Colophon

The image on the cover of Linux Annoyances for Geeks is a man pulling a donkey. In 19th-century frontier America, the donkey was the pack animal of choice, owing to the species' longevity, endurance, agility, and low maintenance cost. During the Gold Rush, prospectors traversed the Old West terrain using burros to transport their supplies. Miners harnessed donkeys to haul water, wood, and rock, as well as to transport and grind ore.

By the turn of the century, the ascendance of the railroad had begun to render donkeylabor obsolete, and prospecters and miners released their burros to the wild. To this day, a substantial population of donkeys roams free in the deserts of the American West.

The cover image and chapter opening images are from the Dover Pictorial Archive. The cover font is Adobe ITC Garamond. The text font is Linotype Birka; the heading font is Adobe Myriad Condensed; and the code font is LucasFont's TheSans Mono Condensed.