Linux® For Dummies®, 8th Edition

Chapter 17. Basic System Administration

In This Chapter

Managing users Playing with printers Watching programs

After one look at this planet any visitor from outer space would say “I want to see the manager.”

—William S. Burroughs

Okay, so you’ve got your Fedora Linux system running exactly the way you want it, with just the right combination of software packages installed. You’re writing documents, creating fancy graphics, listening to music CDs, and even playing games. But don’t sit back and relax: There’s still more left to do.

You’ll always need to be tweaking things on your system — whether it’s allowing other people to use it, installing a new printer, or trying to figure out why a software program is running so slow (yes, even Linux programs can go bad sometimes). Keeping everything in order and running properly can be a full-time job. Even for a home Linux system, you may need to manage several user accounts and printers, as well as keep track of over a dozen programs running on the system.

Fedora provides a few tools for us that help in the Linux management process. No doubt you’ve seen the Administration section under the System menu area on the desktop (see Chapter 5). Some of the items are fairly self-explanatory, such as Date and Time settings, Display settings, Keyboard settings, and the Language setting. However, other items aren’t quite as easy to figure out how to use. This chapter walks through a few of the administration tools Fedora provides to help make ...