Who Should Read This Book?
You may have been assigned this book for a class that you’re taking, but if not, it can still have value for self-study or as a supplement to other resources. If you’re new to Linux, this book covers the material that you will need to learn the OS from the beginning. You can pick up this book and learn from it even if you’ve never used Linux before. If you’re already familiar with Linux, you’ll have a leg up on many of the topics described in these pages.
This book is written with the assumption that you know at least a little about computers generally, such as how to use a keyboard, how to insert a disc into an optical drive, and so on. Chances are that you have used computers in a substantial way in the past—perhaps even Linux, as an ordinary user—or maybe you have used Windows or Mac OS X. We do not assume that you have knowledge of Linux system administration.
System Requirements
As a practical matter, you’ll need a Linux system on which to practice and learn in a hands-on way. You can install Linux in several ways:
- Alone as the only OS on the computer
- Side by side with another OS
- In an emulated computer environment provided by a virtualization program such as VMware (www.vmware.com) or VirtualBox (www.virtualbox.org)
If you’re taking a course on Linux, you may be able to use Linux in a lab environment. However, if you’re using this book in a self-study manner, you should plan to install Linux yourself. Although you can learn something just by reading this book, no amount of reading can substitute for hands-on experience with Linux!
You can use any popular Linux distribution with this book, although if you’re new to Linux, you’ll probably be happiest with one of the more user-friendly distributions, such as CentOS, Fedora, openSUSE, or Ubuntu. This book does not include instructions for how to install Linux; you should consult distribution-specific documentation to help with this task.
To install Linux and use all of its GUI tools, your computer should meet the following requirements:
CPU 400 MHz Pentium Pro or better
Minimum RAM 640 MiB
Recommended RAM At least 1,152 MiB
Hard Disk Space At least 9 GiB in unpartitioned space
Some distributions can work on less-powerful computers than these, and others may require better hardware to take full advantage of all of their features. Consult your distribution’s documentation to fine-tune these requirements.