Point & Click Linux!: Your Guide to Trouble-Free Computing [With CD-ROM and DVD]

by Robin "Roblimo" Miller

Frustrated by Windows crashes and viruses? Explore hassle-free computing with Linux in this fun, friendly, illustrated Book/CD/DVD package. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0131488724
• ISBN13: 9780131488724
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR
• Length: 270 Pages
• Weight: 1.36 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 7.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

For new computer users

I installed SimplyMEPIS on a new computer user's MS-Windows computer that was filled with Adware, Spyware, Trojans, and Viruses. He is now using "Point & Click!" to learn computing and enjoy the Internet without any of the problems associated with MS-Windows. He is having SO MUCH FUN that he recently told me: "If all there was to run on a computer was MS-Windows, I wouldn't own a computer." The book is a nice, simple, overview of the SimplyMEPIS Linux distribution, and how to run the CD as a live-filesystem CD (without installing anything on your computer), or as a hard-drive-installed system. Get it! Try it!

Desktop Linux is Here at Last!

"Point & Click Linux" makes it clear that, in Warren Woodford's MEPIS, a truly functional desktop Linux has finally been achieved. In both the book and the DVD the author comes across as a thoroughly and disarmingly competent doofus who finds using MEPIS so much fun and so satisfying that he can't refrain from sharing it with the world. If this book and MEPIS had been available when I first started trying to use Linux six years ago I would probably now believe that only other operating systems cause frustration. As the title implies, the book's emphasis is on using Linux through its graphical interface (KDE) and on getting useful things done quickly and easily, not on the gritty details of just how Linux works "under the hood". The DVD covers essentially the same material in almost the same way as the book, and thus provides effective reinforcement of the book's text. In fact, people who learn better by seeing and doing than by just reading will find the DVD an immense help. There are people who appear to enjoy learning by trial and error; they probably should not bother with this book. Those of us who hate trial and error for its grievous waste of time and energy will welcome this book's guiding us past at least 90% of the available errors.

At last, installing/using Linux is easy as proverbial pie

If you've been waiting for the right moment to make the change to Linux, and if you've had it with Windows patches, security flaws, and the general Microsoft attitude/lock-in, you cannot go wrong with Robin's book. I mean, all the heavy lifting is already done for you -- all you have to do is this: Go get some coffee, sit down and follow the step-by-step, literally point-and-click, instructions. The book title tells it as it is: no hidden agendas here. How much easier can it get? Answer: Not much. Plus, you get the actual Linux operating system disk and a DVD instruction disk, in addition to the easy-to-follow instructions from the author himself. Roblimo really does have a knack for boiling down complex terminology into language that just about anybody can understand. The fact is, the world is slowly but surely (in some cases, not so slowly) looking at better ways to run computers. You should be in the know also. This book is a great introduction to this new wave of computing.

this book was excellent!

Robin Miller's book made linux very easy to understand, plus it comes with an up-to-date, fully functional version of linux. The examples were a piece of cake to follow and because of this book, I've already ditched Windows for good!

At Last, A Simple Distribution

It's about time. Linux has been the tekkies choice for operating systems for some time. But making it to the desktop is necessary before it can really grow up. Finally, people are beginning to put together simple to install systems that don't take a lot of reading about strange acronyms. This book uses MEPIS. It's software on a CD that just like the title says you point and click. You put the MEPIS CD in a PC and in a few minutes you have a graphical screen asking you just a few questions (and in English) and then you have a graphical (I hate to, but I've got to use the word) window in front of you. No the screen isn't exactly like the other Windows, but it's fairly recognizable. You have a bunch of icons on the screen that correspond to the programs that were automatically installed on the system. Unlike Big Windows, MEPIS comes with most of the applications you'll need for traditional desktop use. This includes word processing, spreadsheets, presentation programs, graphics programs, etc. It does not include a full distribution with things like web server, database and so on, but you can install them yourself. For you tekkies, MEPIS uses the Debian distribution, with KDE, and OpenOffice. Because Linux changes so often, instructions are included on how to go to various web sites and get the latest version. This book has literally everything you need to get Linux running on your desktop in about five minutes. Great idea that's been a long time coming.