What You Need to Know about All Things PC
Volume 4 Number 17Click here to return to the back issues page.Click here to return to the main newsletter page.
The Naked PC - http://www.TheNakedPC.com What You Need to Know about All Things PC Publisher: Lee Hudspeth and T.J. Lee Editor in Chief: Dan Butler Contributing Editor: Al Gordon This issue is for Thursday, August 23, 2001 - Vol. 4 No. 17 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Table of Contents ** 01. Letter from the Publisher ** 02. Applications: Here to There Part 1 (by T.J. Lee) ** 03. Knickknacks for your PDA (by Al Gordon) ** 04. The Naked PC Store Update (by Lee Hudspeth) ** 05. A Visor Phone Markdown (by Al Gordon) ** 06. Featured Product - Click 'N Burn Pro (by T.J. Lee) ** 07. Featured Book - "The No B.S. Guide to Red Hat Linux 6" by Bob Rankin (reviewed by Dan Butler) ** 08. Featured Contest - TNPC Dog Days of Summer Drawing ** 01. Letter from the Publisher Cough, hack, wheeze! Jim is sick as a dog, Dan's running on no sleep, Lee's on vacation (which will explain any spelling or grammatical errors in this issue)... good thing Al keeps on cranking out the copy! Hello and welcome to another edition of TheNakedPC. In this issue Jim starts out to tackle a sticky migration problem that we've all run into at some point, getting all your applications from the old PC to the new PC. He's looking into what could be the wonder solution but not all the results are in yet (since he's taken to his sick bed) cough! Dan has set up a Web page for our Dog Days of Summer contest, er, drawing, oh heck, we're giving some stuff away for free so check out the Featured Contest in this issue. Meanwhile, Al looks at spiffy knickknacks for your handheld PCs and he has found some great stuff. He's also got the scoop on a great deal from the folks at Handspring. Before taking off for sunny vistas Lee checked in with an update on a new product we're carrying in the TNPC Store. New for the Store that is, but one that regular readers will be familiar with. Speaking of which, everyone should be familiar with our spiffy new animated TNPC icon by now. If you're not just drop by the TNPC Web site and consider proclaiming your support for The Naked PC by becoming a member of our Naked Hoard! Just add our icon to your own Web page. It really does help us. On this page you'll find our animated and static banners along with HTML code you just cut and paste to add the banners to your site. http://www.TheNakedPC.com/horde.html TNPCer Mary D. has our new logo (hey, we really need a name for for our little computer guy... any ideas?) on her computer page. We especially like the way she described us here at TNPC, "All sorts of great geeky looking guys trying their best to help you while they make a couple of bucks." Smokin! Hmmm, maybe she meant "great looking, geeky guys" do you think? Sigh. http://www.northcharleston.net/pages/computer.html Reader support is what keeps The Naked PC free. To this end you can help us by passing a copy on to co-workers and friends (no spam please). We even make it easy to refer people to The Naked PC... check out our Refer page: http://www.TheNakedPC.com/refer/ +++------------------------- sponsor -------------------------+++ "The Book That Should Have Come with Your Computer" "This book should come with every PC - it has become MY BIBLE." "I find information in this book that I can't find anywhere else." These are just a few of the comments we've received on this book. The hard copy version went OUT OF PRINT over a series title issue with the publisher, but WE BROUGHT IT BACK in this book-on-a-CD-ROM searchable PDF format! Written by the same guys who bring you this newsletter, T.J. Lee, Lee Hudspeth, and Dan Butler tell you what every computer user needs to know. If you use computers you need this book! Check it out! http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/a/tr.cgi?tugpc2 +++------------------------- sponsor -------------------------+++ ** 02. Applications: Here to There Part 1 (by T.J. Lee) A while back Lee Hudspeth and myself wrote, "The Absolute Beginner's Guide to PC Upgrades", for QUE. As part of that project I wrote an appendix called, "Building a PC from Scratch", and as a result wound up with a new computer. (And in case you're wondering, QUE did not pay for the parts, I had to go out of pocket myself). It was a very nifty state of the art PC. At the time that is, PCs are quickly outdated which is one of the reasons we wrote a book on upgrading them. Once completed I looked forward to having some free time so that I could start migrating my applications and data from my everyday work machine to this new computer. Many months later I was still using my old work machine and still only thinking about migrating everything to the new system. Face it, moving everything from one computer to another is not a fun job. When you migrate to a new PC most of your applications will have to be reinstalled from scratch. The disk drive on the new system is much larger than the one on the old computer, and I partitioned it differently on the new machine so I could be better organized. Then, because I was using the new computer as a test environment I created some extra operating system partitions and installed some newer versions of Windows on the new computer. At this point the new system doesn't even have the same version of Windows that is one my old system. Migrating my applications began to look even more daunting than it did before. I remember the good old days when, if you wanted to move Excel from your C: drive to your D: drive you just copied the appropriate folder (of course we called them directories back then) and you were done. That was when individual programs maintained their own ini files instead of having to put all their eggs in the Windows registry basket. Try that now and, while you can move the files the application won't work after you move it. That's because of all the settings in the registry that are location dependent. Now it's a colossal pain to move applications around. Now I have had great success moving applications around on a Windows PC using PowerQuest's MagicMover. This indispensable little utility that comes with Partition Magic lets you move applications around and it updates all shortcuts and registry entries for you automatically. http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/417/tr.cgi?pmagic I've even had some limited successes moving applications from one computer hard drive to another across a network as long as the same drive/folder structure was used. I just moved the files then did an export of the relevant registry keys from one computer and a registry import on the destination computer. This technique is tricky in that it assumes you can determine the necessary registry keys that have to be moved as well as any files the application may have dumped into the /windows/ or /windows/system/ folders. Yes, you can always just start reinstalling programs from scratch and that's ultimately what I've usually had to resort to. And yes, I have my applications on CDs here, there, and over yonder. But even assuming you got the original program discs, including discs you burned for all those applications you bought and downloaded over the Internet, there's still the issue of getting all the customizations and preference settings fine-tuned again. As I was contemplating having to do this migration the hard way Dan mentions a new program that he'd heard about from the folks that gave us System Commander called PC Upgrade Commander. http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/417/tr.cgi?pcuc On the face of it this program seemed to be answer to the upgrade question that's plagued everyone since the invention of the Windows Registry. It purports to be able to copy your applications from one PC to another, and get this, it can do so even if the operating systems on the source and destination computers are different. As long as they are in the Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT4, or Windows 2000 arena you're covered. Okay, I decided to put it to the test... migrating my main applications from my Windows 98SE system to another system running Windows 2000. Keep in mind that I'm dubious about this working. First, it just sounds too good to be true. There is no way to specify specific applications, or data for that matter, to be transferred. On the source computer side you have a limited choice of transferring everything (which is the default recommended setting), a "limited" transfer which does not transfer any hardware specific keys between the registries, or a "files only" setting which makes no changes to the registries at all. The limited setting looks good because some applications (like video card utilities) that are hardware related on my old system would make no sense whatsoever to move to my new computer because that system uses completely different hardware. But some reading in the manual reveals that while the registry settings for hardware specific keys are not transferred the programs that depend on those settings are transferred. It's starting to look like Upgrade Commander is an "all or nothing" utility. My unease grows. Fortunately the two systems I'm working with have the same physical drive and partition set-ups (if you don't count hidden partitions running different operating systems -- which I'm hoping Upgrade Commander doesn't). If you have say a drive E: on the source computer but the destination is lacking such a drive a folder is created on the new system's hard disk to hold the files and the registry is adjusted appropriately on the target system. At least that is what the manual says will happen. I have other reservations like the issue of drivers. If every file is being transferred (unless a file with the same name already exists on the target or destination PC) there's going to be a lot of deadwood on the new system that could potentially pose a problem. I'm thinking of drivers that are not appropriate for the new system's hardware. Everything on the old system gets transferred so there'll be a number of inappropriate drivers laying about the new computer's hard drive. Then there are utilities like those for the Diamond graphics card on the old system. The new system uses a GeForce card and running a video utility on the wrong card could have interesting effects that I'm not sure I'd enjoy. Okay, I'm starting to depress myself. But overall I'm still intrigued by the potential such an application as Upgrade Commander has so I'm willing to give it a try. Next issue I'll tell you about my results in trying to migrate from one computer to another using PC Upgrade Commander. If you've tried this program yourself I'd like to hear about how you came out with it. You can reach T.J. Lee at: mailto:tj_lee@TheNakedPC.com ** 03. Knickknacks for your PDA (by Al Gordon) I confess -- I have a weakness for tchotchkes, which naturally makes me fond of Targus. For those who don't know Yiddish, a "tchotchke" refers to a small item such as a knickknack or trinket. Or the kind of computer accessories in which Targus specializes. There is for example, the Stowaway PDA Folding Keyboard developed by Think Outside and distributed by Targus. It comes in versions for the iPAQ, HP Jornada, and Handspring Visor. Price is about $90. http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/417/tr.cgi?al_ipaq http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/417/tr.cgi?al_hpj http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/417/tr.cgi?al_hsv You'll find pictures and more links on my supplemental page: http://www.thenakedpc.com/al/Targus.html The Stowaway -- previously recommended here in its other PDA incarnations -- comes out of the box as a flat rectangular casing about the size of most handhelds. You flick a latch, and it unfolds into a full-size keyboard, with a docking mechanism for your handheld. Stowaways come with driver software that you need to install on the handheld so that they will accept the keyboard input. Thereafter, you simply snap your PDA into place and start typing. You can touch type without problem. The keys have a feel something like that of most notebooks. The driver software allows you to assign function keys to specific tasks. And the drop-dead factor when you unfurl it on an airplane or wherever is totally huge. I would not attempt to write the Great American Novel with a Stowaway. But it is a key accessory in being able to use a PDA on the road. A stylus may be fine for a few keystrokes, but writing that way gets old very fast. With the keyboard, you can take care of email replies, prepare short notes, memos, and other documents, fill in Internet forms, and the like. In other words, you are equipped to handle the simple road warrior tasks for which lugging a full notebook would be overkill. If there is any downside it's that each Stowaway is specific to each PDA model. You can't use a Visor keyboard with a Palm or an iPAQ with a Jornada. Company spokespeople acknowledge that they always are asked about adapters, and the answer is that there are no plans to make any. Targus and Think Outside argue that they need to match up each connection system to each PDA brand's proprietary design, and besides, other than people doing product tests like me, hardly anyone uses more than one PDA. Of course, to play road warrior, you probably will need communications. Pocket PCs ship with Pocket Outlook to handle your email and Pocket Internet Explorer, and most Pocket PCs can accept CompactFlash cards. So Targus has you covered here with its CompactFlash 56k v.90 Pocket Modem which will set you back about $120. http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/417/tr.cgi?al_modem A better deal, however, is the $130 Targus Pocket PC Portability Pack, which includes the modem, a combo pen/stylus, and a retractable phone cord. http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/417/tr.cgi?al_pack The retractable cord for the Targus Pocket PC Portability Pack is available separately for $15. The modem is flat, easy to tuck away, and is plug-and-play with a Pocket PC. I took a HP Jornada, Stowaway keyboard, and Targus modem with me on a recent weekend out-of-town trip (plus a handy zipper case, $20, for the handheld and keyboard), and found that the package was more than adequate to let me catch up with my email and keep tabs on the news back home via Internet. Targus also makes a wide range of phone and powerline adapters for the world traveler. A TNPC'er, who clearly is (ahem) a power user, tipped me to the fact that Targus's Targus Universal Auto Air Notebook Power Adapter can be used with select PDAs, also. This $120-unit allows you to power your unit from your car's power plug a/k/a cigarette lighter, or the Empower system now on many airliners. Targus uses modular "PowerTips" to allow you to connect the power adapter to the appropriate notebook -- because, Heaven forbid, that computer makers could agree on a common plug design. And you can buy additional tips a la carte at about $20 each. Adapter plug #57 works for Palm Vs and #79 will handle a Compaq iPAQ. It perhaps would be overkill to buy the universal power adapter just for a PDA. But the adapter is a must have for road warriors and adding adapters for PDA and cellphones is an inexpensive way to leverage your investment in the power unit. Once you are the Person Who Has Everything for the PDA, you then need a big bag to put it all in. Targus, of course, has made its name as a case supplier. For more details and photos go to my supplemental page: http://www.thenakedpc.com/al/Targus.html#cases I like the $30 CBT100 BlackTop Handheld Organizer, a messenger- style shoulder bag that has ample room for a PDA, Stowaway, modem, phone cord, some CF memory cards and other accessories, spare power supplies and sync cords -- with some room to spare for a music player. Very useful on a trip. Targus is Compaq's supplier for iPAQ cases, as well. The Executive Leather Case, $30, holds a "naked" (no sleeves) iPAQ and, as the name suggests, is designed to help mobile professionals look as cool as possible. A $26 Neoprene "Sports" case projects a casual look. Completing the triumvirate is the clever (and only $16) iPAQ Expanding Nylon Case. It has a nylon front and back for protection and stretchy sides so that it can accommodate an iPAQ with any of its three different sized sleeves -- blank, CF, or PCMCIA. The clip system used in the sports case also is employed in the Deluxe Leather Wallet for Handspring Visor, $50. Note that this case is only for Visor Deluxe and Platinum; Prism and Edge are different sizes. The company also makes dozens of generic PDA cases, such as the $16 Leather Handheld Belt Clip Case, a pouch-like PDA holder, which was a nice fit with the Prism and the Jornada. The entire list is too lengthy to mention. Just one bit of advice: be sure you carefully check the cases that use stick-on Velcro to hold the PDA. With Visors, you need to be sure that the Velcro mounts don't block the Springboard slot, and with Pocket PCs, be mindful that the units' weight can tax the Velcro stick- ons. All in all, Targus offers good value for the money, which makes for good tchotchkes. SIDEBAR: Socket Communications~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Socket Communications, Inc. has carved out a niche for itself in connectivity cards for Pocket PCs and laptops. Their CF Phone Cards, which have built-in cables, allow Pocket PCs to use most popular GSM (e.g., VoiceStream) and CDMA (e.g., Sprint PCS) cell phones as modems for Internet access. The units won't work with TDMA (e.g., AT&T Wireless) because that cell technology is not set up for data transmission. I tested the cards last year and had satisfactory results. New this year is a "PocketPack" bundle that includes software. Socket also is looking to Bluetooth to literally cut the cord between cell phones and PDAs. http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/417/tr.cgi?al_socket1 Also in the Socket Pocket PC arsenal is a line of barcode readers that demonstrate the commercial usefulness of handhelds. A Pocket PC equipped with a reader is intended to be a cheaper and more flexible solution than single-purpose bar code readers. Recent testing focused on the Ruggedized Low Power Ethernet CompactFlash Card. "Ruggedized" means the connections are encased in heavy rubberized material to guard against damage from clumsy types like me. http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/417/tr.cgi?al_socket3 If svelte dimensions are of more concern to you, there is a card with standard cabling. http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/417/tr.cgi?al_socket4 However, as both have the same price, I would recommend the ruggedized version. Don't get put off by the networking purpose. For end users and small businesses, the card allows your handheld to use your cable modem or DSL broadband connection. The Socket Ethernet card also ships with nifty driver software that allows the user to quickly sync a Pocket PC over a network connection. It worked successfully in tests with both a Compaq iPAQ and HP Jornada. Note also that Socket has a distribution deal with Targus, so you will see their CF cards under the Targus brand in some outlets. For more details and photos, go here: http://www.thenakedpc.com/al/Targus.html#socket. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You can reach Al Gordon at: mailto:al@TheNakedPC.com +++------------------------- sponsor -------------------------+++ PRIME for Office Utilities CD If you use Microsoft Office, and by that we mean Office 97, Office 2000, or Office XP, then you need to read this! From the Publishers of The Naked PC newsletter come the ultimate utility sets for Office. On one CD you get PRIME for Word, PRIME for Excel, and the amazingly useful PRIME DocLauncher for Office utilities. Hundreds of features! And now you get the utilities plus our ebook "How To Save Time with Office" that will show you how to use each and every utility to unlock the true potential of your Office applications. http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/a/tr.cgi?pcgcd3 +++------------------------- sponsor -------------------------+++ ** 04. The Naked PC Store Update (by Lee Hudspeth) *-* TWEAKI...for Power Users by JerMar Software Corporation NEW product in the TNPC Store! We first featured TWEAKI in TNPC #3.13 as part of a general review by Al Gordon of Windows utilities, and then made it a Featured Product in TNPC #4.08. Well, we thought so much of this handy software that in cooperation with JerMar Software (the creators of TWEAKI) we are now offering this software tool in our online store. TWEAKI...for Power Users ("Tweaki" for short) provides a nifty user interface for changing or "tweaking" settings in Windows and Microsoft Office that are normally difficult if not nearly impossible to get at without an expert knowledge of the Windows Registry. Tweaki makes any of literally hundreds of changes a snap. It supports Windows 95, 98, Me, NT, and 2000, as well as Microsoft Office. Before I get into the specifics of what it can tweak, I'd like to highlight some general features that set Tweaki head and shoulders above the rest. First, Tweaki can modify a remote PC's settings over your network from a single PC. (Note: Windows NT and 2000 come with the necessary infrastructure already installed to support remote connections. Windows 95/98/Me PCs must have the Remote Registry Service installed first, a procedure which is clearly documented in Tweaki's thorough help file.) Second, Tweaki remembers almost every change you ask it to make. What's even better is you can have it undo these tracked changes. Now that's a cool safety net. There are a few tweaks that cannot be undone, but that's by design. For example, say you run the "Clear history from Run command now" tweak, once the history list is cleared it's cleared and cannot be un-cleared. Tweaki's user interface is organized into the following tabs: Security, Win Tweaks, Windows 9x/Me, NT4/Windows 2000, Microsoft Office, Registry, and Options. Clearly there is something massively useful for anyone running any version of Windows in Tweaki. There are over 300 individual tweaks you can apply across these categories. Reading through each tweak's brief description text, or the more extensive explanations provided in the help file, you will be amazed at all the useful behaviors you can control. Here are just three of my personal favorite Windows Tweaki-tweaks, because they make using Windows easier and faster. 1. "Place cascading Control Panel on Start Menu" -- see the "Win Tweaks" category, Interface tab, Start Menu branch. This puts a cascading Control Panel menu on your Start menu, right above the Programs item, so in one click you can see all the Control Panel's applets instead of having to wait for its window to appear. 2. "Force Start Menu items to be alphabetical" -- see the "Win Tweaks" category, look in the dialog's "Start Menu" frame on the right side and click the small button labeled with an ellipsis "...". This instantly arranges all entries in alphabetical order on the Start menu's Programs, Favorites, and Documents menus and sub-menus. 3. "Place 'Open With' on right click menu" -- see the "Win Tweaks" category, System tab, General branch. Now when you right- click on a file or folder in Windows Explorer you see 'Open With' as a command on the pop-up menu. Handy for opening an HTML file with Notepad instead of with your registered HTML editor, for example. These are just three of many tweaks I have applied with Tweaki. I think you'll have fun deciding which tweaks give you a faster, kinder Windows. You can now purchase Tweaki in The Naked PC Store, priced at only $19.99. What's more, once you buy Tweaki, you'll NEVER have to pay for an upgrade. All Tweaki UPGRADES are free to registered users. http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/a/tr.cgi?tweaki You can reach Lee Hudspeth at: mailto:leehudspeth@TheNakedPC.com ** 05. A Visor Phone Markdown (by Al Gordon) Handspring has a deal for you: its Visor Phone cellular module is now available for $50 with service activation -- some $200 below its original price. The unit is another in the range of Springboard add-ons. It incorporates an antenna and earpiece, drawing on the Visor's built in Microphone and utilizing the Visor's screen as a dialpad. For those who find the concept of talking into their PDA a little too geekish (and for those driving a car), there is a handsfree headset. Handspring has marked down almost everything in their Visor product line. http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/417/tr.cgi?visor In addition to working as a cell phone, Visor Phone also serves as a wireless modem for the handheld. The module now ships with Handsping's Wireless Internet Access Suite software CD. The bundle includes Handspring's Blazer web browser, short message service, and email apps. The markdown may reflect what some industry analysts have seen as sluggish sales for the Visor Phone. This is in part because it uses the GSM cellular standard, the leading protocol worldwide but not in the United States where TDMA and CDMA prevail. Accordingly, you are limited in your choice of cellular networks. Here in Massachusetts, for example, the only available carrier was VoiceStream. In testing, though, through the Massachusetts Turnpike corridor and into Connecticut, I didn't see any major disparity in coverage as compared with AT&T Wireless. Another consideration probably is that Sprint PCS is about to offer an AirPrime Springboard module that will operate on the carrier's CDMA network. The AirPrime unit uses a design and interface similar to Visor Phone's. Calls on the Visor Phone were clear, the integration with the Visor's address book was excellent, and the Internet features were well done. It did seem a little odd to be using a PDA as a phone, but the concept is sound. It was no stretch of the imagination to envision such a design as being commonplace once the electronics evolve so that the size shrinks somewhat. You can reach Al Gordon at: mailto:al@TheNakedPC.com +++------------------------- sponsor -------------------------+++ MICRO-LIGHTS the Super POCKETFLASHLIGHT! Micro-Lights are the BRIGHTEST flashlights for their size in the WORLD. Reliable, incredibly bright light for any situation. A Micro-Light is small enough to clip to your key chain, carry it in your pocket or purse and you won't even know it's there. But you'll never, ever be caught in the dark! Instant light in emergencies, or just when you have to find something under your desk or the sofa. The Red, Orange, or Yellow lights run for 120 hours on a single lithium battery! Carry a Micro-Light for a week and you'll never go anywhere without one again. SHIPPING IS FREE IN THE USA! http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/a/tr.cgi?pocketflashlight +++------------------------- sponsor -------------------------+++ ** 06. Featured Product - Click 'N Burn Pro (by T.J. Lee) If you've not burned your first CD yet it's really just a matter of time before you do. From making backups of computer data, storing downloaded programs (you do have backups of all the programs you've downloaded from the Internet, don't you?), making party mixes of your favorite music CDs, duplicating backup and data CDs for easy transporting, there are just too many uses for burning CDs to think you'll never be doing it. The trick is finding a software package that will work with your CD-ROM burner and not require a degree in computer engineering to operate. Al Gordon of these pages favors Nero with a nod to market leader Roxio's Easy CD Creator. I just tried out Click 'N Burn Pro from Stomp, Inc. Click 'N Burn takes up very little in the way of disk real estate or resources and has a nifty "anti-wizard" to let novices quickly burn a music CD from collected MP3, WAV, or WMA files, duplicate an existing CD (whether you have 2 CD-ROM drives or just the one burner drive), burn a disc with data from your PC, or what Stomp calls a "DJ" burn. The DJ burn lets you drop audio files onto a disc from various sources and does not require you to burn and close the CD in one operation. This lets you add files to an ongoing CD over a period to time. The documentation is adequate and comes with a good glossary of CD burner terms. You can duck the anti-wizard and get to the full interface, which gives you a lot of control over what you're doing (as long as you actually do know what you're doing). Advanced features let you hook up externals sources (assuming your hardware supports this) and transfer your old vinyl LPs or cassette tapes to CD. Even hook up a video camera and burn your own video CDs. Burning CDs, anti-wizard or no anti-wizard is still a tricky proposition, but Click 'N Burn does a great job of making it as straightforward as possible. Click 'N Burn Pro retails for $50 (but Amazon has it for $40) and has all the usual bells and whistles along with an added CD labeling package (also by Stomp, Inc.) called CD Stomper Pro. This consists of eight CD labels, labeling software, and a gizmo upon which you set the peeled label then mount your burned disc. Push the plunger and you get the label centered on the face of the CD. Very neat. http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/417/tr.cgi?fprod ** 07. Featured Book - "The No B.S. Guide to Red Hat Linux 6" by Bob Rankin (reviewed by Dan Butler) It's no secret that Linux (the free operating system that Microsoft keeps saying they aren't afraid of), can be a bit daunting. Can it replace your current desktop? Not directly. But it can come pretty close. If you have ever wanted to try Linux this book is the perfect place to start. As Bob says, this book is, "Just What You Need to Know to Install, Optimize and Use Red Hat Linux". First the book covers Red Hat Linux 6.1. This isn't the most current version of Linux but that's not a problem as the book comes with a CD-ROM containing Red Hat Linux 6.1. Bob Rankin (of TourBus fame) lays out the simple instructions in this book that you need to have Linux up and running in no time. After he leads you through the install process Bob covers how to actually use Linux to get typical tasks done. This was very refreshing and sets this book head and shoulders above the others out there. He even branches off into some more technical areas such as bash, shell, and Perl scripting. Bob makes these scary sounding things very accessible and you'll find yourself actually doing some simple scripting and we'll bet you'll soon be coming up with all sorts of ideas on your own how this can make your PC more productive. If you want to try Linux and have no experience in the Unix world this book is the perfect place to start. All you need to add is the computer. I recommend that you set Linux up on its own computer as opposed to setting it up in a separate partition along side another operating system like Windows. I recommend Linux to people who like to tinker with computers and want to learn programming. So much is built into the system for free. On the other hand if all you want to do is surf the web, send email, balance your checkbook, and do simple word processing Linux is entirely capable of handling that as well. It takes a bit of time setting up and configuring but once it's there you should have a very stable system that requires little maintenance to keep going. Here are some of the topics Bob covers in detail: - Install Red Hat Linux in ten easy steps - Master GNOME, the graphical interface to Linux - The power of the Linux command line - Connect to the Internet with Linux - Run the Apache web server - Write your own Bash and Perl scripts - Access DOS files and run Windows programs under Linux Once you're comfortable with what Bob teaches in this great book you can look into upgrading to more current distributions of Linux. The good news is that upgrading Linux is relatively painless compared to Windows. You'll be surprised how far it has come! The list price of this book is $34.95 plus shipping. However you can follow the link below and get the book for 20% off - 28.95 + $4.00 shipping. http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/417/tr.cgi?fbook +++-----------------------------------------------------------+++ WANT TO GET YOUR WORD OUT? Classified ads in The Naked PC can be yours for ridiculously low prices. Get your message out to over 73,000 TNPC subscribers. http://www.TheNakedPC.com/tnpcadvertising.html?v4i17 +++-----------------------------------------------------------+++ ** 08. Featured Contest - TNPC Dog Days of Summer Drawing It's the dog days of summer in this hemisphere and with school starting up and vacations winding down it's hard to get too excited about anything. So we decided a contest with some free stuff might be in order. Here's the deal: You go to a Web page on the TNPC site, answer one survey question (something simple, like "How long have you read TNPC?") and enter your email address. Obviously we already have your email address or you wouldn't be reading this, but the drawing for prizes will only be for those who answer the question. We'll only use the email addresses we collect for the purpose of notifying who won the prizes, nothing else. How simple is that? On August 28th we'll pick two names at random and give away two free copies of our book on CD, "The Book That Should Have Come with Your Computer." http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/417/tr.cgi?fcontest **PLEASE SUPPORT THE NAKED PC BY VISITING OUR ADVERTISERS** +++----------------------- classifieds -----------------------+++ GET THE NAKED PC BACK ISSUES You can now get three volumes worth of "The Naked PC" newsletter on CD-ROM delivered right to your door! Volumes 1-3 includes every issue since TNPC's first issue through the end of the year 2000. 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