Contrary to other reviews, this is not a good book on Linux. Too advanced for a new user, no real info for an advanced, it fails to fill any need. It has chapters on the look of destops, loads of info on changing the colour scheme, etc, but virtually no info on functionality: no practical uses. 2 chapters on the cosmetics of KDE and Gnome, but no comparisons, no pros-and-cons of each. It has 5 pages on how to use Realplayer (the easy part), but only half a page on how to install it (the hard part). There is no step-by-step insructions on how to perform tasks, no instructions on installing device drivers or software, no "how-to's". It's hard to figure out who this book was written for: too complex for beginners (it assumes you know all about command prompts and compiling applications), no practical info for advanced (no network troubleshooting, no detailed configuration instructions). On the back cover it says "user level: Intermediate-advanced", but in the introduction it says it's for people installing Linux for the first time, and not for Guru's.
There are much better books on the market.