Beginning SUSE LinuxFrom Novice to Professional

Keir Thomas

Copyright © 2005 by Keir Thomas

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Lead Editor: Chris Mills
Technical Reviewer: Frank Pohlmann
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Dedicated to my parents, Raymond and Freda Thomas, in thanks for a lifetime of encouragement.

About the Author

Keir Thomas has been writing about computing for a decade. He has edited several best-selling computer magazines, such as LinuxUser & Developer, PC Utilities, and PC Extreme; written for many others, including Computer Buyer, PC Direct and IT Week; and also written for several IT web sites.

After graduating from the University of Glamorgan with a First Class degree, Keir set about combining his love of computers with his passion for writing. This naturally led him to a career in IT journalism. Throughout his career, his aim has been to explain advanced and confusing technology in ways that the average person can understand.

Keir lives in Derbyshire in the north of Britain. Weekends find him walking the local mountains. He also plays the piano and the tin whistle, and is slowly but surely learning French in his spare time.

About the Technical Reviewer

Frank Pohlmann has been a committed Linux user since January 1996. He installed Slackware and, surprisingly, it worked. He started writing about Unix and Linux systems two years later, working for companies as varied as AT&T and SUSE. He became technical editor of the UK-based LinuxUser & Developer magazine in 2002 and refuses to stop writing about free software. He is a much-published writer on open-source issues, and has a deep and sustained interest in the history of computer science.

In a previous life, he worked on a PhD on early Persian literature; text-editing problems led him to Perl, and ultimately he "interrupted" his PhD. Frank threatened his supervisor with resuming his pursuit of this PhD, an event that led him to become a full professor in Germany. Frank lives in the UK and India, and has hobbies that usually involve languages and a lot of food.

Acknowledgments

Books such as the one you're holding now take an enormous amount of effort on behalf of many people. To this end, I'd like to thank Chris Mills and Emily Wolman at Apress for their considerable help getting this book written. This includes not only the practical work of processing my copy but also their encouragement when the going got tough. My thanks also go to the many other people at Apress who work behind the scenes to turn this book into reality.

I'd also like to thank the technical editor, Frank Pohlmann, for his insightful suggestions and his unerring ability to point out my many mistakes, no matter how small or trivial. His help was invaluable, and this book wouldn't be what it is without his comments.

Finally, I'd like to thank Christian Egle at SUSE for his help in organizing the DVD-ROM of SUSE Linux, which we have included with this book. Christian's willingness to help and handle the matter with SUSE HQ is appreciated.