Preface
Welcome to SUSE Linux: A Complete Guide to Novell’s Community Distribution. I have tried to make this an intensely accessible book: its lab-based structure focuses on real, practical activities. Each lab is largely self-contained; there is no underlying plot or thematic development requiring you to start at page 1. No prior knowledge of Linux is needed, but I do assume some level of computer literacy. My ideal reader, I suppose, is the enthusiastic pilgrim journeying from the Land of Windows, or from a commercial version of Unix, or from some other flavor of Linux, or from Mac OS X (though the fierce brand loyalty of Mac users makes such pilgrimages unusual).
I have tried to strike a balance between using the desktop and using the command line. If a job can be done both using YaST (SUSE’s configuration tool) and at the command line, I have in many cases covered both methods. If you need a primer on using Linux at the command line, start with Lab 3.10, "Use Command-Line Tools.”
Brown’s law states that things always take longer than you expect. It didn’t state that yesterday, because I only just made it up. But it does today. Brown’s law is recursive. That is, it still applies even after you’ve applied it. A more complete statement might be, “Things always take longer than you would expect even after allowing for the fact that they will take longer than you expect.” (I have always wanted to have a law named after me. Trouble is, all the really good laws have been claimed already ...
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