From the Back Cover
"Robin's book will show you the benefits of switching to Linux immediately. Your computer will run faster and more reliably than you ever believed possible. Surfing the net will no longer be an exercise in paranoia. And you'll discover a whole new world of powerful, free software that can run rings around the programs available for Windows."
From the Foreword by Leo Laporte, Host of Call for Help on G4TechTV Canada and The Tech Guy on KFI 640 AM Los Angeles
The perfect gift for that Linux beginner in your life!
Have Linux up and running in 5 minutes or less with the incredible SimplyMEPIS bootable CD-ROM
Easy-to-follow videos on DVD
Linux made easy... incredibly easy!
Tired of Windows viruses, spyware, licensing hassles, and high costs? Try Linux!
Not sure Linux is up to the job? It is. Not sure you can learn Linux? You can. Linux expert and Open Source Developers' Network (OSDN) editor-in-chief, Robin "Roblimo" Miller, will teach you Linux the easy way: using the point-and-click skills you already have!
With the bootable SimplyMEPIS Linux software included on CD, you'll be running Linux in 5 minutes...no formatting, no partitioning, no technical hassles... just insert the CD, reboot your computer, and you're ready to go!!!
You don't need to be a computer expert! With Roblimo's step-by-step instructions and how-to videos, you'll master everything from word processing to the Web and email, instant messaging to CD burning... you name it.
Linux has never been this easy, this productive, or this much fun!
Navigate Linux visually, the easy way, with KDE
Get on the Web, send email, even build your own Web sites
Create Microsoft Office-compatible documents with OpenOffice.org
Instant-message and chat with all your friends—no matter what network they're on
Import, edit, and manage your digital photos
Burn CDs and DVDs
Play the world's best open source games
Download all the free software you'll ever need
Coexist easily with Windows usersCD-ROM AND DVD-ROM INCLUDED
CD features SimplyMEPIS Linux: start running Linux in 5 minutes, and get all the software you need to be productive!
DVD features Roblimo explaining all you need to know in bite-sized video tutorials. All the Linux skills you really need are covered here... just watch, and do!© Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
About the Author
About the Author
Robin "Roblimo" Miller started writing professionally in 1983 as a freelance reporter and feature writer in Baltimore, Maryland. He first wrote about Linux in 1997, and by 1998 he was a full-time Linux user, working as a reporter, columnist, and editor for Andover News Network, which later become the OSTG (Open Source Technology Group) division of VA Software.
Roblimo, as he has been known online since the mid-1990s, was one of the first reporters to cover the Linux phenomenon. He has spoken at computing and Internet conferences in Saudi Arabia, Mexico, India, Trinidad, Jordan, and at least a dozen U.S. states. He's been "the computer expert" for the award-winning Rise and Shine morning show on Baltimore's WJZ TV, and has been a guest on many radio and several cable TV talk shows.
Point & Click Linux! is Roblimo's second book. His first, The Online Rules of Successful Companies, was published by FT Prentice Hall in 2002. He has written over 2000 articles for various newspapers, magazines, and Web sites on topics including Linux (of course!), child support, college campus drug use, metallurgy, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), software development, telemarketing, crime prevention, tax policy, online business, TV news reporting, taxi driving, and political shenanigans.
Before becoming a full-time writer and editor, Roblimo worked as a limo owner/driver (hence "Roblimo"), taxi driver, electronics technician, soldier, and auto mechanic. He is currently editor in chief of OSTG, and lives with his wife, the artist Deborah Miller, in Bradenton, Florida.© Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
IntroductionIntroduction
We all want our computers to "just work." We want to view Web sites, exchange email, create letters and other printed material, do our book-keeping, and perform other basic computer tasks without worrying about viruses, spam, Web popup ads, system crashes or high program license fees.
Linux is the low-cost key to trouble-free computing. It's a little different from Windows or Mac, so you'll need to learn some new tricks to use it, but they are not hard tricks, and they won't take long to learn. In return for that little bit of learning, you'll be able to perform everyday computing tasks rapidly and easily without worrying about viruses, worms or spyware. In fact, after you have Linux installed and your favorite programs set up, you won't need to think about your computer at all. You'll be able to concentrate on what you're doing with it, whether you're creating a budget spreadsheet for your business, creating a family newsletter or downloading and listening to your favorite music.
This book and the instructional DVD video inside the front cover are based on MEPIS Linux. The SimplyMEPIS CD inside the back cover includes all the software you need to surf the Web, read and write email, do sophisticated word processing, make slide presentations, manipulate spreadsheets, upload and edit images from digital cameras and scanners, create Web sites, enjoy music or videos, play many hours' worth of entertaining games, and generally do what you and most other people expect a personal computer to do.
About the Point & Click Linux! DVD - It's not a single hour-long video, but a series of "bite-sized" short tutorials. Each one focuses on a specific function or program. The video tutorials contain most of the information in the printed book, but show you how to do things instead o telling you how to do them.
The DVD plays in standard NTSC (U.S. format) DVD players, and in computers equipped with DVD drives. Check this book's companion Web site, PointAndClickLinux.com, for added and updated videos.
Proprietary Windows software equivalent to the programs on your SimplyMEPIS CD, plus the current version of Windows itself, would cost at least $1500 or more. And if the included software doesn't cover all your needs, the MEPIS servers offer hundreds of other useful programs you can download right away and start using without paying another cent. Adventurous souls can experiment with any one of thousands of free non-MEPIS programs provided by the worldwide, volunteer-run Debian project with only a few mouse clicks—and can delete any programs that don't work out with another few clicks.
(Note that when you delete a MEPIS or Debian program, it is 100% gone. There is no "residue" or "registry crud" leftover as there often is in Windows when you try to delete a program you no longer want.)
While this book focuses on MEPIS, there is an appendix dedicated to other popular Linux distributions, because Linux is about choice, not about locking you into one way of doing things. You'll also be happy to know that the programs described in the following pages and on the included DVD video work the same way no matter which Linux distribution you choose. Even if you start with MEPIS and later move to another flavor of Linux, your learning time will not have been wasted.
But that's enough loose talk. Let's turn the page and get started with trouble-free, Point & Click Linux! computing.
© Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Art & Photography
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