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  Navigate Linux visually, the easy way, with KDE
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  Get on the Web, send email, even build your own Web sites
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  Create Microsoft Office-compatible documents with OpenOffice.org
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  Instant-message and chat with all your friendsno matter what network they're on
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  Import, edit, and manage your digital photos
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  Burn CDs and DVDs
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  Play the world's best open source games
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  Download all the free software you'll ever need
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  Coexist easily with Windows users

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  CD features SimplyMEPIS Linux: start running Linux in 5 minutes, and get all the software you need to be productive!
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  DVD features Roblimo explaining all you need to know in bite-sized video tutorials. All the Linux skills you really need are covered here just watch, and do!

© Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.

About The Author


About The Author

Robin "Roblimo" Miller started writing professionally in 1983 as a freelance reporter and feature writer in Baltimore, Maryland. He first wrote about Linux in 1997, and by 1998 he was a full-time Linux user, working as a reporter, columnist, and editor for Andover News Network, which later become the OSTG (Open Source Technology Group) division of VA Software.

Roblimo, as he has been known online since the mid-1990s, was one of the first reporters to cover the Linux phenomenon. He has spoken at computing and Internet conferences in Saudi Arabia, Mexico, India, Trinidad, Jordan, and at least a dozen U.S. states. He's been "the computer expert" for the award-winning Rise and Shine morning show on Baltimore's WJZ TV, and has been a guest on many radio and several cable TV talk shows.

Point & Click Linux! is Roblimo's second book. His first, The Online Rules of Successful Companies, was published by FT Prentice Hall in 2002. He has written over 2000 articles for various newspapers, magazines, and Web sites on topics including Linux (of course!), child support, college campus drug use, metallurgy, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), software development, telemarketing, crime prevention, tax policy, online business, TV news reporting, taxi driving, and political shenanigans.

Before becoming a full-time writer and editor, Roblimo worked as a limo owner/driver (hence "Roblimo"), taxi driver, electronics technician, soldier, and auto mechanic. He is currently editor in chief of OSTG, and lives with his wife, the artist Deborah Miller, in Bradenton, Florida.

© Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews & Comments
If you have never been exposed to Linux and you'd like to see what it's all about, you might want to check out Point & Click Linux! by Robin Miller. It's a high-level intro to Linux using a bootable Linux CD. Chapter List: What You Can Do with Linux; Running the SimplyMepis CD; Working with Linux: KDE and KWrite; Installing MEPIS Linux on Your Hard Drive; KPPP - Easy Modem Dialer Application; Mozilla: Your Key to the Internet; Setting Up and Using Mozilla E-mail; Mozilla Web Browser; Making Web Pages with Mozilla; Introduction to OpenOffice.org: Word Processing, Spreadsheets, Slide Presentations, Graphics, and More; OpenOffice.org Writer; OpenOffice.org Presenter; OpenOffice.org Draw; OpenOffice.org Calc: Spreadsheets; OpenOffice.org, Microsoft Office, and StarOffice; CheckBook Tracker - Simple Bookkeeping with Linux; Kopete - IM, IRC, and General Chat; gFTP - An Easy, Powerful FTP Program; K3B - Easy CD Burning Program; The Gimp - Full-featured Graphics Application; Digikam - Importing and Organizing Digital Photos; Games! - Amusements Included with the SimplyMepis CD; Other SimplyMEPIS Applications; Downloading and Installing Software; Cooperating with Windows; Customizing Linux; Dipping a Toe Into the Command-line Waters; Joining the Linux Community; Guide to Other Popular Linux Distributions; Books that Can Help You Become More Proficient with Linux; About MEPIS and the SimplyMEPIS CD; Index As you can see, this book attempts to cover an enormous amount of ground in 255 pages. And that's probably why I have a problem with how to rate this book... On the positive side, if you've never had any exposure to Linux and you're wondering why it's getting so much attention, this book will help. Since it focuses on the desktop environment and the common productivity applications you'd use within Windows, the average user who wants to know what they can *do* with Linux. There are lots of screen prints, and you have all the software included in the CD that's included with the book. On the flip side, it's *very* high-level and superficial because it covers so much. Once you've read through the book and tried out the CD, you may not ever open the book again. There's not enough to be a reference guide, and you'll be able to grasp the material on first pass. Based on what you're after, this may or may not be a good book. For pure introduction to desktop Linux, this book will help a lot. Once you've read the information (here or somewhere else), there's not much new here.