Exploring the JDS Linux Desktop

Foreword

Students, software developers, and computer experts from around the world have used Linux and open source software for years. Finally, Tom Adelstein and Sam Hiser have written a book to help the rest of us get started with Linux and open source applications. In Exploring the JDS Linux Desktop, Adelstein and Hiser take you on a step-by-step tour of Sun Microsystems’ Java Desktop System. Beginning with instructions for installing JDS using the included CD-ROM, through the use of all the JDS tools and applications, they share their insight, tips for new Linux users, and enough shortcuts that even experienced Linux users are likely to learn new tricks.

As any Linux user will tell you, there isn’t anything particularly challenging about using individual Linux applications. Anyone who can use a web browser can use Mozilla. If you have ever used a word processor or spreadsheet, you should feel right at home with Sun’s Star Office suite of applications. Previously, what made Linux difficult was that to get started, you usually needed to download, install, and configure the operating system and your favorite applications from a dozen or more different web sites or CDs. It’s no wonder that getting the correct versions of the correct Linux and open source applications to work together was regarded by many as a black art best left to computer geeks.

As Adelstein and Hiser show, if you are technically savvy enough to update your anti-virus software or install a new version of your favorite PC music player, you can quickly be up and running Linux with the JDS CD included with this book. To Linux newbies, the biggest surprise might be that with JDS’s built-in security you won’t need any additional anti-virus software, while at the same time you can use JDS to play all your favorite CDs just like on your old system. The JDS email client can be configured to connect to almost any standard email server, and StarOffice does a great job reading and writing competing productivity tool file formats.

If you’re not quite sure you’re ready to jump head-first into the Java Desktop System, don’t fear. The included demo CD installs a full copy of JDS into your PC’s memory, typically in under 10 minutes, without touching the current operating system installed on your hard drive. In less time than the average laptop battery lasts, you can use Exploring the JDS Linux Desktop to learn Linux basics, ranging from housekeeping chores such as networking setup to JDS’s key productivity tools: email, web browsing, word processing, instant messaging, and others. When you’re ready to return to your original OS, simply reboot your computer, and you’re back to where you were before you installed the JDS demo CD.

Thanks to the near infinite flexibility of Linux software, JDS’s desktop, menus, icons, file folders, and other user interface features are so intuitively familiar to other window system users that you might not notice the next time you reboot your desktop that it has returned to its disk-resident operating system. At the same time, this should give readers confidence to experiment with JDS at their own pace, working through the chapters knowing they can return to their regular OS to update their anti-virus software whenever they need to. Soon, however, I expect many readers will be visiting their favorite online store to purchase a full copy of Java Desktop System, installing a permanent copy and saying goodbye forever to the trials and tribulations of proprietary operating systems.

So don’t just read this book—try out the included CD as you read each chapter, and start enjoying the benefits of Linux and open source that Adelstein, Hiser, and a growing number of mainstream PC users running Java Desktop System are experiencing every day.

—Marc HamiltonDirector of Client ServicesSun Microsystems Inc.