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27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent book that targets the Linspire distro..., July 10, 2005
This review is from: Peter van der Linden's Guide to Linux(R) (Paperback)
One of the benefits to being an active reviewer is that you occasionally get sneak previews of books that are not yet published. Prentice Hall sent me a draft manuscript copy of Peter van der Linden's Guide to Linux due to be published in August. While good for all Linux distros, it will be especially valuable if you're focusing on Linspire. Contents: Hello Linux; Running the Linux Live CD; The KDE Desktop; Onto the Net; All About Email; Web Tools; Adding Software; More Applications; Filesystems and Optical Storage (CDs and DVDs); Sharing On Your Local Network; Keeping Your Data Private; Installation and Boot; Malicious Windows Software; Making Your Hardware Obey You - BIOS and Device Drivers; Sample Output from WiFi Network Commands; Commands for the Command Line; Disk Basics and Partitioning; Troubleshooting With Strance Since Peter has focused on Linspire, the target audience is going to be Window users who want to switch over to Linux without becoming a geek. I think he hits that target dead on. The style of the book is extremely readable. There's plenty of content that Joe Average will be able to read and understand, and as a result will be able to start using the Linux desktop quite effectively. Jane Power User will also benefit, as there is also material that gets into more difficult concepts like file sharing using packages such as Samba. Even if Joe isn't ready for that on day one (Joe just wants to surf the 'net and read email), he'll be able to refer back to the book on numerous occasions to push his limits. When the book is published, there will be a bootable Linspire CD included that will allow you to try out Linspire without making any changes to your current hardware. Bootable CDs like Knoppix bring up a Linux environment that runs completely from memory without making physical changes to your hard drive. If you think that Linspire is a distro that you'd like to use, getting this book will be the logical first step in your evaluation process. You'll learn if your system can run Linspire, and then you can experiment with the desktop GUI before making your final commitment. Very well done work, and I'm looking forward to the final version of the book. This will be a nice addition to the world of Linux books, and it will be a highly recommended purchase if you're going with Linspire.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Linux for non-geek, non-Linux users, October 3, 2005
This review is from: Peter van der Linden's Guide to Linux(R) (Paperback)
Peter van der Linden has the unusual gift (among I suspect the majority of writers) of presenting his information in a chatty form, without being verbose. As a software reviewer for Australia's premier CAD magazine, I was continually in trouble from my editor for being verbose :) I write this brief revue from the perspective of a non-geek power user who until recently had only encountered Linux's big brother, Unix, and was always in strife with superiors for doing dastardly things to files I had been sent to work on. How I wish Peter had written this book before 1990 :D I have found it quite difficult to put this book down, because of the author's style and the content; the depth of coverage of each topic is such that if the reader needs that amount of detail to understand a point, or to solve a problem, there is enough there to resolve their issue. Equally, if they don't need that amount of detail, because of their browsing the pages solely out of interest, they are not likely to get bored with techno-babble, which is what happens so often in my experience. Peter has done an excellent job of creating a technical reference that can be picked up and dipped into without having to methodically go through all the previous pages to get to the bit the reader is interested in. A very nice touch is his applying his writing skills to a real life distribution produced for ab-initio Linux users with some experience of the Microsoft Windows platform, but who are not necessarily techno-philes. The book will appeal equally to those who do understand what goes on "under the bonnet" because of his obviously deep understanding of the subject. Yet the book would equally be of great benefit to users of any Debian Linux distribution. I can thoroughly recommend this book, and in closing I would like to add a "thank-you" to the author for what has obviously been a tireless and lengthy job, occupying many hours. Perhaps one should add a vote of thanks to Mrs van der Linden, and their kids too, in their encouragement of his task :D
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
From Windows to Linux -- getting over the hump painlessly, October 22, 2005
This review is from: Peter van der Linden's Guide to Linux(R) (Paperback)
Linux is not for everyone. But it is as good as Windows, or better, for a lot of people who don't even know it yet. Van der Linden's book and the accompanying CD are a great way to find out if it is for you. Most Linux books seem to take it for granted that you already want to use Linux, that you are sure it's better than Windows, and that you're eager to use it. So eager, you're willing to go through a lot of pain and confusion to get there. Most of us aren't like that. Most of us have work or personal computers we need to use every day. We don't want to lose a lot of time or productivity dealing with a new operating system, no matter how much better it will be at the end of the road. To the rescue comes Peter van der Linden, with his doughty companion Linspire. Van der Linden walks you through everything you need to know to make Linux your new home. And you can learn it first-hand on the computer you already have, just by running off of the Linspire CD. Browser. Email. Word processing and office applications. Image manipulation. Network connections. Printers. Pretty much anywhere you open the book, you will find good, solid information, written so you can understand and use it without a lot of page-flipping or puzzling through confusing grammar and largely irrelevant, overly technical asides. You will also learn why so many smart people choose Linux over Windows. Security, cost, software bloat, Microsoft's business practices, it's all explained right here, clearly, without condescending techspeak or juvenile hostility. Van der Linden rightly observes, "there is no reason to force readers through installation before getting to the good stuff of using Linux day-to-day." So the chapter on installation is waiting at the end of the book for whenever you finally love Linux enough to want to install it. And, thanks to the author's wise choice of distro, it isn't all that hard to do once you do get there. It's not the only book you'll ever need, but if you already have a Windows box, van der Linden's book and the accompanying CD are all you need to start with.
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