Linux Desktop Hacks
Review by Sandeep Kachru (of the Greater Charleston .NET User Group)
Linux Desktop Hacks by Nicholas Petreley and Jono Bacon, is a collection of 100 hacks to make your Linux experience richer and better. I think this book will appeal to users with all kinds of skill levels ranging from beginner to expert. A basic knowledge of Linux commands is required for most of the hacks but some of the hacks are more involved and are clearly marked by a thermometer icon.
The book is well organized and is helpfully divided into various sections. A substantial portion of the book deals with making your everyday use of Linux more productive as well as exciting. A number of hacks also deal with somewhat advanced topics like networking, administration, working with kernel etc. This book doesn't have to be read from cover to cover, instead I would suggest going directly to the topics that interest you. You may also use it to solve specific problems you may be facing.
The thing I liked most about the book was that the authors have not made any assumptions about the skill level of the users and have provided a detailed description for each hack. As an example, the one that shows how to encrypt our mail also tells us how Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) works and why we need it. Links are also provided not only for downloading applications, but also as a reference to learn more. To sum it up, with the help of this book, I not only jazzed up my desktop, but also learned a thing or two about the Linux internals. I am sure you will enjoy this book.