Linux for the Rest of Us [Paperback]

Mark Rais (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2003

The essential and concise guide for getting started with Linux.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Linux for the Rest of Us is a nice reference; a convenience." -- Klosowski, leader of the Washington DC LUG., reviews from Linux User Groups

"Linux for the Rest of Us is an excellent choice for beginning Linux users." Slashdot.org, 3/03, review by Alvin Chang. -- Slashdot.org

"definitely be used by any inquisitive Windows user or a Linux newbie" -- Dhankhar, leader of Fairfax LUG., reviews from Linux User Groups

"tells you things even those who try to market Linux to the novices keep forgetting to mention" -- Linux.com Newsforge Review

From the Publisher

Eagle Nest Press; U.S.A.; Published January 2003; First Edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 108 pages
• Publisher: Eagle Nest Pr (January 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0972679006
• ISBN-13: 978-0972679008
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #833,782 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent starter book, March 31, 2003

By 

caspian (Falls Church, VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Linux for the Rest of Us (Paperback)

This is a great starter book for anyone who's felt intimidated by Linux. It has a clear and logical walkthrough for installing, partitioning hard drives for dual boot (in case you need to keep your Windows), and practical advice on how to use Linux once you have it up and running. Great the quick reference tables. I'm using the book now to get an old HP Vectra configured with Mandrake. Concise and well-written with some tongue-in-cheek humor, definitely recommended for any beginners or anyone who needs a refresher on how Linux works.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect for those new to Linux coming from Windows, March 28, 2003

By 

Robby Robbinson Jr. (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Linux for the Rest of Us (Paperback)

I'm actually very pleased with this book. I tend to be a person who learns best with a little hand holding and help, and found this book included a lot of personal annecdotes that helped me.

Being a regular user of Windows, this book made it very easy to understand the similarities and get started with Linux in a very non-intimidating fashion.

It's true that a few things were missing I would have also liked included, but overall it did not waste my time with excess information that is often found in 500 page manuals with lots of white space. Instead, in a refreshing way I found this book to try to gently encourage super brand new users of Linux like me.

I recommend this book to anyone who is trying to understand and learn to use Linux that doesn't have a lot of time to fiddle, but needs the essential information spelled out.

Excellent book and an easy read!

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Really helpful beginner linux guide, February 11, 2003

By 

Randy Shoubert (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Linux for the Rest of Us (Paperback)

I am very impressed by this book. I read the brief reviews here and thought the price was reasonable enough to try it out. NOW I must say that this book FAR exceeded my expectations for a beginner Linux book.

It includes tips no one ever thought to tell me. For example during installation the author gives his own real world experiences on what are the best partitions to create and how much to allocate. He also includes a lot of tips I've never heard about before, such as how most versions default to netmask 255.0.0.0, when usually an office intranet uses 255.255.255.0 and this saved me a lot of troubleshooting time.

Other personal experience suggestions the author includes helped me to fix problems before they ever became issues such as the excellent details this book includes on using Emacs (the whole problem I got with the "this buffer is for notes" error message was resolved thanks to the tips).

Overall, I have never seen a more compact (just over 100 pages) and yet information rich book on Linux. I own a lot of computer books that are much more expensive and I am thankful to have this included in my library.