Acknowledgments

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First of all, thanks go to Graham Glass for his original work and his assistance and support for my work to keep it up-to-date and to develop this Linux version. Also thanks to all those who found the UNIX edition useful and expressed a desire for a Linux edition.

I must also thank thousands of people, most of whom I've never met, but without whom this Linux edition would have no need to fill. Linus Torvalds and his legion of contributors to Linux, as well as Richard Stallman and his Free Software Foundation members and followers, have changed the business of software development.

Those who have been of great help to me personally throughout this process include reviewers Dean Mellas of Cerritos College, Ramon Mata-Toledo and Josh Blake of James Madison University, William D. Leahy Jr. of The Georgia Institute of Technology, Bob Kramer of Youngstown State University, Shawn M. Crowley of The University of Buffalo, and Sydney Shewchuk of Heald College. Other colleagues and friends to whom I owe a debt are David Carver and Judy Ashworth, who provided excellent feedback that helped make this edition much better, and Chris and Dana Dodge and Dan and Denise Downs, who donated equipment to my home computer "lab."

As always, the folks at Prentice Hall have been nothing but helpful, encouraging, and supportive, especially Petra Recter, Kate Hargett, Camille Trentacoste, Marcia Horton, Michael Giacobbe, Tracy Dunkelberger, Donna Crilly, Sarah Parker, Christianna Lee, and John Keegan.

Special thanks to Paul Becker and Alan Apt for starting me on this road and for their continued friendship and encouragement.

And lastly, my eternal gratitude to all my friends and my sister, Kat, for keeping me sane through the last couple of years. Without them, you would not be holding this book.

King Ables