What do you think?
Rate this book
Introducing Linux Distros
Learn the pros and the cons of the most frequently used distros in order to find the one that is right for you. You will explore each distro step by step, so that you don't have to endure hours of web surfing, countless downloads, becoming confused by new concepts and, in the worst cases, reading complex and marathon installation guides. You will benefit from the author's long-term experience working with each distro hands on, enabling you to choose the best distro for your long-term needs.
The first barrier that a new Linux user has to face is the overwhelming number of "flavors" that this operating system has. These "flavors" are commonly known as distros (from distribution), and to date there are more than three hundred active distros to choose from. So, how to choose one? You can choose the most popular at the moment, or take heed of what your friend says, but are you sure that this is the one that you need? Making the wrong decision on this matter is behind a good number of disappointments with this operating system. You need to choose the distro that is right for you and your needs.
Linux offers us a wonderful open source alternative to proprietary software. With Introducing Linux Distros you can decide how to best make it work for you. Start exploring the open source world today.
What You'll learn
Review what a Linux distro is and which one to select
Decide which criteria to follow to make a right decision
Examine the most used Linux distros and their unique philosophies
install and maintain different Linux distros
Who This Book Is For
Newcomers to the Linux world that have to deal with the myriad of distributions.
The first barrier that a new Linux user has to face is the overwhelming number of "flavors" that this operating system has. These "flavors" are commonly known as distros (from distribution), and to date there are more than three hundred active distros to choose from. So, how to choose one? You can choose the most popular at the moment, or take heed of what your friend says, but are you sure that this is the one that you need? Making the wrong decision on this matter is behind a good number of disappointments with this operating system. You need to choose the distro that is right for you and your needs.
Linux offers us a wonderful open source alternative to proprietary software. With Introducing Linux Distros you can decide how to best make it work for you. Start exploring the open source world today.
What You'll learn
Review what a Linux distro is and which one to select
Decide which criteria to follow to make a right decision
Examine the most used Linux distros and their unique philosophies
install and maintain different Linux distros
Who This Book Is For
Newcomers to the Linux world that have to deal with the myriad of distributions.
395 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2016
2 people are currently reading
14 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 17, 2017
A boring collection of essays. The only advantage would be having them all structured in one place. Else, this book brings nothing new to the multitude of articles available online for free, but, of course, lacks the detail one simple google search could bring.
August 7, 2017
This is a very good book for those ones who are looking for a good linux distro, actually I'm using Linux Mint coming from Ubuntu with i3WM, I dind't now about the Windows Managers until I read this book, it is very recomedable for everyone
November 17, 2017
It was just "ok" I am a moderate experienced Linux user and this group of essays was informative in places. I found some useful tidbits.
April 28, 2020
I started reading this book as I was considering changing my linux distribution and thought it might give me a primer on a few distributions.
The book is clearly aimed at the beginner, and so, considering that I use Linux daily, I expected only to get some of the differences in the distributions.
I will start with the good in this book. The book is informative, including information about the distributions, their history and the ideas behind them. All very interesting, and I picked up quite a bit of information here, and although not really necessary for my requirements, interesting nonetheless.
The book takes you through a number of desktop installs of Linux distributions, and it is made quite clear that this is the purpose of the book (the desktop user), however the book does have chapters that cover special use cases, which in themselves where brief explanations of distributions but rather interesting.
Now, whilst the book does cover some good and interesting information, it is not all plain sailing.
The chapters on specific distributions read like a collection of essays that have been bound together, with an attempt made to edit them into a book. This can be seen on a few occasions, for instance where the terminology used to describe something earlier is changed subsequently. This caused some disjoint in the information. Also in some of the chapters, it really feels as though the author was trying to get to the end, with some sections covered a little too briefly.
It is very clear that English is not the Authors first language, and this generally shouldn't be an issue, however, it read as though there was no attempt by an English writer / reader to proof read this book. I would say that lies squarely with the publisher (APress), which is a shame as I have a number of books from APress and they are generally pretty good. The culmination of this issue was, unfortunately, that parts where confusing and required re-reading a number of times, and in areas the book was hard to follow due to the use of inappropriate words or grammar
So, if like me, you are looking to get a primer on a few Linux distributions, then I would recommend this book for the information it provides. However I would take note of the points above before reading it, because, although it is informative and contains quite a chunk of information, there are areas where it takes a little thinking to grasp. Which in my opinion is not ideal in a technical book which really should contain clear explanations.
The book is clearly aimed at the beginner, and so, considering that I use Linux daily, I expected only to get some of the differences in the distributions.
I will start with the good in this book. The book is informative, including information about the distributions, their history and the ideas behind them. All very interesting, and I picked up quite a bit of information here, and although not really necessary for my requirements, interesting nonetheless.
The book takes you through a number of desktop installs of Linux distributions, and it is made quite clear that this is the purpose of the book (the desktop user), however the book does have chapters that cover special use cases, which in themselves where brief explanations of distributions but rather interesting.
Now, whilst the book does cover some good and interesting information, it is not all plain sailing.
The chapters on specific distributions read like a collection of essays that have been bound together, with an attempt made to edit them into a book. This can be seen on a few occasions, for instance where the terminology used to describe something earlier is changed subsequently. This caused some disjoint in the information. Also in some of the chapters, it really feels as though the author was trying to get to the end, with some sections covered a little too briefly.
It is very clear that English is not the Authors first language, and this generally shouldn't be an issue, however, it read as though there was no attempt by an English writer / reader to proof read this book. I would say that lies squarely with the publisher (APress), which is a shame as I have a number of books from APress and they are generally pretty good. The culmination of this issue was, unfortunately, that parts where confusing and required re-reading a number of times, and in areas the book was hard to follow due to the use of inappropriate words or grammar
So, if like me, you are looking to get a primer on a few Linux distributions, then I would recommend this book for the information it provides. However I would take note of the points above before reading it, because, although it is informative and contains quite a chunk of information, there are areas where it takes a little thinking to grasp. Which in my opinion is not ideal in a technical book which really should contain clear explanations.
June 15, 2021
This is a decent overview of Linux distros circa 2016. I learned some history of distros I wasn't familiar with so that was neat. Covers the big ones fairly well as far as I'm aware (which isn't far). I imagine that now the niche distros at the end of the book are probably defunct or completely different than they were in 2016.
The book could have benefited from an editor. It has numerous typos and grammatical errors, a native English speaker should have no problem understanding the intent but I imagine others may be tripped up at points.
The book could have benefited from an editor. It has numerous typos and grammatical errors, a native English speaker should have no problem understanding the intent but I imagine others may be tripped up at points.
February 16, 2024
I read the chapter about NixOS and skimmed through the other chapters as I'm already familiar with most of the distros. Overall, a good summary of each option.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews