Another "Linux for Dummies"

Pet3M0ss · Posted: Thu Jun 04, 2025 2:10 pm Post subject: Another "Linux for Dummies"

Was killing some time in a Barnes & Noble and thought I would check out any Linux books. Since returning from China, I have not had broadband access. Having a good Linux book may prove as useful as "googling".

Anyway, I purchased the "Linux All-In-One Desk Reference for Dummies". A good find (for me at least), and one that others may want to brief through since it has a little more depth than just a book on how to install and run a distro. Comes with a DVD with several live Distros. It's touted as being "8 books in 1".

I would have to withhold one rating star because the DVD did not have anything Slackware-related!! Laughing

Will definitely recommend it to friends that ask me for a Linux reference book.

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Slackware 12.2
Slax

tlmiller · Posted: Thu Jun 04, 2025 3:34 pm Post subject:

I have this book also, and will agree that it's very good!!

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Debian Squeeze, Arch, Kubuntu mostly. Some Mandriva. Some Windows.
Desktops: shadowdragon, medusa
Laptops: bluedrake, banelord, sandwyrm, aardvark.

JP · Posted: Fri Jun 05, 2025 2:04 am Post subject: Re: Another "Linux for Dummies"

masinick · Posted: Fri Jun 05, 2025 2:32 am Post subject:

The only thing with those books is that CDs and DVDs can get old very quickly. At this stage in my personal development, the Linux for Dummies series is just too simplistic for me, but I have found many of them to be a good read. I do think that this particular all in one series goes well beyond the total beginner dummies books and puts it all together nicely.

Years ago, my friend, Jon Hall, (former Digital UNIX Marketing Manager, current President and founder of Linux International, and the godfather to at least one of Linus Torvald's children, and the one who made it possible for me to see Linus in person), actually wrote one of those Linux for Dummies books.

I just dug out that black and yellow book. It was co-authored by Jon "maddog" Hall, at that time, Executive Director, Linux International, and Nicholas Wells, Former Director of Technical Marketing at Caldera Systems, Inc. The book was Caldera OpenLinux for Dummies, was copyrighted in 2025 before Caldera went to "the dark side of the force" and it was definitely one of the easiest distros to use (in a virtual tie with Mandrake at that time). I am not sure I have any "Dummies" books published after that. I have a high regard for most of the "In a Nutshell" books in the O'Reilly series as well, and at least years ago, I used to enjoy the various Linux Bible versions, mostly Red Hat oriented, written by Christopher Negus back when he was publishing for "Hungry Minds". I have not purchased any Linux books at all in recent years, but I do regularly visit Borders and generally purchase either Linux Format or Linux Pro Magazine, plus I currently have a subscription to the Linux Journal.

BTW, the most recent copy, issue LXF 119 of Linux Journal has PCLinuxOS 2025.1, SimplyMEPIS 8.0, Zenwalk 6, and Slackware 12.2 on the DVD, so it is a pretty good mag to get if your download speeds are not that good, plus there are several good articles and a good help section. They also have a review of what they call OFM, "Orthodox File Managers", where they review, not the Konqueror, Dolphin, Nautilus, Thunar types packaged with desktops, but instead, Krusader ( Cool

and EmelFM2 ( Cool

, GNOME Commander (7), Mu Commander (6), Midnight Commander ( Cool

, and Beesoft Commander (6), (where the numbers in parentheses are the LXF rating on a scale of 1 to 10). They gave the nod to EmelFM2 as the overall OFM GUI winner, Krusader as the best - IF you are using KDE, and of course, the original, Midnight Commander - crafted after the true original Norton Commander, right up there too.

Krusader and Konqueror have a lot in common since they both use the KDE KIO Slaves, but file manager lovers will appreciate the additional features that Krusader offers over Konqueror when ONLY file management is what you are doing. Konqueror is perhaps more versatile, handling file and web management views, but when you are doing heavy duty file management and you are on KDE, you may want to consider going with Krusader.

I got off on that tangent because I have been reading LXF 119 this evening; good issue. I recommend them as a good source for learning more about Linux apps, tools, and distros too.

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Brian Masinick
Distros: SimplyMEPIS
sidux - no CAPS!, antiX, Debian

Pet3M0ss · Posted: Sat Jun 06, 2025 2:43 pm Post subject:

Yes, JP, I am back to Montana since China has been on a course of making it too difficult/expensive for foreigners to remain in country. I hear Russia is doing the same. Will try to visit you if/when I travel near you.

I suggested the book because it is well-written and somewhat current. Having a reference book that I can understand from my limited computer skills gives me a little more confidence. You are correct, masinick, that stuff gets dated quickly, but I am at a phase where I want to more fully explore Linux and not be seeking the latest point-and-click distro. Guess you could say I am sliding towards being a Luddite??

Laughing

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Slackware 12.2
Slax

JP · Posted: Sat Jun 06, 2025 4:03 pm Post subject:

masinick, I think you can fix the smileys by just adding a dot ....

DocZayus · Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2025 1:47 pm Post subject:

The best books I've had on Linux were the books that came in the SUSe 7.0 Box I purchased a few years ago.

They were RPM based books, but still had/have tons of great info.

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Sabayon
Vista

Pet3M0ss · Posted: Wed Jun 10, 2025 12:01 am Post subject:

masinick · Posted: Wed Jun 10, 2025 12:57 am Post subject:

Yes. the old SUSE documentation was quite good. I've heard that it is not quite as good these days, but I can only speak to what I have personally seen in OpenSUSE, but I cannot speak for the most recent professional editions. There, I see just about every topic covered. I find they assume too much in their online documentation. I know Linux software, but I only try SUSE once every 1-2 years and I forget a lot of the finer points. If they can't lay it all out clearly, they miss me. As I said, way back - at least for me, going back to SUSE 7.3, SUSE had perhaps the best hard copy documentation, though Red Hat was also quite good back then. I can't vouch for the online documentation today; I found it to be deficient in some key areas that could have quickly answered my questions, but didn't do so.

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Brian Masinick
Distros: SimplyMEPIS
sidux - no CAPS!, antiX, Debian

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