Phil Hughes - Linux for Dummies Quick Reference

by Phil Hughes andViktorie Navratilova

Linux For Dummies Quick Reference, 3rd Edition

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Copyright 2000 Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Library of Congress Control Number: 00-103394

ISBN: 0-7645-0760-5

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6

3O/QV/QY/QU/IN

About the Authors

Phil Hughes is the president of Specialized System Consultants (SSC) and the publisher of Linux Journal magazine. He has authored or edited many of SSCs Pocket Reference cards for the UNIX operating system and utility programs. Phil has worked in computing as a programmer and design specialist since 1968. He has worked with UNIX since 1980 as a systems programmer, consultant, trainer, and writer. In 1983, armed with that one English class he took in college, he turned SSC into a company that specializes in documentation for UNIX systems.

Viktorie Navratilova has been working with UNIX for several years, and her main interests are computer graphics and UNIX and network security. She writes regular articles about Linux and computer security for computer magazines and gives talks at the local Linux users group and Webgrrls meetings. She is particularly impressed with the global Linux community, which has always been helpful and friendly no matter where in the world shes traveled. Viki earned her bachelors degree in computer science from Loyola University of Chicago and now works in Chicago for BlueMeteor, a startup Application Service Provider.

Authors Acknowledgments

I would like to thank many people first and foremost, Ben Galliart, for his endless proofreading and reality checks; Jarmila Navratilova, for her support; and the Chicago and Israeli Linux users groups, for their friendship and hospitality. Many thanks also to Rebecca Whitney, for her thorough editorship and patience.

Viki

Publishers Acknowledgments

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Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:

Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media Development

Project Editor: Rebecca Whitney

Acquisitions Editor: Laura Lewin

Proof Editors: Teresa Artman, Dwight Ramsey

Technical Editor: David Williams

Editorial Manager, Freelance: Constance Carlisle

Editorial Assistants: Candace Nicholson, Sarah Schupert

Production

Project Coordinator: Regina Snyder

Layout and Graphics: Amy Adrian, Jacque Schneider, ErinZeltner

Proofreaders: Carl Pierce, Marianne Santy, York Production Services, Inc.

Indexer: York Production Services, Inc.

Publishing and Editorial for Technology Dummies

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Publishing for Technology Dummies

Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher

Joyce Pepple, Acquisitions Director

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Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services

The Big Picture: Linux

Linux

L inux is the most popular flavor of UNIX available for PCs. Millions of people worldwide use it today, and its acceptance in the business world is spreading rapidly. Linux fills a need that nothing else can. This stable UNIX operating system is low cost (free!) and has a large user base and tons of tools for software developers. Linux now runs office productivity tools, such as WordPerfect, and runs on more hardware platforms than you can shake a stick at.

What You See: The KDE Desktop

Hello, and welcome to Linux. Everything you do with it takes place in one of two realms: the graphical interface realm and the command-line text interface realm. This is what the Linux KDE desktop looks like, which is what youre likely to see when you run Linux.

The Linux windowing interface allows you to go light on command-line typing and work with user applications, such as word processors, spreadsheets, and games. The most useful feature to note in this figure is the easy-to-access menu system, which should be somewhat familiar if you have ever used Microsoft Windows or CDE.