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Operating Systems Books Media Software Book Reviews Linux

Linux for Non-Geeks 260

Posted by timothy from the not-for-dummies dept.
norburym writes "This is not an intro Linux book for your mom. Well, actually it's an intro Linux book for the author's mom! Linux for Non-Geeks came about by virtue of Rickford Grant's desire to create an easy to follow guidebook to installing, configuring and using Linux for his mom who, at 72, was on a fixed income. Her erstwhile son suggested giving her an old box of his with Linux installed. Willing to go along, she asked for book suggestions to learn about Linux. Stumped by the meager offerings, Grant decided to write up a set of instructions on his own. Egged on by relatives and friends to subsequently publish his manuscript, Penguinistas the world over can now rejoice! 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." Read on for the rest of norburym's review.
Linux For Non-Geeks, A Hands-On, Project-Based, Take-It-Slow Guidebook
author Rickford Grant
pages 336
publisher No Starch Press
rating 8
reviewer Mary Norbury-Glaser
ISBN 1593270348
summary A Hands-On, Project-Based, Take-It-Slow Guidebook

The title explains exactly how Grant's book is laid out. It's for Windows users, Mac users, and new or inexperienced Linux users who are non-geeks (or wannabe-geeks) and who are itching to take the plunge into Linux without having to wade through a multitude of books aimed at power users, online HOWTOs, weblogs and IRC channels. This is one volume with enough worthy information to credit the cost of the $34.95 investment.

The content is based on Redhat's Fedora Core and includes CDs for installation. As such, the author has chosen to go with the default Fedora desktop, GNOME. Choices have to be made: Fedora Core vs. Mandrake vs. SUSE vs. Xandros etc., and GNOME vs. KDE vs. Enlightenment, etc. Grant has chosen stability and ease of use, and he has chosen well. Fedora would have been Redhat 10, had Redhat gone that route. They didn't and we can all lament the changes the company has launched toward focusing on corporate gains or we can move on. Moving on, we can see immediately that Fedora Core is excellent and if Red Hat's idea in Fedora's community focus is to go the Debian route and have lots of experienced eyes taking care of this project, then it will continue to be excellent. Once you get into this book and get your fancy tickled by Fedora and GNOME, go wild. 'Nuff said.

The first two chapters of the book cover the 'penguinista' mindset (why you're even looking at a book on Linux), hardware compatibility and the install process. Easy enough, and Grant does a great job of leading the reader through this process. It's the scary part, after all! Once the deed is done, the reader is introduced to Chapter 3, 'A New Place to Call Home'. Gnome is the desktop of choice and the author goes into detail, easing the reader through a wealth of GUI options. Lots of screenshots and photos give the reader a clear sense of what to expect when they are navigating through the choices. Lots of time is spent on customizing and some may find this trivial but there is nothing more frustrating to the beginner than being told to "click click click" when they aren't comfortable finding the correct windows, buttons and choices. After spending some time on this chapter, the reader will be able to progress through the book with confidence.

Connecting to the Internet is the next chapter, with information presented on hardware, connection options, using the browser, email and IM. The Internet is a must-have so this chapter is well placed. Get 'em going and they'll keep plugging along!

Once the reader is up and running, a side road is taken for those who want to get more familiar with the GUI and who like to tweak everything to look as individual (and tacky) and they can.

After getting on the Web, printing is probably next on the list in importance. Grant dedicates Chapter 6 to explaining how the reader can achieve good printing karma with printer support, printing to PDF, changing settings and handling queues.

Part one of external media is covered next, with an introduction in to floppies (whaaaa?), data and music CD reading/playing/burning, and ISOs (an absolutely necessary part of life for Linux users, especially since we all tend to experiment with different distros when they become available!).

With Chapter 8, we get into the core of every OS user's skill set, no matter how newbie the newbie is, one thing everyone wants to know how to do on their platform of choice: how to install applications (did I say "games"?). Grant gives the reader a very well written chapter on package management, walking the reader gently through four examples, including Skoosh and -- woo-hoo!! -- Frozen Bubble (well, we all need Frozen Bubble!). He even gives the reader a taste of "dependency hell" (don't panic! It's a controlled environment!). There will be a few folks who complain that RPM is Redhat-centric thinking and they'd be right. We are working with Fedora Core after all. Remember the "'Nuff said" above'?. Grant later presents chapters on APT and Synaptic and also on compiling a program from source so the reader has ample chance to get geeky.

A (too short) chapter on the terminal and the command line is wedged in between with practice projects on pyWings and pyChing that brings it all home. Part two of data management comes next, covering USB storage devices and the Windows partition, if there is one. Chapters 13 and 14 deal in depth with music (audio formats, mp3 support, apps like Grip, Rhythmbox and XMMS) and 'getting arty with the GIMP' (including how to scan and use your digital camera).

Then, it's back to business, with several chapters dedicated to workplace productivity and what options are available to Linux users in a 'dark side' dominated world. Grant looks at several office suites including OpenOffice.org (the clear winner) as well as KOffice and some stand-alone apps like AbiWord, Dia, Gcalctool and GPdf. There is also quite a bit of excellent coverage on fonts (a must read!) and finally, language support within Linux.

Now, if everything is working well so far and you can connect to the Internet, print, get your work done and play games. So what's left? Doing it all from your living room, bedroom, even bathroom! In short, going wireless. Grant succinctly explains what it means, what you need and how to do it.

The last few chapters of the book deal with bits and pieces of necessary information that are essential to the reader for further Linux exploration: system settings and system updates, KDE, 'odds and ends' and the requisite troubleshooting section for "uh oh, now what do I do now?" moments. Lots of help and resources round out the book.

A few things could have been expanded on or included: a bit more on firewalls and internet security (we are not entirely immune, after all), handling email attachments is missing (the author promises an update to this on his web site), something on yum and device installation; the slim description of installing a CD-RW drive in the book merely refers the reader to his web site where one can download PDF instructions ...hmmm, that seems a bit skimpy. Installing drives and cards (especially sound cards) would have been a nice chapter on its own, especially since this would most likely require re-compiling the kernel. The reference to this on Grant's web site results in a 'broken' pdf link and no obvious way to alert the author to the damaged file.

At this writing, there are only a few errata but it would be wise to take a peek at Grant's site before delving too deeply into the book.

Overall, I like how Grant chose to lay out his chapters; he's anticipated the needs and expectations of the level of reader he's targeting and placed well-constructed topics in a logical series of chapters. Nicely balanced information for a new Linux user, an on again/off again Linux user or for the switcher (is that trademarked?!). Other distros will be a short leap after reading this one volume. So yes, I lied: Linux for Non-Geeks is for your mom -- and for you, too, come to think of it. (And are those references to Vonnegut scattered about? Erudite crowd, Linux folk, yes?)

You can purchase Linux For Non-Geeks, A Hands-On, Project-Based, Take-It-Slow Guidebook 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.
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Linux for Non-Geeks More

Linux for Non-Geeks

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  • "Erstwhile"? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 22, 2004 @05:34PM (#9500007)
    ...desire to create an easy to follow guidebook to installing, configuring and using Linux for his mom who, at 72, was on a fixed income. Her
    erstwhile son suggested giving her an old box of his with Linux installed....


    I do not think it means what you think it means.

    See here. [reference.com]

  • Dude, she's a MILF!!! (Score:5, Funny)

    by weeboo0104 ( 644849 ) on Tuesday June 22, 2004 @05:35PM (#9500014) Journal
    Mom Installing Linux Fervently

  • But why would non-geeks want to run Linux? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by autopr0n ( 534291 ) on Tuesday June 22, 2004 @05:35PM (#9500022) Homepage Journal
    I can think of one major reason. Security. Actually, given how bad windows security has been lately, I'd recommend that most users not use windows unless their geeks and know how to keep it clean, and free of Spyware. I already install mozilla whenever I come across a Spyware infected machine. There is some Spyware [mozillazine.org] that infects mozilla on win32. (The user gets a warning about installing XPI, but it's not even as menacing as IE ActiveX warnings. On the other hand, many Spyware programs install themselves via security holes in IE)

    Running as non-root on a Linux machine is much safer for the naiveté surfer then running windows.

    We'll have to see how XP SP2 fares as far as protecting users from all the people who want to rape them.
    • reason #2: free as in beer.
      reason #3: geek friend is evangelizing :)

    • Re:But why would non-geeks want to run Linux? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Timesprout ( 579035 ) on Tuesday June 22, 2004 @05:59PM (#9500271)
      Strange argument, the ones that cant keep windows secure, not an immensly difficult task these days with the tools available, are the ones least likely to be able to run linux, or are you suggesting they install something friendly like linspire or whatever its called today which runs as root by default I believe?
      • You cannot keep Windows secure as long as you are running IE and Outlook.

      • Re:But why would non-geeks want to run Linux? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by sqlrob ( 173498 ) on Tuesday June 22, 2004 @06:56PM (#9500847)
        Unless one of those tools is a hardware firewall/router, it is an impossible task, especially for the non-geek.

        My father is set up with Linux, and doesn't know squat about computers. He has no problems with it whatsoever (well, over and above the same PEBKAC ones that existed with Windows as well). Of course, he doesn't *maintain* that system, I do. He doesn't know what root is or even that it exists.

        A HW firewall would have been a more expensive and difficult proposition in his case - dialup. How common are dialup routers (no, I don't mean "do they exist", I mean walk into Best Buy or Comp-USA and get one).

        The average time between connection to the ISP and a Blaster hit was 8 seconds. Nimda was 2 and a half minutes. (Times are from a little less than a year ago) How is a non-geek going to protect a Windows system from that?
        • How is a non-geek going to protect a Windows system from that?

          By patching on time? A visit to Windows Update every two weeks or so should work.

        • "A HW firewall would have been a more expensive and difficult proposition in his case - dialup. How common are dialup routers (no, I don't mean "do they exist", I mean walk into Best Buy or Comp-USA and get one)."

          Not common by "species", but there's at least one good one. Check out Apple's Airport Extreme base station [apple.com] with modem option. Mine's been a godsend. Trashed my Linksys within 5 minutes of installing the Airport.

          Even CompUSA (usually useless) should carry them - just be sure to verify it's got

        • The average time between connection to the ISP and a Blaster hit was 8 seconds. Nimda was 2 and a half minutes. (Times are from a little less than a year ago) How is a non-geek going to protect a Windows system from that?

          Why do you think Symantec is such a big player? I see their suites bundled with a lot of new machines, at least as much as MSOffice. Shold be safe out of the box. It nags you to get updates, or probably can do it unattended. Otherwise, one of several software firewalls (eg ZoneAlarm, whic

      • Yeah, it's not hard. But it seems that most people don't know anything more about their computers than how to use the start menu. A huge number of computers are infected with spyware, these days. And tons of them are left unpatched.

    • Some more good reasons. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by twitter ( 104583 ) on Tuesday June 22, 2004 @07:22PM (#9501143) Homepage Journal
      Security is nice but the big deal for me is all the beautiful, first class software that comes with any Linux distribution. This essentially boils down to KDE/Gnome, but the list goes on and on.
      1. Uptime. Nothing sucks so much as having to open everything I WAS working on every other day or so.
      2. Window managers with multiple desktops. One is not enough to organize work and play.
      3. Modern Browsers, Konqueror, Mozilla, even Galleon. Where would I be without tabs, pop-up blocking, and everything else modern browsers offer?
      4. Modern mail clients. Kontact, Kmail, Evolution, Balsa even. Kontact rocks for syncs to my handheld computer. What do you get with Windoze, a mail client that lacks a spell checker?
      5. GIMP and friends.
      6. K3B and Eroaster for burning CDs.
      7. No DRM to mess with my music. It is very nice to know that ogg won't go away and neither will any of my legitimately gotten music.
      8. APT, for getting all of the above without much trouble.
      9. The ease of install. Mepis goes on in 30 minutes or less and gives you everything the average user could want. One CD that runs live so you know it all works.

      That's a short list. I could think of more.

      Free software is more than stable and hard to break, it's excellent in every way these days. Fedora is very good too and addressing all of the reasons I moved to Debian based distributions two years ago but doing it with the same Red Hat ease of use I sometimes miss. The new interfaces are beautiful and functional.

      • I like linux, but it has its problems. Where Windows is a fluffy, nerf environment with no locks, Linux is a hard and lockable place with lots of sharp edges.

        Here's my windows survival tips

        1. Uptime.
        Other than obsolete applications my company uses that the vendor won't even consider providing support on, I don't have crashes. My Win2k box stays on all week, only being shut down on the weekends.
        Run windows update and just pull out the silly crap that will try to DRM your machine. No Media player 9!

        2. W
    • even with mozilla as my browser. Must be all those pr0n sites!

      Admittedly, I'd say the average week's haul is only about 10, and I'm not convinced that Seek and Destroy's definition of spyware is altogether correct, some cookies are fine.

      • Well, I wouldn't really call cookies *spyware*. If you're really getting 10 exe files installed a week, um, you're doing something really wrong.

    • FYI About Mozilla Spyware (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Anthracks ( 532185 ) on Tuesday June 22, 2004 @07:54PM (#9501425) Homepage
      I don't believe that vulnerability exists anymore in Firefox 0.9 / Mozilla 1.7. See http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=238684 if you're interested in the details, but basically that patch made unrequested attempts to install an XPI illegal, sort of like how the pop-up blocker works. You have to click a link or something along those lines for the request to be valid.
    • Actually, given how bad windows security has been lately, I'd recommend that most users not use windows unless [they're] geeks and know how to keep it clean, and free of Spyware.

      I agree somewhat, but I do believe things are getting better.

      On the one hand, I do know many people with (relatively) new XP-based machines that, upon a "system restore" cannot connect to the 'Net long enough to get the necessary updates. Of course I end up walking them through enabling the firewall, or (as was the case today wit

  • In other words... (Score:5, Funny)

    by lboxman ( 587913 ) on Tuesday June 22, 2004 @05:36PM (#9500025)
    This IS TFM

  • Normal People (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 22, 2004 @05:36PM (#9500026)
    Wouldn't it be nice if it actually got more normal people to start using Linux?

    • Re:Normal People (Score:3, Insightful)

      by gambit3 ( 463693 )

      it would definitely make me take a look at it. At least it doesn't seem to have the condescending tone that too many Linux sites/tutorials have.

    • car driver analogy (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Cars can be described in three ways:
      The dummy's point of view: "Oh look, pretty red color"
      The driver's point of view: "Turn the steering wheel to the right to turn right"
      The engineer's point of view: "The newton force required to make a 90 degree turn depends on the distance from the center of the steering column that the force is applied ..."
      This book will help only if it written for a car driver style point of view. Not dumbed down, not full of technical information that the computer user will never use.
    • No. No it wouldn't
      Usability shmoosability
      Computers where never meant to be usable, practical, or accomplish much of anything. The fact that they do was an unfortunate side affect and now everyone and their mom is apparantly using one.
      And then they complain when things go wrong.
      Things are supposed to go wrong!
      Afterall, if i don't have to work out why I have an error dialog popping up (windows), or why deleting a file called fstab suddenly stops me getting to things like my hard drive (linux) or if i sim

  • More! More! More! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Metteyya ( 790458 ) on Tuesday June 22, 2004 @05:38PM (#9500044)
    Linux community definitely needs more books like that and users like that. Only increase of Linux desktop boxes can push software developers/companies to writing their for-now-Windows-only software for penguin system.
    Additionaly, this is the only way to surpass the chicken-egg problem, as software companies aren't willing to (as we can see today) port their software to non-Windows.
    So, kudos to author!

    • Re:More! More! More! (Score:5, Interesting)

      by penguinland ( 632330 ) on Tuesday June 22, 2004 @05:48PM (#9500162)
      Yes, this is wonderful. As a person who considers themself a geek, but does not know very much about Linux, I think this book could be marvelous for me. I've been wanting to switch for a while now (sadly, I'm still on XP Home). The thing that's kept me back is that I don't know how to use Linux well, and don't know what questions to ask to get better at it. I have a box running RedHat 7-or-so, but I screwed it up by changing something I apparently shouldn't have (I can't find my programs as root anymore :-P). This lack of Linux know-how has been my main reason for sticking to windows, and now hopefully, I'll be able to change that. If more people could write books like this, the world would be a pretty great place.

      • Set yourself Linux tasks (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Brandon Glass ( 790653 ) on Tuesday June 22, 2004 @09:00PM (#9501973) Homepage

        The only way to really learn Linux is to get something into your head that you want to do, and then start taking a step by step approach to accomplishing it. For example, set yourself the goal of setting up a mail server, for example, and then start researching what steps need to be taken. Break the task down into sub-sections: Installing the operating system, securing the distribution of your choice, installing the neccessary packages, etc.

        I think that learning Linux seems a huge task to you at the moment not because it's beyond you, but because you have no direction in terms of what you want to do with Linux. I believe that almost everyone has the capability of running Linux successfully, but I don't think that it's suitable for all purposes, yet.

        I agree that books like this will help bring some people to Linux, but unless they actually have something in mind that they want to use Linux for, they won't get past the "installed Linux and messed around with KDE/Gnome a bit" stage.

    • Re:More! More! More! (Score:2, Insightful)

      by eille-la ( 600064 )
      Windows dosent need a book to use it in a simple way.
      Computers are now seen as powerfull tools that saves you time!
      When you are not a computer geek, reading a book to learn how to use the computer is WASTED time.
      What could be nice is a really simplest-default-configured and already installed KDE without too much features visible at first, as it is scary and obligate to learn why there is that much apps installed if they are for the same use.
      Simplicity dosent need a book.

      The book is maybe a good thing for p
      • since its not the early 90s anymore, almost everybody is used to windows.

        you cant make a system thats so intuative that people used to the windows way will beable to use it straight away.

        there is no way of installing any operating system on a bare box without knowing how to change the boot order and understanding partitions (or logical drives). (my grandpairents wouldn't beable to install windows xp or any linux distro as theyve never owned a computer)

        there's no way of making it obvious how to use someth

  • Speaking of red hats... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by jejones ( 115979 ) on Tuesday June 22, 2004 @05:40PM (#9500071) Journal
    Ever hear of the Red Hat Society [redhatsociety.com]? It's a society inspired by that "When I am old I shall wear purple..." poem. I think Red Hat is missing a neat tie-in by not giving Red Hat Society members Fedora Core discs, or maybe this book. Hordes of older women using Linux would pretty well put a stake in the heart of the "Linux is too hard to use" BS.

  • Hello Granma. (Score:5, Funny)

    by xenostar ( 746407 ) on Tuesday June 22, 2004 @05:42PM (#9500094)
    - Oh, Hello Grandma, what'd you get me for Christmas this year? - Well, me and grandpa thought about it and decided to give you... our .bash_profiles. Hope you like them.

  • Business Plan (Score:5, Funny)

    by DaveKAO ( 320532 ) on Tuesday June 22, 2004 @05:43PM (#9500096) Homepage
    1.) Have sad story about good'ol Mom.
    2.) Write Geekish book and get free PR on slashdot.
    3.) ???
    4.) Profit!!!

  • Non-Geek Linux? (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 22, 2004 @05:44PM (#9500114)
    Surely the first chapters must be devoted to the great Linux jihads!

    Chap 1: Gentoo is t3h 1 4 u
    Chap 2: KDE was here first
    Chap 3: Becoming a man of vi
    Chap 4: What of Redmond? (Onward Linux Soldiers)

    Hell if they're going to be linux users, the least we can do is teach them the basics, eh?

    Then the appendices --

    Appendix A: How Are You Gentlemen? (Blending in)
    Appendix B: Attacking Your Leaders (They're blowhards, hackers, they're blowhards!)
    Appendix C: Forums of Attack (Slashdot, Installfests, LUG meetings, etc.)

  • What if (Score:2, Funny)

    by iMaple ( 769378 )
    "This is not an intro Linux book for your mom. Well, actually it's an intro Linux book for the author's mom!

    What if the author has a sibling(from the same Mom). If he/she reads the article he is going to be confused no matter how well written the book is.

  • non-geeks ? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Tsiangkun ( 746511 ) on Tuesday June 22, 2004 @05:45PM (#9500130) Homepage
    I only have very limited experience with non-geeks using linux, but my experience has shown that they don't read, and don't think they should have to read to use linux. My non-geeks don't even pretend to solve or diagnose the problems, they just call for help immediately. I think the non-geeks this book would help most, are those already solving their problems using google.

    • Re:non-geeks ? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by mandalayx ( 674042 ) *
      ever played a video game without reading the manual?

      yeah, I think it's like that.

      crack open your car manual one day, too. there's some useful stuff in there. like how you're supposed to check your tire pressure regularly.

    • Re:non-geeks ? (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Tongo ( 644233 )
      This is a linux thing, it's a non-geek using a computer thing. For many months after introducing my Mom to a computer I had to constantly remind her to read the messages that popup, and call me if she didn't understand what it was saying/asking. For some reason new computer users (windows/linux/otherwise) always just click away at whatever button is the closest to their mouse. It comes down to them not understanding, not caring, and just wanting the damn popup to go away.
      • For some reason new computer users (windows/linux/otherwise) always just click away at whatever button is the closest to their mouse. It comes down to them not understanding, not caring, and just wanting the damn popup to go away.

        About 10 years ago we had a book shop with a database Point-of-sale system, that included details of about 20,000 books. Because this database was incredibly valuable to the business I'd set up a daily backup program (which involved 5 sets of floppies, just press the menu selecti

    • Re:non-geeks ? (Score:2, Interesting)

      by jb.hl.com ( 782137 )

      I only have very limited experience with non-geeks using linux, but my experience has shown that they don't read

      You just summed up one of the major impediments to desktop Linux and to the tightening up of security in general.

      You have a choice between the insecure POS, which they know, and the very secure OS which they don't. They don't want to learn anything new. At all.

      Today I tried to set my mother up with Trillian, so she could use MSN Messenger and be able to click links (we-read I-have Sygate set

    • I only have very limited experience with non-geeks using linux

      While this is no doubt true for you, you should consider also that a book doesn't have to be a solution for everyone for it to be a very worthwhile and useful book.

      My own mother certainly would read such a book. Whenever my parents get some new technology she will sit down and read the documentation, cover to cover, going through all of the examples, until she understands it. That might not make her an average 70-year-old, but it does mean

  • Fedora Core (Score:2, Interesting)

    by sp00 ( 639381 )
    The review talks about using Fedora, but doesn't mention whether it's version 1 or 2. This would be nice to know, especially since there are some major differences between the two.

  • Mothers (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 22, 2004 @05:47PM (#9500153)
    Somewhat sick and tired of sorting out my mother's PC from virii, trojans, spyware ad infinitum. I wiped her box and installed RH (should have used Debian in retrospect).

    Interestingly, once she knew which icons were for email, word processing and browsing, she was off. Her only problem was when her ISP changed dial-up telephone numbers, and the moron on support only had windows experience (or script). He claimed that the service she'd been using fine over the last year didn't actually work with Linux. A quick ssh and change of telephone numbers had her online again(*).

    She even found out how to add a new printer on her own, something she never managed to do with windows.

    (*): The telephone number changed meant that the previous low rate number became a standard cost per minute, and massively increased her cost of being online. The ISP didn't bother to notify her, and it wasn't until she got a phone bill that was 5x higher than normal that we knew something was afoot.

  • Seems like a good book to support (Score:3, Informative)

    by grunt107 ( 739510 ) on Tuesday June 22, 2004 @05:47PM (#9500156)
    I am setting up a Linux (JDS) system for my grandparents, who keep saying they'll never learn. To this end I have been creating a screen-captured document of the common tasks (login, read email, reply to email, delete email, fwd email, create/open documents in OOo, play CD). This book may shortcut some of this. The easier something is to understand the more often it gets used.

  • Rickford Grant's Mom comments on the article (Score:5, Funny)

    by iMaple ( 769378 ) on Tuesday June 22, 2004 @05:47PM (#9500159)
    I am a geek, You insensitive clod !!!
    Rickford Grant's Mom
  • Take a look at this write-up on why GNOME is better than KDE [edgy-penguins.org]. I am a GNOME fanboy, and I still dis-like his article. He doesn't provide any really good reasons why one is better than the other. Just lousy opinions with no backing. I really hope he put more thought into his book.
    • Rickford's writeup is not on why GNOME is better than KDE. He writes on Why I like Gnome better
      He doesnt really make any claims just says why he likes somethings. Infact he says Just to be fair, however, I should state that KDE is no dog. In fact, the first Linux desktop environment I used was KDE, and it was sufficiently impressive to reel me into the Linux world for good. and concludes the article with Enjoy finding out which environment is best for you by playing around - that's half the fun, after all
    • I hope his book isn't like his webpage..

      I can't even start to imagine reading a book with white letters printed on black paper.

      The pain that would cause would probably make me want to poke my eyes out :)

  • teach the CLI (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Knights who say 'INT ( 708612 ) on Tuesday June 22, 2004 @05:54PM (#9500222) Journal
    My parents can't move to Linux because they need specialized Windows apps not to be found this side of the divide. Nope, nor Gracenote nor LillyPond make for even decent musical typesetting packages in a professional environment.

    Yet they keep messing up their files dragging-and-dropping to wrong places or generally fucking up with the GUI.

    So I got them Cygwin and Bash, and taught them to manage their files that way. It works.

  • My statement (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 22, 2004 @05:57PM (#9500251)
    Finally, I have come to a conclusion. I have silently read Slashdot for several years and have seen COUNTLESS references to this on-going project of having "mom use Linux".

    Today, I came to a realization. Each and every poster on Slashdot has a mom-fetish. That is the ONLY explanation. Every mention of mom is either posted or moderated up. Mom mom mom.

    Christ, quit with this horrid maternal obsession, please.

  • Linux for Non-Geeks? (Score:4, Funny)

    by Alexis de Torquemada ( 785848 ) on Tuesday June 22, 2004 @06:02PM (#9500291)

    Blasphemy! Burn the heretic and his unholy scribblings at the stake! Oh, ye cursed, ye fool! You'll have worse things to worry about than dependency hell. May Saint Ignucius have mercy on yer wicked soul.

    Alexis de Torquemada

    Chief Inquisitor

  • A trend? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by mratitude ( 782540 ) on Tuesday June 22, 2004 @06:05PM (#9500322) Journal
    One can only hope. When I first admitted that I was interested in C programming (remember Power C's $20 compiler and libs?) I was scrounging for books that would definitively explain C programming from the point of view of a novice, NOT a programmer!. In the early 90's, that nearly didn't exist. The technical priesthood still held sway and they did demand their tithe.

    The early Linux efforts at documentation carried through with the priesthood mentality - Every person writing the documentation just assumed you already knew what he or she knew and what they wrote offered only what he or she thought you needed to know. Not all mind you, but most.

    Which is the worst assumption any writer can ever make, IMHO.

    • Re:A trend? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Tsiangkun ( 746511 )
      Every person writing the documentation just assumed you already knew
      Excellent point. I am frequently critized for assuming that everything I know is common knowledge, and giving presentations that don't present enough background to the audience.

      I can imagine this is a downfall with geeks writing documentation in general. Everything we know is now obvious [to us], so we only document the non-obvious parts.
      The new reader tries to use the docs, but finds themselves frustrated because the docs start ou

    • Yes! I loved PowerC. It had the greatest debugger. I still have a licensed copy around somewhere.

  • For an audience of 3 (Score:3, Interesting)

    by sootman ( 158191 ) on Tuesday June 22, 2004 @06:05PM (#9500329) Homepage Journal
    With all due respect to the author, who I'm sure wrote a fine book, no one sits down and reads whole manuals. Some people will grab a manual to find a solution to a problem. The rest will ask someone, do a workaround, or do without. 330 pages? That's about the thickness of a John Grisham book. (Though I'm sure this one has more pictures.) IOW, huge.
    • With all due respect: I LOVE reading manuals!! I enjoy the format as some like the cliff-hanger aproach of novels. The first "manual" on Linux I read (and this was so that I could install RedHat 4.0 on an old 486 EISA based swerver) turned out to not be a manual at all. The author had grabbed every HOWTO and Mini-HOWTO he could find, then interspersed that with Usenet posts and spell checked IRC replies. In spite of this eclectic editorship and the fact that Linux of that vintage on a purpose built Netwar

  • Good timing (Score:4, Interesting)

    by bludstone ( 103539 ) on Tuesday June 22, 2004 @06:18PM (#9500427)
    I just installed my first linux (mandrake 10) this weekend.

    Of course, im a geek. Not a linux geek, mind you, but still a geek.

    Im having fun discovering a whole NEW slew of prolems to deal with. Of course, these are slight more managable then the ones i used to deal with :-)

    google, slashdot, and random linux gurus online have been wonderful. thanks folks! :D

    I should pick this up.
  • I came across Linux In Easy Steps [amazon.co.uk] whilst browsing a bookstore today, and it's a great great book.
    I sticks to the Mandrake install, covers all the usual stuff (playing music, editing files, browsing blah blah) , and then finishes off with a bit of bash scripting.
    A superb intro for the newbie Linux people - i heartily reccomend it.

    No , i'm not connected with the book or the publisher in any way - i was just impressed with the layout and the usage of screenshots and the step by step explanations within ,

  • "As such, the author has chosen to go with the default Fedora desktop, GNOME. [...] Grant has chosen stability and ease of use, and he has chosen well."

    He would certainly been still more happy with something such as Mandrakelinux 10.0 Official, which is easier to use than Fedora, and more stable. Additionally, it's available for download for free, and benefits from official Mandrakesoft updates.

    Mandrakemove would have been an excellent choice as well since it doesn't require any installation and can stor
    • Ah, of course! It would be impossible to have a discussion about Linux for "Moms" without someone bringing up "but distribution X does Y SO MUCH BETTER than the one you chose!"

      Yada yada, shut the hell up. There are hundreds of distributions, and a dozen that are actually usable. This book is about Fedora. If you don't like Fedora, that's fine, it's your choice. But don't sit here and tell the author of the book that he *should* have chosen a different distribution. Maybe he's never used Mandrake. Ma

      • This book is about Fedora. If you don't like Fedora, that's fine, it's your choice. But don't sit here and tell the author of the book that he *should* have chosen a different distribution. Maybe he's never used Mandrake. Maybe he didn't know the new version was coming out. Maybe he doesn't have a USB key. For whatever reason, he wrote about Fedora, so just cope with it, ok?

        Which would be fine if the book was "Linux for Rickford Grant." However, the book is for "non-geeks" to help them use Linux. As you a

      • I'm sick of all this "my distribution is better than yours" penis-measuring. Get over it, people.

        Which distro has that app? I'd like the rumors to be certified once and for all.

        Sounds like a good idea, but if someone can't wade through installing and running of a modern distro, I doubt they'll make it far in the book.
  • linux is a peice of cake if all you want to do is surf, write a document, and email...

    If you want to do anything else on the other hand...

  • Ever notice how hard it can be to read through a "man" page? What if we also had a "dumbed down" version of a man page available for newbies? eMan (easy man) or something like that.

  • If only the book was published under an open licence [creativecommons.org] then I could modify it to suit my Fedora Core 2/GNOME using mum, and others could modify it to suit there Mandrake 10/KDE using moms. The author would get the benefits of others keeping the content up to date, and off the shelf sales (assuming the source was released under a non-commercial licence). The rest of the community would benefit from a book that would better suit our needs.

  • I think Linux desktop support is pretty much there/em. Non-geeks can plop an ISO in, run through the graphical installer, and come out with a desktop system where everything pretty much works. Yeah, GNOME/KDE will look hugely different to XP but then the XP interface was itself quite a departure from the previous versions of Windows. It's just a case of adapting to a new desktop environment.

    However, most of my non-geeky friends have laptops and things don't always just work here, AFAIK.

    Is there an install

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