Perfect Place to Start

The short of it is -- if you're the type of person who can install MS Windows on a machine, then there's no reason you can't install Linux on a machine. And I think this book is probably the fastest way you can get started.

While the typical computer geek can wade through the websites and find documentation and get help from newsgroups, I think this book is the best way for "regular folks" to go about it.

Confession: I'm a computer programmer who got into the habit of buying "For Dummies" books during college when I wanted to learn the basics really, really fast without having to think too much.

My goal was NOT to be able to program in Linux. I just wanted to see how close Linux has gotten to be a viable alternative to MS Windows. I wanted to install it on my laptop, but didn't want to spend more than a weekend on the endeavor.

I started out by downloading Mandrake Linux and installing it. All went really well. It was sort of anti-climactic. But then I wanted to go into it a little deeper. For example, adding users, reading files off my windows machine (I have a home network), downloading and installing programs that didn't come with the distribution.... But I just didn't have the patience to wade through the documentation. I just wanted the steps for doing the basic stuff right in front of me. Okay, I'll be honest -- I didn't want to think, I just wanted to do it.

Red Hat Fedora....For Dummies was the answer. After installing the Fedora distribution (the book explains "distributions"), I was customizing the desktop, reading files off my windows machine, browsing the web, printing from the printer connected to my windows machine, etc., in no time -- I'm talking the first day. It was so easy, I wanted to delve further. So I followed the directions in the book and was compiling programs and upgrading the Kernal.

If computers are sort of a hobby for you, meaning you like to dink around on them, can set up a network, can install MS Windows and stuff like this, you HAVE to try installing Linux on a machine. Try and find a used P3 or better machine with more than 128 MB RAM. (The book goes through how to install it on the same machine as your windows system, but I wouldn't do it.) Use this book and go for it. You will be AMAZED. If you mostly use your machine for e-mail, word processing, MP3's and photo/video manipulation, you may find that you can say goodbye to Windows and "HELLO!" to affordable (often free) software of equal, if not better quality than what you find on MS Windows.

Good Luck!

Other Reviews

• Perfect Place to Start
• 850 Pages on Linux For Dummies