75-year old Ubuntu User Learns From Books

‘Editor’s note: in a recent article about Ubuntu, Linux guru Carla Schroder — author of the Linux Cookbook — noted that she had never met anyone who bought a “how to” book for their PC – though she recommended it. A Datamation reader wrote to respond.’

Dear Ms. Schroder,

In your article Linux for Newbies, you wondered who actually buys and uses computer books. Well, I do, and I’d be in bad shape without them!I don’t fit the profile of Incipient Geek. I’m 75 years old, and the last time I had more to do with a computer than emailing and surfing was in 1960, when I had to write some Fortran programs as a grad student.

About a year ago I read something about Linux by an author who had a fine and sophisticated sense of humor, and it occurred to me that if someone like that was a proponent of Linux, there must be something interesting about it that I might like.

I started – as any former academic would – with books: Ubuntu For Dummies (Paul Sery), Introducing Ubuntu (Brian Proffitt), Beginning Ubuntu Linux (Keir Thomas). I ran a couple of the live CD’s, which showed me an interesting new desktop, but of course they ran VERY slowly on my little old Compaq.

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