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Linux in Easy Steps
Gives concise and thorough information and guidelines on Linux OS as well as popular programs that are packaged with Linux. In a nutshell, it Getting started, Exploring the desktop, Touring the filesystem, Running office applications, Running media applications, Command the shell, Handling files in the shell, Performing shell operations, Networking with the shell, Command references.
- GenresNonfictionComputers
Paperback
First published July 1, 2010
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65 people want to read
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Mike McGrath
76 books5 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
November 23, 2021
This is my review of the 2021 7th edition.
I've recently moved from Windows to Linux. It's been a lot smoother than I expected, and I'm glad to get away from Microsoft since I hate the direction they've been taking (and also hate software activation and DRM). I bought a couple of Linux books to help me on the way, and this is the first one I've finished. I don't use Linux Mint, but assumed that most of what was in here would apply to any similar Linux distro.
The book is generally good. Clear to read, with lots of illustrations, which are also in colour (bonus). Some of the illustrations are occasionally too small to read the detail, which is maybe unavoidable. The book has little tip symbols (and occasionally a huge unexplained highlighter one that seems unnecessary when one of the other symbols would have worked).
Note that the book is called "Linux in Easy Steps" - with a subtitle "fully illustrated using Linux Mint". That implies it is general Linux first, Mint second. It's a bit misleading, as it is the other way round - it often refers to features, software, files or settings that are in Mint, but not in the Linux distro I use. The book should either be called "Linux Mint in Easy Steps", or - if it is aiming at being an intro to all Linux, but focussing mostly on Mint (as the current title/subtitle combo suggests) then whenever the book covers something that is specific to Mint it should have some kind of symbol, so people not using Mint can skip that page. It was a bit frustrating to go and try things on my distro and discover they didn't work, or something didn't exist, or had a different name.
Overall I recommend it, but as a new Linux user the book did often leave me with more questions than answers, or it perhaps made things confusing. The issues I had fall into broad categories, I'll give some examples of each.
1> I would have liked more detail sometimes, though note that is always subjective.
- The book tells you how to get a file's size in bytes - but it is a missed opportunity to explain file size measurements and conversion, or what it actually means. Most people want quick conversions into MB or GB, which is what storage devices are measured in.
- It refers to dates in the Linux format, but doesn't explain what order the elements occur in. This varies by country, region, and individual. E.g. I am in the UK, but don't use the UK system, I use the international standard system. Since the order of month, date and year varies by system used, so the book should state what system it uses in its examples e.g. it says 07/04/2023 in the book - 7th April or 4th July? It will be different for different readers.
- It covers using the teminal to create hard links and soft links, but doesn't explain the difference between them, or how you would use them, or their relation to ones created in the GUI.
- It misses some things for beginners. E.g. it tells you to type tildes and pipes - things a new user may never have heard of, let alone typed, since they're so specialised. On some keyboards it isn't even clear where they are or how to access them. E.g. I don't have any keys with a pipe symbol on my keyboard. There is one (top left key) that has what looks like a vertical line with a gap in the middle, like a vertically stretched colon. It's probably that, but I've never worked out how to get that symbol, because the same key has three. It has a reverse apostrophe and a symbol like quarter of a letter T. I get those by pressing with or without shift. The third symbol, like a partial pipe, I don't know how to access it. I tried shift, ctrl, alt in combination with it, none created a pipe symbol. So, in a book aimed at beginners, you need to cover how to type special symbols, you can't assume people will instinctively know. [Update - turns out I have a pipe symbol, in a totally different place on the keyboard, the partial one was an untypable red herring - but it shows it's important to cover this, because if you've never had a need to type it before your mind may have a blind spot for where it is!]
- In one bit it briefly covers other distros, but isn't clear about what desktop environments (DE) each uses. For me, that has been the biggest thing in Linux - I went for a distro using Gnome, and discovered all sorts of things couldn't do because Gnome blocks it. The DE has a big impact on usability, so if you talk about distros, you should cover what DEs they use. (I will avoid Gnome-based ones in future.)
- There was nothing about scrollbars, which are too narrow in many OSs (Linux included - which is a shame, as that was a change in Windows that I hoped to escape from - I hate narrow scrollbars, and autohiding scrollbars). The beginning user benefits from making scrollbars wider, to the width they used to be a few years ago, and never autohiding them. The book could have covered this issue, and explained how to make them always appear, and have the correct width (for users that find the narrow ones almost impossible to use).
- There's a section on using the Terminal and typed commands to install packages (installable programs). Format: command pus package name. Then the book fails to mention where you get the package name from, or any way to browse what's available. There's not even a pointer to where you get them, even though the command depends on knowing that something is available, AND what its name is (the equivalent of what a Windows .exe file might be named). So, from this book, it gives impression you just have to guess. Would the media player you like, or the graphics program be in there? You'd just have to keep trying name variants. There is no way of knowing if the program is not there, or you just got the wrong name again. I should add I've seen this elsewhere with Linux guidance - people covering how to install programs, but skipping over that to do so requires knowing a piece of information that they give you no help in finding, rendering it useless. Suppose in Windows I could only install programs by typing in the name of an exe file I have never seen, guessing what the developer named it, hoping I get the exact name right, and also that it is available in a hidden and unbrowsable repository anyway. In a book aimed at beginners, this kind of thing is a big oversight, leaving people scratching their heads as to how they are meant to apply the information, when there's obviously a key thing missing or skipped over. The end result is that beginners will never get in a habit of doing it this way, they'll just use the GUI version of the repository with its search. (Note that even the GUI repositories don't always give the actual package name, so you can't even get them that way.)
2> Things that didn't work
- Some sections apply actions to certain files. Except we hadn't created the files earlier in the book, and they weren't on my system, so the commands failed. E.g. p154 begins with typing commands to display text files. The examples are poetry. Following the instructions just gave errors for me that the text files don't exist. Of course, I'm not using Mint and it may be that distro does include some Oscar Wilde poetry files in a user folder that Mint adds, in which case it is my fault. But it seems weird for Mint to populate a user folder with poetry on install. Again, p180 gives a command to print a specific image and a text file - when I followed the instructions the Terminal just gave an error, said there was no such file. It's confusing, and leaves you wondering what you did wrong.
3> Things that left me confused or frustrated
- I got lost in the Terminal commands chapter. I think it was the abstract nature. It told you how to create documents with a few words in columns and compare and sort contents via a text UI. But I can't think of any basic things where it's useful, it all seems highly specialised. As a book for beginners, much of this seemed irrelevant. If it gave you a particular reason to do it, something beneficial (e.g. how to change a setting in a config file or something easily without leaving the Terminal) then that would be more use, but I couldn't think of any obvious real world applications to many of the things in these sections, so it became confusing to little benefit. I have some familiarity with text commands from DOS days, but I was quickly lost as I had no useful way of picturing why I needed most of this, no idea of application. It would have been better to just include a few key commands that could be useful for customising or activating functions a beginner might use.
- The book never really covers PC setups for saving data. For me, the ideal is an OS drive and a separate data drive, but the book never covers that setup, just implies you should keep all your files on the OS drive in pre-set folders there. But that's less than ideal in many ways, and many people don't do it that way. For example, p61 says /home is "where you store all your working documents, images, and media files". But that is only one way of working, and can be problematic. Mint by default expects you to use those folders, but in 20 years of using PCs I've never used default folders in Windows or Linux. They don't match how I organise by _topic_, not filetype. I might have a folder for a book, containing documents, images, audio recordings. A year-by-year filing of events, articles, photos etc. So folders by format is useless to me. But the book doesn't give any alternative, or point to a better way of working. Likewise, if you don't use those folders, then seeing them in the file manager all the time is confusing and waste of space, but the book doesn't cover how to hide them if you don't use them. For me, only the Desktop (my working space) and my data drive (with my own topic/subject folders, not by type) are the places to store things. The Desktop is also where downloads go. I just feel like the book misses a big option for what may be better ways of storing files and working for many people. As an aside, that was one of the things I hated about Windows - the way it tried to push me to store things in my user folders on the OS drive. I had to use a hack to hide those folders from Windows Explorer. I never used them. I had tried once, but quickly got frustrated at how they were on the wrong drive, deeply nested, had folder names I didn't use, AND software kept adding crud and extra folders. I like to think of my data drive as my own filestore, that nothing gets added to unless I choose to add it. I had hoped Linux would be better than Linux in this way, but it often follows the same model as Windows (or at least Gnome does - not sure about other DEs).
- The book left me confused about hard drives and storage. P60-61 said /dev is devices, /mnt is temporary, /media is also temporary. I therefore expected my internal SSDs to be /dev but when I installed Linux they were /mnt in file explorer - but the book said that is for temporary stuff, and internal SSDs are not temporary. Then pp170-171 again said the SSDs are /dev even though my Linux has them as /mnt - is that due to the file system, or a setup problem? Someone else told me drives do appear as /mnt, in which case the book is wrong is calling them temporary, since it also applies to permanent drives (as permanent as any internally-attached hardware is). I was left confused about all this, what it should be. The kind of thing where I think it needs to be clearer about how Linux works, what a user might see, what it means in terms of interaction.
- The book has some covering of file permissions and ownership, but never really explains it. Does it only apply to files and folders, or whole drives? Is the info stored in file metadata, or the OS, or on the drive itself? What should the settings be so we don't get locked out of own files? How do we set them all to the same on a drive (not just ona file by file basis - useless when there may be over 100,000 files)? How are these thigns affected by drive formats e.g. files moved between NTFS, FAT32 and ext4? And so on, things I've had trouble understanding for years because rarely do the basics and real world scenarios get covered. In my experience all this is fine on an OS drive, but when it applies to personal files on a data drive, and the PC is a single-user PC (when they are irrelevant) then scenarios can appear causing problems. Like in the section on Working with Accounts - for a single user PC (the majority of installations?) accounts are irrelevant, but the book doesn't make this clear. Same with Groups. Really, for single user PCs, it should be possible to disable it all - it's one of the annoyances of Windows, and Linux repeats the same setup even when it's not applicable. Groups is just confusing - I followed the book's command, and my PC said I was in groups called "na, adm, cdrom, sudo, dip, plugdev, lpadmin, sambashare" - WTF? Who added those, and what does it mean? What problems might it cause? Why is there a cdrom group in a PC with no cdrom? I realise some of this is criticism of Linux, but the book often led me to things that left me more confused than ever. The feeling hit me again later on, in a section on seeing and accessing permissions, but just for a few files at time. No explanation of WHERE they come from. What permissions are applied when I create a jpeg in a graphics program saved on data drive, versus text files saved to various OS drives? Files copied from NTFS to ext4, from other PCs, downloaded from attachments? When are the permissions applied, and how does the OS decide which to add? What if have a separate data drive, files from over a decade created on different PCs, OSs, usernames, people - will they all have different permissions? What should they be so I can never be locked out of my own files (as happened to me once)? How do we set a drive so ALL files and folders have those permissions? How often does that need doing? This book says "Do not fall into the habit of setting everything to permissions of 777 - use access permissions thoughtfully to maintain useful restrictions" [777 = full access] - but if this is a single user PC, that makes no sense, surely you never want to be locked out of your own files, always want full permission? There are no useful restrictions on personal data files on a single user PC. My mp3s, documents, pictures, how I file them - I want full access to everything on my data drive. I don't want to reinstall an OS with a different username, or a different OS, and have the new OS think I don't have permission for my own files. Do the permissions reset every time you install an OS? If so, what use are they anyway, since anyone could copy them and apply them to a new OS. It's a case of the info in the book leaving me as a new user more confused than ever, with seemingly contradictory advice, lack of explanation, lack of application to real world scenarios, and the little advice on what should do seems the opposite of what I would want.
Apologies for me focussing on those issues. I do still recommend the book, I just wished I'd come out of it going "Aha!" and understanding things a bit better. It felt like it veered between too basic for me (much of the GUI stuff - though I do believe it is handy to include that, so I'm not suggesting that stuff shouldn't be in there - some users will be new even to computers), and too confusing in terms of me having no idea how to apply it. Then, many of the questions I had as a new user weren't explained fully. The reality of the topics I raised in section 3 above are probably far simpler than my mind perceives them, but I am a bit lost, which isn't the feeling I had hoped for after finishing the book! I'll see how my other Linux book works out, Linux for Dummies (Richard Blum, 10th Ed, 2020).
I've recently moved from Windows to Linux. It's been a lot smoother than I expected, and I'm glad to get away from Microsoft since I hate the direction they've been taking (and also hate software activation and DRM). I bought a couple of Linux books to help me on the way, and this is the first one I've finished. I don't use Linux Mint, but assumed that most of what was in here would apply to any similar Linux distro.
The book is generally good. Clear to read, with lots of illustrations, which are also in colour (bonus). Some of the illustrations are occasionally too small to read the detail, which is maybe unavoidable. The book has little tip symbols (and occasionally a huge unexplained highlighter one that seems unnecessary when one of the other symbols would have worked).
Note that the book is called "Linux in Easy Steps" - with a subtitle "fully illustrated using Linux Mint". That implies it is general Linux first, Mint second. It's a bit misleading, as it is the other way round - it often refers to features, software, files or settings that are in Mint, but not in the Linux distro I use. The book should either be called "Linux Mint in Easy Steps", or - if it is aiming at being an intro to all Linux, but focussing mostly on Mint (as the current title/subtitle combo suggests) then whenever the book covers something that is specific to Mint it should have some kind of symbol, so people not using Mint can skip that page. It was a bit frustrating to go and try things on my distro and discover they didn't work, or something didn't exist, or had a different name.
Overall I recommend it, but as a new Linux user the book did often leave me with more questions than answers, or it perhaps made things confusing. The issues I had fall into broad categories, I'll give some examples of each.
1> I would have liked more detail sometimes, though note that is always subjective.
- The book tells you how to get a file's size in bytes - but it is a missed opportunity to explain file size measurements and conversion, or what it actually means. Most people want quick conversions into MB or GB, which is what storage devices are measured in.
- It refers to dates in the Linux format, but doesn't explain what order the elements occur in. This varies by country, region, and individual. E.g. I am in the UK, but don't use the UK system, I use the international standard system. Since the order of month, date and year varies by system used, so the book should state what system it uses in its examples e.g. it says 07/04/2023 in the book - 7th April or 4th July? It will be different for different readers.
- It covers using the teminal to create hard links and soft links, but doesn't explain the difference between them, or how you would use them, or their relation to ones created in the GUI.
- It misses some things for beginners. E.g. it tells you to type tildes and pipes - things a new user may never have heard of, let alone typed, since they're so specialised. On some keyboards it isn't even clear where they are or how to access them. E.g. I don't have any keys with a pipe symbol on my keyboard. There is one (top left key) that has what looks like a vertical line with a gap in the middle, like a vertically stretched colon. It's probably that, but I've never worked out how to get that symbol, because the same key has three. It has a reverse apostrophe and a symbol like quarter of a letter T. I get those by pressing with or without shift. The third symbol, like a partial pipe, I don't know how to access it. I tried shift, ctrl, alt in combination with it, none created a pipe symbol. So, in a book aimed at beginners, you need to cover how to type special symbols, you can't assume people will instinctively know. [Update - turns out I have a pipe symbol, in a totally different place on the keyboard, the partial one was an untypable red herring - but it shows it's important to cover this, because if you've never had a need to type it before your mind may have a blind spot for where it is!]
- In one bit it briefly covers other distros, but isn't clear about what desktop environments (DE) each uses. For me, that has been the biggest thing in Linux - I went for a distro using Gnome, and discovered all sorts of things couldn't do because Gnome blocks it. The DE has a big impact on usability, so if you talk about distros, you should cover what DEs they use. (I will avoid Gnome-based ones in future.)
- There was nothing about scrollbars, which are too narrow in many OSs (Linux included - which is a shame, as that was a change in Windows that I hoped to escape from - I hate narrow scrollbars, and autohiding scrollbars). The beginning user benefits from making scrollbars wider, to the width they used to be a few years ago, and never autohiding them. The book could have covered this issue, and explained how to make them always appear, and have the correct width (for users that find the narrow ones almost impossible to use).
- There's a section on using the Terminal and typed commands to install packages (installable programs). Format: command pus package name. Then the book fails to mention where you get the package name from, or any way to browse what's available. There's not even a pointer to where you get them, even though the command depends on knowing that something is available, AND what its name is (the equivalent of what a Windows .exe file might be named). So, from this book, it gives impression you just have to guess. Would the media player you like, or the graphics program be in there? You'd just have to keep trying name variants. There is no way of knowing if the program is not there, or you just got the wrong name again. I should add I've seen this elsewhere with Linux guidance - people covering how to install programs, but skipping over that to do so requires knowing a piece of information that they give you no help in finding, rendering it useless. Suppose in Windows I could only install programs by typing in the name of an exe file I have never seen, guessing what the developer named it, hoping I get the exact name right, and also that it is available in a hidden and unbrowsable repository anyway. In a book aimed at beginners, this kind of thing is a big oversight, leaving people scratching their heads as to how they are meant to apply the information, when there's obviously a key thing missing or skipped over. The end result is that beginners will never get in a habit of doing it this way, they'll just use the GUI version of the repository with its search. (Note that even the GUI repositories don't always give the actual package name, so you can't even get them that way.)
2> Things that didn't work
- Some sections apply actions to certain files. Except we hadn't created the files earlier in the book, and they weren't on my system, so the commands failed. E.g. p154 begins with typing commands to display text files. The examples are poetry. Following the instructions just gave errors for me that the text files don't exist. Of course, I'm not using Mint and it may be that distro does include some Oscar Wilde poetry files in a user folder that Mint adds, in which case it is my fault. But it seems weird for Mint to populate a user folder with poetry on install. Again, p180 gives a command to print a specific image and a text file - when I followed the instructions the Terminal just gave an error, said there was no such file. It's confusing, and leaves you wondering what you did wrong.
3> Things that left me confused or frustrated
- I got lost in the Terminal commands chapter. I think it was the abstract nature. It told you how to create documents with a few words in columns and compare and sort contents via a text UI. But I can't think of any basic things where it's useful, it all seems highly specialised. As a book for beginners, much of this seemed irrelevant. If it gave you a particular reason to do it, something beneficial (e.g. how to change a setting in a config file or something easily without leaving the Terminal) then that would be more use, but I couldn't think of any obvious real world applications to many of the things in these sections, so it became confusing to little benefit. I have some familiarity with text commands from DOS days, but I was quickly lost as I had no useful way of picturing why I needed most of this, no idea of application. It would have been better to just include a few key commands that could be useful for customising or activating functions a beginner might use.
- The book never really covers PC setups for saving data. For me, the ideal is an OS drive and a separate data drive, but the book never covers that setup, just implies you should keep all your files on the OS drive in pre-set folders there. But that's less than ideal in many ways, and many people don't do it that way. For example, p61 says /home is "where you store all your working documents, images, and media files". But that is only one way of working, and can be problematic. Mint by default expects you to use those folders, but in 20 years of using PCs I've never used default folders in Windows or Linux. They don't match how I organise by _topic_, not filetype. I might have a folder for a book, containing documents, images, audio recordings. A year-by-year filing of events, articles, photos etc. So folders by format is useless to me. But the book doesn't give any alternative, or point to a better way of working. Likewise, if you don't use those folders, then seeing them in the file manager all the time is confusing and waste of space, but the book doesn't cover how to hide them if you don't use them. For me, only the Desktop (my working space) and my data drive (with my own topic/subject folders, not by type) are the places to store things. The Desktop is also where downloads go. I just feel like the book misses a big option for what may be better ways of storing files and working for many people. As an aside, that was one of the things I hated about Windows - the way it tried to push me to store things in my user folders on the OS drive. I had to use a hack to hide those folders from Windows Explorer. I never used them. I had tried once, but quickly got frustrated at how they were on the wrong drive, deeply nested, had folder names I didn't use, AND software kept adding crud and extra folders. I like to think of my data drive as my own filestore, that nothing gets added to unless I choose to add it. I had hoped Linux would be better than Linux in this way, but it often follows the same model as Windows (or at least Gnome does - not sure about other DEs).
- The book left me confused about hard drives and storage. P60-61 said /dev is devices, /mnt is temporary, /media is also temporary. I therefore expected my internal SSDs to be /dev but when I installed Linux they were /mnt in file explorer - but the book said that is for temporary stuff, and internal SSDs are not temporary. Then pp170-171 again said the SSDs are /dev even though my Linux has them as /mnt - is that due to the file system, or a setup problem? Someone else told me drives do appear as /mnt, in which case the book is wrong is calling them temporary, since it also applies to permanent drives (as permanent as any internally-attached hardware is). I was left confused about all this, what it should be. The kind of thing where I think it needs to be clearer about how Linux works, what a user might see, what it means in terms of interaction.
- The book has some covering of file permissions and ownership, but never really explains it. Does it only apply to files and folders, or whole drives? Is the info stored in file metadata, or the OS, or on the drive itself? What should the settings be so we don't get locked out of own files? How do we set them all to the same on a drive (not just ona file by file basis - useless when there may be over 100,000 files)? How are these thigns affected by drive formats e.g. files moved between NTFS, FAT32 and ext4? And so on, things I've had trouble understanding for years because rarely do the basics and real world scenarios get covered. In my experience all this is fine on an OS drive, but when it applies to personal files on a data drive, and the PC is a single-user PC (when they are irrelevant) then scenarios can appear causing problems. Like in the section on Working with Accounts - for a single user PC (the majority of installations?) accounts are irrelevant, but the book doesn't make this clear. Same with Groups. Really, for single user PCs, it should be possible to disable it all - it's one of the annoyances of Windows, and Linux repeats the same setup even when it's not applicable. Groups is just confusing - I followed the book's command, and my PC said I was in groups called "na, adm, cdrom, sudo, dip, plugdev, lpadmin, sambashare" - WTF? Who added those, and what does it mean? What problems might it cause? Why is there a cdrom group in a PC with no cdrom? I realise some of this is criticism of Linux, but the book often led me to things that left me more confused than ever. The feeling hit me again later on, in a section on seeing and accessing permissions, but just for a few files at time. No explanation of WHERE they come from. What permissions are applied when I create a jpeg in a graphics program saved on data drive, versus text files saved to various OS drives? Files copied from NTFS to ext4, from other PCs, downloaded from attachments? When are the permissions applied, and how does the OS decide which to add? What if have a separate data drive, files from over a decade created on different PCs, OSs, usernames, people - will they all have different permissions? What should they be so I can never be locked out of my own files (as happened to me once)? How do we set a drive so ALL files and folders have those permissions? How often does that need doing? This book says "Do not fall into the habit of setting everything to permissions of 777 - use access permissions thoughtfully to maintain useful restrictions" [777 = full access] - but if this is a single user PC, that makes no sense, surely you never want to be locked out of your own files, always want full permission? There are no useful restrictions on personal data files on a single user PC. My mp3s, documents, pictures, how I file them - I want full access to everything on my data drive. I don't want to reinstall an OS with a different username, or a different OS, and have the new OS think I don't have permission for my own files. Do the permissions reset every time you install an OS? If so, what use are they anyway, since anyone could copy them and apply them to a new OS. It's a case of the info in the book leaving me as a new user more confused than ever, with seemingly contradictory advice, lack of explanation, lack of application to real world scenarios, and the little advice on what should do seems the opposite of what I would want.
Apologies for me focussing on those issues. I do still recommend the book, I just wished I'd come out of it going "Aha!" and understanding things a bit better. It felt like it veered between too basic for me (much of the GUI stuff - though I do believe it is handy to include that, so I'm not suggesting that stuff shouldn't be in there - some users will be new even to computers), and too confusing in terms of me having no idea how to apply it. Then, many of the questions I had as a new user weren't explained fully. The reality of the topics I raised in section 3 above are probably far simpler than my mind perceives them, but I am a bit lost, which isn't the feeling I had hoped for after finishing the book! I'll see how my other Linux book works out, Linux for Dummies (Richard Blum, 10th Ed, 2020).
September 17, 2020
Linux in Easy Steps is exactly that, learning Linux Mint in easy steps, maybe a bit too easily.
The majority of the book caters to people who have never used a GUI interface before, which may be zero unless you find a person who has never accessed Windows or Mac. Most of the instruction is self-explanatory and while it is extremely helpful, it's common knowledge. Linux Mint, for how great it is, really does not differ that much from Windows in terms of GUI.
Most information for new users can be learned off Youtube or other free sites. Linux Mint has a wonderful community and there's no shortage of users willing to help each other. Despite this I give the book 4 stars because it is exactly what it claims to be.
I would skip ahead to the terminal chapters for intermediate users.
The chapters are helpfully illustrated and everything is worded concisely. This book is best used side-by-side with your computer; follow the instructions in the book on your computer and you'll learn the basics in minutes.
Having said all that Linux Mint is the perfect OS for those looking to get away from MS. Get this book as a handy reference if you're not sure what advice to follow online.
The majority of the book caters to people who have never used a GUI interface before, which may be zero unless you find a person who has never accessed Windows or Mac. Most of the instruction is self-explanatory and while it is extremely helpful, it's common knowledge. Linux Mint, for how great it is, really does not differ that much from Windows in terms of GUI.
Most information for new users can be learned off Youtube or other free sites. Linux Mint has a wonderful community and there's no shortage of users willing to help each other. Despite this I give the book 4 stars because it is exactly what it claims to be.
I would skip ahead to the terminal chapters for intermediate users.
The chapters are helpfully illustrated and everything is worded concisely. This book is best used side-by-side with your computer; follow the instructions in the book on your computer and you'll learn the basics in minutes.
Having said all that Linux Mint is the perfect OS for those looking to get away from MS. Get this book as a handy reference if you're not sure what advice to follow online.
March 30, 2023
A Very Very Basic Book for someone who does not know how to use a personal Computer and Linux in any way. This Book is really for them.
In that regard, I give this a 5 star. this 2 star is my personal regard.
Book is too long for my taste but have clear symbols and formatting which is easier to read.
the Content is on point and delivers as the book is marketed.
I don't need that much so I am giving only 2 stars and don't read it every again. because I am already familiar with all this, want to learn bash scripting. so trying those books now.
In that regard, I give this a 5 star. this 2 star is my personal regard.
Book is too long for my taste but have clear symbols and formatting which is easier to read.
the Content is on point and delivers as the book is marketed.
I don't need that much so I am giving only 2 stars and don't read it every again. because I am already familiar with all this, want to learn bash scripting. so trying those books now.
October 25, 2020
For a really entry-level user is very handy. An explicative, clear and friendly introduction to GNU/Linux. I find the last two chapters very interesting to me. I would recommend this book to any Linux enthusiast who doesn't know where to start.
July 28, 2025
This one is a little too simple for me, but would be extremely useful for someone coming to Linux Mint from Windows. I you need something a little more technical to learn Linux in general, I would go elsewhere.
January 17, 2012
From newbie to guru, it says. Quite a short read, lots of useful detail about using the shell in the last chapter. Someday, I'll jump headlong into shell stuff. For now, I'm happy to play about with the xwindows system and KDE.
November 6, 2013
Quick and easy to read had some commands I had forgot about. It's good for anyone thinking of starting to use any linux distro.
April 21, 2017
Because only Dummies use Windows!
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