While Mac OS X garners all the praise from pundits, and Windows XP attracts all
the viruses, Linux is quietly being installed on millions of desktops every
year. For programmers and system administrators, business users, and educators,
desktop Linux is a breath of fresh air and a needed alternative to other
operating systems. The Linux Desktop Pocket Guide is your introduction to using
Linux on five of the most popular distributions: Fedora, Gentoo, Mandriva,
SUSE, and Ubuntu. Despite what you may have heard, using Linux is not all that
hard. Firefox and Konqueror can handle all your web browsing needs; GAIM and
Kopete allow you to chat with your friends on the AOL, MSN, and Yahoo!
networks; and the email programs Evolution and Kontact provide the same
functionality as Microsoft Outlook, with none of the cost. All of these
programs run within the beautiful, feature-packed, and easy-to-use GNOME or KDE
desktop environments. No operating system truly just works, and Linux is no
exception. Although Linux is capable of running on most any computing hardware
that Microsoft Windows can use, you sometimes need to tweak it just a little to
make it work the way you really want. To help you with this task, Linux Desktop
Pocket Guide covers essential topics, such as configuring your video card,
screen resolution, sound, and wireless networking. And laptop users are not
left out--an entire section is devoted to the laptop issues of battery life,
sleep, and hibernate modes.
