Exploring the JDS Linux Desktop

Rating:
Summary: An important step forward for Linux
Review: Exploring the JDS Linux Desktop is the first Linux book I have read that speaks to the user rather than the technical audience. It's the kind of book that the entire community has needed but no one has ever written before. This is the book you give your fifth grader, grandmother or employee.

It is also unusual because you don't need to buy the software to learn JDS. It comes with a completely live version of Linux that runs from a one's CD Rom drive. It doesn't disturb the existing software on your hard drive. That's important to me because I am able to try everything out without having to make a commitment to changing my system.

I thought the authors did an usually good job of writing to the non-technical audience. They explained what they needed to and allowed the reader to get right into working with the system. It also allowed me to see the similarity between Linux and Windows. I think it proves than someone can go from from Windows to Linux without much pain.

Overall, the book is a good read, interesting and unusually high quality consider it's on a technical subject. I recommend it to anyone curious about Linux or who has purchased Linux and wants to get better at using it. Also, I think it's reasonably priced.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book for both the technical and non-technical!
Review: I often find myself digging through the pages of technical books, prior to purchasing them, just to be sure they are readable. Most technical books assume a certain level of expertise, and as a result, become overly technical and hard to read. "Exploring the JDS Linux Desktop" is an excellent book that from the very first page, is well written and an easy read. If this is your first experience with Linux or your 10th, this is the book for you! Complete with screen shots, and a live CD of JDS, you will soon be on your way to enjoying the JDS experience. You will learn many aspects of the operating system including, Networking, office productivity, and system management.

Hats off to the authors for writing this fabulous book which has found a permanent place in my collection.



Rating:
Summary: A Bible for the Linux-hearted
Review: I was delighted to discover that this book and the companion Live CD together accomplish not one but three amazing feats, each for a different audience. First, crack authors Hiser and Adelstein instantly soothe frustrated Windows users by showing how easy (and familiar!) Linux can be. Second, they help Linux users at every level acclimate quickly to this best-of-breed GNU/Linux desktop system and its sumptuous harem of applications. Third, the book is written by such savvy Linux and open source veterans that - despite the simple language, step by step instructions and many explicit screenshots - even advanced Linux users and system administrators will find material and new information to hold their interest. In this readers humble opinion: a must-have on the road to Linux Enlightenment!

Rating:
Summary: Must have for Linux Desktop explorers!
Review: In Exploring the JDS Linux Desktop, Adelstein and Hiser do a fantastic job of walking both the novice and experienced Linux user through how to do common desktop tasks quickly and easily using the Sun Java Desktop System (JDS). With detailed chapters on Installing JDS, setting up networking interfaces, importing some of your Windows data and settings, using the Internet and running the plethora of applications that come with the JDS software, this book is all you need to become proficient and comfortable with the JDS Linux desktop. The comprehensive chapters on the office productivity tools, called StarOffice, are alone worth the price of this well-organized, plain-spoken book. If you've thought about giving Linux a spin but were worried about how hard it might be to try, this is the book for you. With the accompanying demo CD, you can try it out on your existing Intel-compatible computer with no risk and plenty of tips and tricks. A must have for the Linux desktop "wannabees"!

Rating:
Summary: JDS Linux Live CD with complete instructional text
Review: Putting Linux on the desktop has been the clarion call of many Linux users as well as people who want a system that does not crash almost daily or have multiple security and other problems. The problem is that a graphical interface that is similar enough to the Windows or MacIntosh systems that there would be minimal training and yet is easy to install without problems has been long in coming. While there are several contenders today, the Java Desktop System (JDS) Linux Desktop is one of the fastest, and easiest to install.

In Exploring the JDS Linux Desktop the authors take the reader through the installation process and all the basic information for using the JDS Linux Desktop. Not only do they go over the infrastructure items like networking and printing but also the most common applications that come with JDS Linux Desktop. These applications include email, calendaring, instant messenger, the web browser, StarWriter (word processing), and StarCalc (spreadsheet). They even go over various options for running Windows programs in JDS Linux including some options that often run Windows programs faster than Windows!

The book comes with a Live CD, which is a version of JDS Linux Desktop that runs from the CD. Simply put it into your CD-Rom drive and boot your computer and you are running Linux with a graphical interface. I tried it on a couple of computers on which I had trouble getting a much more popular version of Linux to recognize the on-board video interface but JDS Linux Desktop got it right the first time and worked as expected without any special manual configuration. While many of the items covered in the book are not on the CD, enough of them are there to give the user a good feel for how the operating system works. The book warns that the Live CD allows you to create documents but you cannot save them. However, that is not entirely true. If you are knowledgeable in Linux it is simple enough to open a terminal and mount the hard drive - including a Windows formatted drive and save any files there.

Although I have done a lot with the Linux operating system this is the first time I have used the Sun Java Desktop System (JDS). The interface is very professional and definitely on par with Windows. Exploring the JDS Linux Desktop is a highly recommended read for anyone who wants to learn the basics of navigating and using this system.

Rating:
Summary: Competent but nothing innovative
Review: Sun invented Java and continues to refine it. But this book talks about an interesting new tack. Sun's Solaris has come under increasing competition from linux running on Intel and AMD platforms. Perhaps as a partial and belated response, Sun has put out JDS, which the book talks about in detail. JDS is shown to be very interesting, because it runs over linux on those chips. As distinct from Solaris on Sparc chips. JDS is Sun's counterattack on linux, by using it and offering a hopefully nicer front end.

If you already use some variant of unix or linux, then the details of JDS will be no big deal. Different perhaps from what you have used elsewhere. But no conceptual surprises. I consider it a commendably thorough UI desktop. On a par with Red Hat or Fedora. Sun's usual technical competence is clearly present. But JDS is more in the spirit of re-engineering. Nothing in the book is a compellingly new and nice feature that other operating systems or their UIs lack. JDS is also not as visually appealing as Apple's OS X. But that could be said of other desktops too.

What might have livened up the book is conjecture on how Sun hopes to materially gain from JDS, as opposed to perhaps garnering mindshare. JDS may be great, but what does it do for Sun's bottom line? Though perhaps the authors might have wanted to be prudent and hence desisted from speculation.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Suprise
Review: This book attracted me as I'm a current JDS user, and I was completely taken by suprise by the actual depth of the book. Most technical books that one buys goes way beyond the scope of the average home user. Adelstein and Hiser use your basic building block approach to using JDS and a newcomer interested in linux can follow it right along with the enclosed bootable cd without the danger of making a mistake and wiping out the settings on one's computer. For the experienced user, such as myself, or someone wanting to learn, the chapter dealing with StarOffice will be something that will be referred to for years to come. This book is a "must have" for your linux library.

Rating:
Summary: A course book with companion software
Review: With background as a Unix user and system administrator in a small business, I have been looking more on Linux the latest year, and especial on using the JDS Linux. Though Sun's JDS user documentation has been available online on the web, a text book is something more. Therefore I was anxious when I started reading Exploring the JDS Linux Desktop by Tom Adelstein and Sam Hiser.

The book is excellent clear and direct written with the user in focus. Thanks to the authors insight and experience, even usual more difficult subjects like Internet and network setup are presented to the user with simplicity. But the user also learns to do real work in the Linux environment, as there are relative extensive introductions to the central Internet and office applications.

Also support staffs and Unix or Linux system administrators will derive advantage from learning the JDS GUI ways whenever possible. If I should suggest an extra wish for a second issue (knowing it was out of scope this time), it would therefore be to complete a chapter or two on local networking with typical client-server configurations. In small office and workgroups, one of the users often has to manage also the necessary system administration, and not unusual in a mixed Linux/Unix/Windows environment.

I was also impressed by the the JDS demo on the companion CD, how well it booted and started up with hardware autodetection. The only thing I had to change manually afterwards in the Yast2 configuration tool, was setting my keyboard to Norwegian layout. By help of this demo CD, which implements a nice variant of the JDS theme, it is really possible to explore JDS Linux live, even without installing the system on the disk. That is trying before buying.

My conclusion is therefore safe: Exploring JDS Linux Desktop is recommended for all with interest to learn and use the nice JDS, working environment and applications in a quick and easy way.