Linux® for Dummies®, 9th Edition

Chapter 18. 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 have your 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 tweak things on your system — whether you're 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.

Linux provides a few tools that help in the management process. No doubt you've seen the Administration section in the menu area on your desktop (see Chapters 4 and 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 Ubuntu and Fedora provide to help make running your system a little ...