How This Book Is Organized

This book is organized as follows :

· An introductory section (which consists of this Preface and Chapter 1 ).

· The "toolbox," in which each chapter covers a single application or piece of software at some length. This toolbox is further divided into sections covering:

o Networking and Communications ( Chapters 2 “ 9 )

o Privacy and Security ( Chapters 10 “ 14 )

o Miscellaneous Applications ( Chapters 15 “ 17 )

o Music and Audio ( Chapters 18 “ 21 )

o Graphics and Photography ( Chapters 22 “ 23 )

o Video ( Chapter 24 )

· Afterword ( Chapter 25 and About the Authors )

The bulk of the book is the toolbox section. Each chapter begins with a resource box, which includes our "patented" Difficult-o-Meter, a list of the programs being presented, their versions, and URLs where the software may be obtained. Every effort has been made to provide accurate and timely information. But because this book was over a year in the making, there will be newer versions of most of these packages by the time you read this.