Linux for Non-Geeks: A Hands-On, Project-Based, Take-It-Slow Guidebook

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Overview

This book is for any home user who has switched or is thinking of switching to Linux. Based on Red Hat's Fedora Core, Linux for Non-Geeks avoids geeky subjects like server and network setup and concentrates on the subjects of interest to the average home user: Installation, the Internet, playing CDs and audio files, desktop customization, games, downloading software and fonts, USB storage devices, printing, and more. Readers with only basic experience with Windows or another Linux distribution will learn how to ...

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BRAND NEW with 2 SEALED CD: SHIPS FAST, 2 to 4 Business days Delivery from the business day you pay within Continental USA if you pay EXPEDITED SHIP OPTION. : DESCRIPTION: 320 ... Pages: No Starch Press; 1st edition (March 1, 2004) : This book is for any home user who has switched or is thinking of switching to Linux. Based on Red Hat's Fedora Core, Linux for Non-Geeks avoids geeky subjects like server and network setup and concentrates on the subjects of interest to the average home user: Installation, the Internet, playing CDs and audio files, desktop customization, games, downloading software and fonts, USB storage devices, printing, and more. Readers with only basic experience with Windows or another Linux distribution will learn how to do everything on their Linux machine that they are used to doing with Windows. Includes a complete installation of Fedora Linux on two CDs. Read more Show Less

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More About This Book

Overview

This book is for any home user who has switched or is thinking of switching to Linux. Based on Red Hat's Fedora Core, Linux for Non-Geeks avoids geeky subjects like server and network setup and concentrates on the subjects of interest to the average home user: Installation, the Internet, playing CDs and audio files, desktop customization, games, downloading software and fonts, USB storage devices, printing, and more. Readers with only basic experience with Windows or another Linux distribution will learn how to do everything on their Linux machine that they are used to doing with Windows. Includes a complete installation of Fedora Linux on two CDs.

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Editorial Reviews

From Barnes & Noble
The Barnes & Noble Review
Nowadays, more non-technical people are giving Linux a whirl. It’s easier than it was -- graphical user interfaces, and all. But when you can’t figure something out or you run into trouble, it’s been tough to find “non-geek” help. Until now.

Rockford Grant walks you through the tasks you’re most likely to care about. Basic productivity tasks with OpenOffice. Web browsing, email, and instant messaging. Hooking up printers, modems, even WiFi. Playing MP3s, burning CDs, editing photos. (He also presents some Linux toys we haven’t seen elsewhere: language learning software and digital mah-jongg, for instance.)

You also get a two-CD set of the latest version of Fedora Core Linux, plus bonus software. You shouldn’t have to buy a thing, except this book. Bill Camarda

Bill Camarda is a consultant, writer, and web/multimedia content developer. His 15 books include Special Edition Using Word 2003 and Upgrading & Fixing Networks for Dummies, Second Edition.

From The Critics
Slashdot.org
A far cry from dumbed down editions of how-to comic book style manuals from other publishers, No Starch Press has adopted a smart series of books for the capable, no nonsense audience; those folks who are not afraid to try new things and who want a clear and (more importantly) practical approach to enhancing their skill set. This book is a stand out in that series.
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9781593270346
  • Publisher: No Starch Press San Francisco, CA
  • Publication date: 2/28/2004
  • Pages: 336
  • Product dimensions: 6.76 (w) x 9.44 (h) x 0.94 (d)

Meet the Author

Rickford Grant is the author of Ubuntu for Non-Geeks and Linux Made Easy. He has been an operating system maniac for more than 20 years, from his early days with an Atari XL600 to his current Linux machines. Rickford is the international student advisor at Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina.

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Table of Contents

1 Becoming a penguinista
2 Making commitments
3 A new place to call home
4 More than webbed feet
5 Dressing up the bird
6 Gutenbird
7 Putting your data on ice
8 RPM isn't a 1980s Atlanta-based band
9 Simple kitten ways
10 Yes, yet another way!
11 Dining on tarballs
12 Data on ice revisited
13 Tux rocks
14 Brush-wielding penguins
15 Penguins back at work
16 Font feathered frenzy
17 Tux speaks your language
18 Tux untethered
19 Leaving the nest
20 What to do if tux starts acting up
A Launcher specifications
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Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4.5
( 2 )
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Sort by: Showing all of 2 Customer Reviews

  • Anonymous

    Posted May 7, 2004

    Great Entry Into the World of Linux

    Ran across this book in my local B&N store (the B&N site still has the wrong title and cover up for this book), and I must say that Linux for Non-Geeks (the correct name) is proving to be the Linux book I have been searching for. I have been playing around with Linux for a while now, but was having a hard time finding a book that stuck to the needs of new users. Most books were only useful to me, an average home user, until about the midway point. After that, I was lost. In fact, the author mentions this very point himself in his own experiences. It seems that he set out to write a book to address his (and his mother's?!) problems, which just happened to be the same as mine. Linux for Non-Geeks offers a gradual progression from a simple introduction to the GNOME desktop to more advanced topics, keeping the needs of home users like me in focus at all times. There are chapters focusing on other more-or-less simple tasks, such as customizing the look and feel of the desktop and windows, setting up your printer and creating extra queues with which to expand its power a bit, to setting up your Internet connection and using the various Internet applications that come bundled with Fedora Core. There are also very clear chapters on music, productivity, and graphics applications, and, more importantly, three separate chapters on the various ways there are to install software in Linux: RPMs, compiling from source, and using APT and Synaptic, which I have found to really be the way to go! I was especially pleased with the chapter on working with commands because that had always been one of the areas I had tended to shy away from. Not so anymore - I actually found the explanations in that chapter so easy to follow that I have actually come to prefer dealing with commands in some cases. The same is true for the chapters on installing fonts and mounting USB thumb drives, which I had never been able to figure out before. I was also suprized to find a short introduction to programming in Linux using Python. I don't think I will bother with programming again, but it was fun to create a simple little program of my own - at least I have a better idea of how things work now. I guess the best way to sum it all up is this: When I was a little kid, I remember getting a Felix the Cat project book by sending in a bunch of bottle caps from Bireley's orange drinks. There were all sorts of little projects for me to do, and I enjoyed it a lot. Linux for Non-Geeks reminds me of that - lots of little things that you can do and learn by from beginning to end... and it's actually lots of fun too.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted April 24, 2004

    Cool Fedora

    A very up to date book for 2004/5. Grant deals with what would have been Red Hat Linux 10. There is officially no such thing, because in 2003, Red Hat announced that it was concentrating on its corporate products, where it would actually make some money. In retrospect, all us users who had downloaded the earlier free versions of Red Hat had been lucky for years. So independently of Red Hat, volunteers made what is now called the Fedora Core. (Fedora as in 'hat'.) This book comes with 2 CDs for it. Having used Red Hat Linux 9 and now the Fedora Core, I have to agree with Grant. There are many changes, but clearly evolutionary. Anyone who has used KDE will be comfortable here. The UI has gotten smoother. Even easier to use. And the functionality has increased; evermore RPM packages. Grant pitches this book towards nontechnical users; he assumes no prior acquaintance with linux. But you know what? Even current linux users may want to check out his writings, looking for new material in Fedora. Certainly, some of you will refrain on principle. You'd rather learn it from the UI. Which is fine for power users. But others may be more pragmatic and consult this book. One slight caveat is that perhaps in a future edition, he could also discuss running linux on the AMD 64 bit Opteron. There is already a version of Fedora for this. And the chip is far cheaper than Intel's 64 bit offering.

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