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Although I don't expect DDJ readers to buy Dummies books, we do get asked to recommend books for users, don't we? So it's good to know what's out there. Linux for Dummies has been out there for a while, but it's now in its second edition. It is written by Jon "maddog" Hall, executive director of Linux International and Compaq's chief Linux guy, and is published by IDG Books, of course, the Dummies people.
It's a book on Linux explicitly for the user, not for the system administrator. That means that it skips certain topics covered as a matter of course in almost every other Linux book, such as network administration.
On the other handm it is very good on topics like connecting to the Internet via a serial modem and an ISP. Linux for Dummies provides what the naive user with some Windows experience needs to set up and start using Linux in a single-user installation with no system administrator around. It's very readable, tells no harmful lies, and comes with the public parts of the 5.2 Red Hat release.
But the book does beg the question, how appropriate is it for this naive user with some Windows experience in a single-user installation and no system administrator around to be using Linux? IDG Books has sold a lot of copies of this book, and I suspect that some of the people who bought it had just heard so much about Linux that they thought they ought to try it out, much as they might decide to try out a new piece of application software. After all, they get the book and the software for around twenty bucks, making it, by computer-store-shopping standards, in the price range of an impulse buy.
Installing a new operating system should not be done on an impulse. And despite some impressive effort to move Linux mainstream, this is not -- not yet at least -- an operating system for everyone. It's probably not an operating system for the impulsive, naive user I have described here as a likely buyer of the book.
Assuming that Linux even makes sense as a mainstream operating system competing with Windows and MacOS, until it has a few more ease-of-use boxes checked, it is not smart for proponents to push it on people who will be disappointed and badmouth it.
And I am pointing the finger at whom, exactly? Me and my ilk, I suppose. Not OEMs, certainly, who are presenting Linux only as an option. Not developers, particularly. No, it's us trend watchers. But don't be too smug; you may be seen as a trend watcher within your organization or amongst the people who ask you to recommend books on technical topics. Unless we want to produce a Linux backlash, we should maybe be a little more careful about how we beat the drum for Linux.
-- Michael Swaine