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This book is an installation and entry-level guide to the Linux system.
The purpose is to get new users up and running with the system by
consolodating as much important material as possible into one book.
Instead of covering many of the volatile technical details, those things which
tend to change with rapid development, we give you
enough background to find out more on your own.
Linux is not difficult to install and use. However, as with any
implementation of UNIX, there is often some black magic involved to
get everything working correctly. We hope that this book will get you
on the Linux tourbus and show you how groovy this operating system can be.
In this book, we cover the following topics.
- What is Linux? The design and philosophy of this unique operating
system, and what it can do for you.
- All of the details of what is needed to
run Linux, including suggestions on what kind of hardware
configuration is recommended for a complete system.
- How to obtain and install Linux. There are many distributions of the
Linux software. We present a number of them, and discuss how to
install the Linux software from one of the available distributions.
- A brief introductory UNIX tutorial, for those users who have never
had experience with UNIX before. This tutorial should, hopefully,
provide enough material for complete novices to have enough
basic know-how to find their way around the system.
- An introduction to systems administration with Linux. This covers
the most important tasks that new Linux administrators will need to be
familiar with, such as creating users, managing filesystems, and so forth.
- A cursory overview of advanced features of Linux, such as the
X Window System, networking with TCP/IP and SLIP, and the setup of
electronic mail and news systems.
This book is for the personal computer user wishing to get started with
Linux. We don't assume previous UNIX experience, but do expect novices
to refer to other materials along the way.
For those unfamiliar with UNIX, a list of useful sources of
information is given in Appendix A. In general, this book
is meant to be read along with another book on basic UNIX concepts.
Next: A Brief History
Up: Introduction to Linux
Previous: Introduction to Linux