rewt66]

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...

Easy of Linux vs Complexity of Windows Updates

[totallygeek]

Once a Linux system is properly configured, there really is not much to keeping it up and going. I would much rather place a computer novice on a Linux system than deal with that user on a Windows machine with all its updates against spyware and viruses.

Re:Isn't this

[adamh526]

Yea, but there's something about buying dying technology that doesn't sit right with me. Ok, the G4 may not be "dying," yet... But consider this - OS X is being continually optimized for the G5, as are the majority of Apple's (and everyone else's for that matter) software titles. Sooner, rather than later, Apple is going to be a company basing itself completely around the 64-bit computing possibilities that the G5 has to offer. Not only would I like to be able to run OS X now, but I'd like to be able to continue running it as it is updated and improved. Therefore - no, I won't even consider buying a G4. Sorry Apple.

Re:Why write a book on "easy to use linux"?

[Taladar]

Even though Windows claims to be binary-backwards-compatible and probably even is better in this department than Linux the User-Interface has gone through more changes than most Linux UIs. Sure, KDE isn't FvWM but if you take a Windows 3.11 User and put them in front of a Windows XP PC he wouldn't have much of a clue what to do either at first. At least with Linux the commandline interface and most mature apps are relatively stable (KDE and Gnome are not mature at the current stage). Windows adds new bells and whistles in every version even without good reason. Changes in mature Linux Apps just occur when there is a good reason for it.