Introduction

Linux has enjoyed incredible growth as an operating system in the past few years. Years of refinement have helped it to grow out of a niche market and into the mainstream. You can now find Linux in mission-critical servers and on home desktops. Taking the time to learn about Linux will help increase your productivity and will enhance your overall computer experience.

This book is designed for all Linux users, from Linux newcomers to seasoned system administrators. New users will want to start at the beginning and follow the tutorial-style nature of the book. More experienced users will get more out of the later book chapters. The entire book makes an excellent reference manual for common (and some not-so-common) tasks.

Rather than choose a specific distribution for Practical Linux, we have chosen to be as distribution neutral as possible. Plenty of excellent programs are available that span all major distributions. Learning these tools ensures that you will never be locked into one company's version of Linux. We should note, however, that some of the tasks in this book can also be accomplished with distribution-specific tools, often times more easily than with standard programs. You should learn and use these tools if they make you more productive, realizing that they might not be available in another Linux distribution.

We wrote this book in a task-oriented fashion, explaining the steps required to complete each task. Learning by example can be very easy and is often the best way to understand computer skills. Practical Linux is organized in a manner that makes it a good reference.

Part I, "Linux Basics," introduces you to Linux, explains initial setup and use of common command-line functions and familiarizes you with the operating system.

Part II, "Configuring Your System," guides you through more advanced system setup, focusing on system hardware and peripheral devices.

Part III, "The X Window System," explains X Window, the graphical environment for Linux, including setup, configuration, and use.

Part IV, "Connecting to Your Internet Service Provider," connects you to the Internet, helping you set up your ISP connection and explaining many network programs available in Linux.

Part V, "System Administration," contains advanced system setup information including user management, shell programming, and system optimization.

I hope that you get as much out of Linux as I have. Open source software has shown that it can succeed in the commercial market. After you learn the basics of Linux, I would encourage you to give something back to the open source community. Programmers can of course contribute source code, but non-programmers can also play an important role by telling authors about the bugs they find, writing documentation, or simply telling others about what open source products work well.

Enjoy this book and best wishes with your Linux experience.