Moving to the Linux Business Desktop

Rating:
Summary: Very valuable guide for the business user of Linux
Review: For a number of years now, I've been playing with Linux at my company. Most of the books I've read have been geared either to running Linux as a server, or as a personal workstation. This book fills the gap. Moving to the Linux Business Desktop, by Marcel Gagné, covers what you need to know to successful run Linux as a business workstation.

M. Gagné, a writer for The Linux Journal, does not assume you're going to use one specific distro for Linux. He gives instructions and examples for the most common ones: Fedora (Red Hat), Mandrake, SUSE, Debian, etc. KDE is the primary desktop, but GNOME is covered fairly well, too.

This book is broken up into three major parts: Getting to Know Linux, Administration and Deployment, and The Linux Business Desktop. Each part is packed with information in an easy-to-follow format.

Part One (Getting to Know Linux) covers the essentials of installing Linux and customizing your desktop. As I remarked earlier, Marcel covers multiple distros. He includes instructions on how to install using Mandrake, Fedora Core 1, and SUSE, as well as providing information on setting up a dual-boot environment.

The second part (Administration and Deployment) assists in setting up a fully functional business environment. In Chapter 7 (Installing New Applications), Marcel covers the various installation programs available across the distros. In addition, he gives a clearly written explanation of how to build from source that dispels any anxiety a newbie to Linux might have.

The next chapter covers the device support in Linux. He then goes on to explain about network and Internet connections. Unfortunately, there is one major piece of errata in this area of the book. During his explanation of the difference between Class A, B, and C IP addresses, the information for class A was inadvertantly switched with the class C info. The errata is corrected on his website (www.marcelgagne.com) and in future editions of the book.

Later chapters dig into the topics of Backup and Restore, printing, email, web servers, file sharing, thin clients and desktop remote control. He even includes a chapter on installing and configuring LDAP (something rarely written about).

The third and final part of the book covers the usual business applications. Email is addressed first, followed by desktop organizers. The web-browsing chapter focuses on KDE's Konquerer and Mozilla. Significant coverage is given in the next three chapters to OpenOffice and its basic applications Writer, Calc, and Impress. For drawing, digital cameras and USB scanners are covered, with The GIMP as the preferred image editor. Discussions of instant messaging (Kopete and GAIM ) and video conferencing (GnomeMeeting) round out this marvelous book.

The book includes a branded copy of Knoppix, the CD-bootable Linux. This lets you play around with the various aspects of Linux before committing yourself to an actual installation.

All in all, this is a valuable book, covering most of the areas a business user wants to address. Notably lacking was coverage on how to try to run Windows applications under Linux. Even though VMWare, Win4Lin, and Wine were mentioned briefly, I would have liked to have read some examples of running a Windows application using them.

Moving to the Linux Business Desktop by Marcel Gagné, recently released by Addison-Wesley, contains a wealth of valuable information for anyone contemplating using Linux as a business desktop. I give this book a rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars.


Rating:
Summary: For experienced Microsoft users or sysadmins
Review: Is this the start of a trend? Will the penguin now carry a briefcase? Gagne's book is a strong outreach towards existing Microsoft users. In a confident tone, he suggests why you should migrate to linux and its coterie of open source applications.

Gagne assumes you are familiar with the Microsoft operating systems, but are clueless in linux. So he starts from scratch with the latter. Explaining the ease of installation and use. As much as possible, he gives an explanation of a linux application, like the Konqueror browser and file manager, as simply as possible. And there are constant comparisons to various Microsoft applications, to help you relate to your background.

Even with all this, the book is clearly aimed at a fairly technically adept Microsoft user, or a Microsoft sysadmin. For a more typical Microsoft user, this book is far too complicated. Most users don't want to get into some of the details he describes, irrespective of any operating system preferences. So keep your background in mind, if you are looking at this book.

Rating:
Summary: Very good title to understand the business value of Linux...
Review: Since Linux in the business world is becoming a growing trend, I decided to review Moving To The Linux Business Desktop by Marcel Gagne (Addison-Wesley). It's an interesting book that was a little different than what I expected...

Chapter List:
Part 1 - Getting To Know Linux: Introduction; Overview of Deployment Options; Installation; Getting Your Hands Dirty; Customizing the Desktop; Using Konqueror for File Management
Part 2 - Administration and Deployment: Installing New Applications; Devices and Services; Network and Internet Connections; Becoming One with the Shell; Web-based Administration; Users and Groups; Backup and Restore; Printers and Printing; Electronic Mail; LDAP; Web Services; Samba; Linux File Sharing (NFS); Thin Clients: The Server; Thin Clients: The Clients; Remote Control; Security
Part 3 - The Linux Business Desktop: Email Clients; Getting Organized; Surfing the Net; Word Processing (It Was a Dark and Stormy Night...); Spreadsheets: Tables You Can Count On; Presentation Graphics: For Those Who Need No Introduction!; Office Graphics and Art (Just Call Me Leonardo); Instant Messaging; Video Conferencing
Appendixes: The GNU General Public License; Automation and Scripting; Index; About the CD-ROM

When I first saw the book, I was thinking more along the lines of a typical user in a business environment. What do you use for a desktop environment? What do you use to replace Office? How do I surf the web? You know, all those important questions. And Gagne does cover those areas in various chapters. What I wasn't ready for was the coverage of the more administrative functions... How do you manage the network? How can you read Windows file systems? How do you, in effect, run the entire network infrastructure with Linux as opposed to Windows or Novell? And for me, that's where this book's value lies. The author defines "Linux Business Desktop" in very broad terms (more so than I did), and takes it beyond the typical discussion of how to replace Windows on a PC. As a result, a systems admin (or very savvy power user) can take this book and start to understand how a Linux infrastructure operates and is maintained. And given Gagne's conversational style of writing, it's not a chore to wade through the book. It's actually an enjoyable read, and it makes the learning aspect of Linux quite easy to accomplish. If someone were to decide to set up a network and desktop environment entirely based on Linux, you'd probably want some additional titles that go into more depth on specific things like Samba or network/internet security. But for a starter title to give you a good foundation, this book will do it.

Very good choice for understanding the possibilities of running the whole show on Linux. Definitely a recommended read if you're going there...

Rating:
Summary: Focused more on command line than on business apps
Review: This is a very capable book on installing, administrating and running a Linux machine. But the title is deceptive since only about a quarter of the book is actually spent on business applications.

The coverage of the command line and network services (in particular) are well done. The text is easy to read. Graphics are a little overused in places.

Anyone interested in a general end-user Linux book should evaluate this one, but also look at the competing O'Reilly books.