Disappointing!

This was a very disappointing purchase. Gagne breezes through any areas where Linux is actually difficult, focussing instead on the stuff that any competent computer user will have no trouble using. I don't need to have my hand held by an expert to figure out OpenOffice. What I do need is a lot more detail about installing the OS and configuring my system.

Gagne claims "A modern Linux installation is easy... easier than Windows... you boot from your CD-ROM drive, click NEXT a few times and you are running Linux." This is true if absolutely everything goes exactly as expected. If anything goes wrong, however, you are left to your own devices to figure it out. In my case, the GRUB installation needed serious attention, neither my dial-up or highspeed modem were recognized by the OS... and there is nothing in this book to help solve my problems. Check out the help forums for any Linux distribution and you'll see that these sorts of things come up regularly.

I'm very frustrated with Gagne's approach - basically he tells us to follow the instructions on the screen, and if anything goes wrong check the internet for solutions. You don't need to buy a book to tell you that.

Other Reviews

• Somewhat dated but still a good way to dip your toe into the Linux waters
• Disappointing!
• Not Bad but there are better books
• To basic for a prior windows user.
• If you don't like KDE, don't buy it.