Easy Linux: an installation guide for adults

Alan Ward, PhD, holds an M Sc in Computer Engineering from the University of Andorra and an MA in Taxation from the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. He has taught Computer Science, Mathematics and Engineering at the Batxillerat center of Escola Andorrana (Andorra) since year 1995. He has previously taught various aspects of Computer Science both at the University of Andorra and Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. He has been using various distributions of the GNU/Linux operating system as his main computing platform since 2000, beginning with Slackware. For the last decade, Linux Mint has been his environment of choice. This book is intended a guide for people who are already users of computers, and who would like to install a modern GNU/Linux distribution. In successive steps, users are accompanied through: 1. Setting up a base system. 2. Maintaining software and upgrading. 3. Installing extra software. 4. Making backups of data. 5. Firewalls and system protection. Care has been taken to treat users with a non-technical background as adults worthy of respect, trying both not to seem patronizing and not to use an artificially simplistic language. On the contrary, when instructions are given, they come with comprehensive explanations as to what they do and why they are needed. The "monkey see, monkey do" paradigm often seen on the Internet is not to the liking of the author, and has thus been avoided.