Customer Reviews

Linux(R) Desktop Garage

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was trying to learn how to use Linux, so I bought this book. Wow, this book was so easy to follow and learn from! I love that it was not a dry humorless procedure manual. I really learned so much from this book, and I am not really too computer savvy. I highly recommend this book.

I've been looking to try out Linux for years. Most Linux books talk about servers and commands. This book gets right to the things that real people want to do. I loved that the chapters were organized by stuff like Getting Email, Browsing Online, Playing Music, etc. It makes it easy to turn to right what I need to know.

The introductions to the chapters are funny and the book never really gets dull. the author looks at the boring system parts like most of us would and helps get through it. I loved this book and am now running fedora core 3.

I am a fledgling user when it comes to computers. A friend told me about Linux and told me to try it. Then I found the book, Linux Desktop Garage at the book store recently and bought it to help me get aquainted with linux. It was a fun read and even I could understand the hints and instructions. If you have thought about trying Linux as an alternative to Windows, this book should be packed in with the disc as an instructuion manuel.

The major good point of this book is that it's organized in a way that's extremely logical for its purpose. Essentially each chapter focuses on a particular type of task you might want to do (play music, browse the internet, etc) and then goes over your options for that task. This makes it a simple matter to jump to the right section for the kind of software you need, and then read the information as help to figure out which specific program you want to try.

Another good point is that the author makes an effort to cover good options for both KDE and Gnome (focusing on Mandrake and Fedora as her example distributions, though anything using these desktop managers should behave in a similar way). This means the book covers the software that's likely to be available to the majority of users who might decide to try Linux.

An especially pleasing point is that she makes some effort to include information about what it'll be like to switch for former users of both Windows and Mac OS X. There's more information for Windows, but it's nice that she made the extra effort to be a little more complete.

On the other hand, if you want to give this book a try I'd suggest getting it as soon as possible. The author does a poor job of making the version numbers clear when she discusses particular pieces of software. As time goes by and the software evolves, it'll get more and more difficult to figure out whether the information this book gives you on a given program is still valid.

The software they chose to include is... odd. Though the book focuses on Fedora and Mandrake, the included CD houses a copy of Gnoppix. This is nice in the sense that Gnoppix is a type of Linux that you can put into your CD drive and run it on your computer without actually installing it. That's good for just trying it out without disturbing any of your existing software. However, there isn't much mention of Gnoppix in the book and Gnoppix is still a beta distribution (that means that its developers don't consider it to be ready for widespread use, and it's likely to still be buggy). Since this book targets inexperienced users, it's very odd that they'd include beta software when similar distributions that are considered to be ready for wide distribution are available.

In addition, if you're looking to be a serious Linux user (or serious computer user in general really) this book is likely to leave you with some unfortunate ideas that will probably get you laughed at by technical types. The author makes it clear in the introduction, for example, that she feels that a command line interface is limiting. Really, a major problem of command line interfaces is that they're not as limiting as they probably ought to be. Some command line programs include so many features to make them more flexible and powerful that no one except maybe the developers themselves understand why they're all there. The idea that this type of interface would be considered too limited is likely to be interpreted as a joke (because it's utterly ridiculous) by anyone who's seriously used one.

If you just want to run Linux at home and not get at all involved in the community, having a few confused notions like this in mind isn't likely to hurt you much. Just keep in mind that this book only works well as a guide to the available software for specific tasks, and you shouldn't take it too seriously on issues of philosophy, design, serious technical matters, or ideas being the open source community. Otherwise, you'll risk looking foolish if you ever do try to carry on an in-depth conversation with a serious user.

In general, this is a book with a lot of potential to be useful to inexperienced computer users who'd like to try out Linux and want an easy and amusing guide to the kind of software that's available to do the things they want to do. It'll get less useful over time, due to the natural changes in software over time and the lack of version numbers in the text, so once it's been more than a year since this book was published you'll probably be wanting to buy something else (unless, of course, they release an updated version!).

I gave it 3 stars because it mostly does well at the basic task it sets out to do, it just doesn't have any success at going beyond that bare minimum.

I found the book very informative and the attached CD a good accompaniment. My only detractor is the CD has to be used to run the program.

Rocking book if you are just looking for a good time with some tasty uh...wait. Yeah! It's basic stuff, but for those of you in search of a gentle baptism into the spooky scary halls of Linux, look no further. There be great examples on doing the day-to-day stuff, and said stuff is laid out so you can do it all Windows style.

Not a book for those who are already cooking in the Linux world. Don't expect more than the basics. It's just a friendly way to rock the Linux with a GUI. Not as powerful as learning all the command line stuff, so *nix purist and wannabe monster *nix gods will want to steer clear. Also, even I can't say much for the included distro but if you have intertrons you can download the recommended Fedora or Mandrake. In fact, you will need to have some sort of internet access to take full advantage of this or any other Linux guide. We are dealing with constantly evolving open source software here. Of course just the fact that you can see this must mean you have a connection to the WWW.

Anyhow, I gotta say, I generally dislike technical manuals. Okay, I hate them. This one however I can get behind, for serious. Besides, the chapter introductions make me smile. Really, that's all that should matter. Right? At least for a guy like me who just wants to make his computer get internets and play video games.

i'm kinda nerdy. :^) i can attest to the fact that she knows her stuff. it's lots of fun to read because it is put in terms that anyone can understand. Fun too because of the humor. Great book - i really recommend it!