Preface

Hello, citizens of the world! Linux, as many people know, runs on billions of devices. It powers PCs, laptops, servers, Android, smart TVs and set-top boxes, micro-computers, embedded devices, robots, cloud services, Amazon, Google, and Facebook servers, network equipment, IoT devices, all the top 500 supercomputers, industrial automation, the Tesla Autopilot, and much more. After the GNU tools, it is the most widespread open source SW ever. Practically, there is no modern person in the world who doesn’t benefit at least indirectly from its thousands of applications. This is all thanks to its adaptability and thousands of developers and companies contributing and sharing with everyone.

More than a decade ago, learning Linux was a challenge. It required hundreds of hours reading hard-to-digest books and accepting that compared to its counterparts, macOS and Windows, regular user software was not that good. Despite that, it was always known as a rock-solid OS, offering complete user privacy and the ability to build any software.

Thanks to its great community, it has now spread to all known major device types and is being used more and more. Its great community has also developed thousands of free applications, offering the best user experience we can dream of. They also developed a wide variety of software development tools and frameworks, offering a plethora of work and business opportunities. Knowing some BASH is often a job requirement nowadays, and having Linux experience is often an advantage.

In addition, in this age of digital surveillance, privacy and security are hard to achieve. Practically, Linux is the only OS offering complete privacy and security to its users, along with constant improvements, keeping it at the highest possible level. Otherwise, millions of servers would not use it, as their users’ data would be vulnerable.

The last great advantage of Linux comes from developing itself into the most effective and scalable OS kernel, running both on microdevices and all top 500 supercomputers in the world.

Considering that the regular users and tools offered for Linux now cover all possible daily needs, including office work, digital art, audio, video, text, and gaming, we only need a great book. Here it is, written to introduce you easily to Linux and based on one of the greatest user-friendly Linux distributions of the last eight years. This is the book with which you will know it all – from installation through daily use to all the advanced topics.