Jang - Linux Annoyances for Geeks: Getting the Most Flexible System in the World Just the Way You Want It

To most of the world, all Linux users are geeks. But there are users who don't even realize that they're using Linux at work, and users who have recently installed Linux for the first time. On the other hand, there are users to whom everyone turns when they have a problem. We target this book to that group of experts to help them solve the annoyances they face on the job: finding the right hardware, configuring servers, supporting less experienced users, and more.

Linux Annoyances for Geeks provides a guide to many of the more common complaints faced by the experienced Linux user. Sometimes the annoyance comes directly from Linux, and sometimes from the adaptations required to support a regular user. The solutions are designed for three of the more prominent Linux distributions: Fedora Core, SUSE, and Debian. As Fedora Core serves as the test bed for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, many of the annoyances (and solutions) have also been tested for that distribution.

There are many other excellent Linux distributions. I wish I could have covered more. In writing this book, perhaps the biggest annoyance was the subtle differences in how things work (and how annoyances are solved) among distributions. As each distribution evolves, annoyances change. And too many details pertaining to different distributions would not be fair to those among us who are focused on a single distribution.

This book is an outgrowth of a long conversation with Andy Oram at the O'Reilly Open Source Convention. He was looking for a Linux equivalent to Windows XP Annoyances for Geeks , and I had the experience with the distributions on which he wanted a focus. He has been instrumental in shepherding this book from start to finish.

My own background includes administering, tinkering with, testing, and writing about a wide variety of Linux distributions. While studying for my MCSE, I started working with SUSE Linux, and I've been sold on open source ever since. While my RHCE certification has focused me on Red Hat distributions, I actually use Debian, and now Ubuntu Linux, as my primary home distributions.