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KDE For Linux For Dummies?
CD-ROM includes the K Desktop Environment Packed with savvy shortcuts and goof-proof tips Customize your Linux desktop with KDE — quickly and easily! KDE is the graphical desktop choice for millions of Linux users. KDE for Linux ® For Dummies ® guides you through the pitfalls of setting up, customizing, and actually using KDE on a Linux machine — and shows you how to make your desktop look and act the way you want it to. all this on the bonus CD-ROM KDE version 1.1.1, a dozen "official" KDE applications, over 80 desktop themes, and more than 50 third-party KDE applications PC running Linux with WT 1.4.2 or higher (as included in most popular Linux packages); CD-ROM drive. For details and system requirements, see the CD-ROM appendix Discover how Install or remove applications Copy, delete, move, or rename files and directories Add new users Surf the Web Compose e-mail messages Get smart! www.dummies.com Register to win cool prizes Browse exclusive articles and excerpts Get a free Dummies Daily ™ e-mail newsletter Chat with authors and preview other books Talk to us, ask questions, get answers
384 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1999
2 people want to read
About the author
Michael Meadhra
28 books1 followerMichael Meadhra is an author and consultant who writes about Windows and a variety of Windows programs. After several years of experience in the corporate world, he began writing monthly software journals, and now he writes books. To date, he has coauthored or contributed to more than two dozen titles on topics such as DOS, Windows, Lotus Freelance Graphics, the Internet, and Quicken. He has written or contributed to more than 30 computer book titles and innumerable software newsletter articles. He sits on the committee that oversees technology use in his local school when he isn't refereeing confrontations between his robot creations and the four-legged members of his household.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 9, 2024
I hadn't done due diligence before buying this and therefore did not notice its publication date (2000 in my copy, originally 1999,) so was not aware I was buying something hopelessly outdated. When you're talking about the evolution of the computer, a quarter-century might as well be a millennium. There has apparently been no revised editions of this since, so it's a dry well if you're hoping to find something applicable to 2024.
Having said that - and the outdated nature of it in itself is no slam on the book's quality because it's not responsible for a 24-years-after-the-fact reading - it's still useful only as an overview. It explains all of KDE Linux' basic structure and customization features but stays at a very shallow level on specifics, particularly in regard to the task of security-hardening a KDE system.
Even a Y2K-era book should have gone into this subject in some depth because as an "open source" OS, Linux is far more vulnerable to programs - sitting on repositories for your downloading and installation - which may have malicious code written into them. There is an enormous amount of trust granted to "open source" communities which I do not believe is warranted without the application of a significant and healthy level of skepticism. Yes, as a balancing factor Linux by its very nature is far more secure than a MS or Apple system because absolutely nothing will run without explicit permission at root level. But if you want your system to be useful you must install programs to perform work, said installation being done of necessity at the root level, and therein lies the security hole in need of attention.
Unfortunately, there are only a few scant paragraphs on the subject of securing a KDE system in this book, even when adjusting one's appraisal to a system that dates to the turn of the millennium. I was really surprised that that subject was given only a cursory mention.
At any rate, it may be unlikely that anybody else will be so careless as to pick up a copy of this without checking the date first, but as a simple courtesy I offer that forewarning: This was written at a time when Windows 98SE was Microsoft's latest-greatest, so there is a very limited amount of information a 2024 user will be able to glean from it. I did learn some helpful but very general things about how the KDE flavor is structured, but that's about it. "Look before you leap" I believe is the key phrase here.
Having said that - and the outdated nature of it in itself is no slam on the book's quality because it's not responsible for a 24-years-after-the-fact reading - it's still useful only as an overview. It explains all of KDE Linux' basic structure and customization features but stays at a very shallow level on specifics, particularly in regard to the task of security-hardening a KDE system.
Even a Y2K-era book should have gone into this subject in some depth because as an "open source" OS, Linux is far more vulnerable to programs - sitting on repositories for your downloading and installation - which may have malicious code written into them. There is an enormous amount of trust granted to "open source" communities which I do not believe is warranted without the application of a significant and healthy level of skepticism. Yes, as a balancing factor Linux by its very nature is far more secure than a MS or Apple system because absolutely nothing will run without explicit permission at root level. But if you want your system to be useful you must install programs to perform work, said installation being done of necessity at the root level, and therein lies the security hole in need of attention.
Unfortunately, there are only a few scant paragraphs on the subject of securing a KDE system in this book, even when adjusting one's appraisal to a system that dates to the turn of the millennium. I was really surprised that that subject was given only a cursory mention.
At any rate, it may be unlikely that anybody else will be so careless as to pick up a copy of this without checking the date first, but as a simple courtesy I offer that forewarning: This was written at a time when Windows 98SE was Microsoft's latest-greatest, so there is a very limited amount of information a 2024 user will be able to glean from it. I did learn some helpful but very general things about how the KDE flavor is structured, but that's about it. "Look before you leap" I believe is the key phrase here.
July 14, 2014
Don't remember much about it.
This note was added years after reading the book.
Newmarket library.
This note was added years after reading the book.
Newmarket library.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews