George is a friend of mine and a business owner and a few months ago he asked me for advice. He employs a junior developer called Martin who complained he was missing a senior developer on the team. Martin said that he didn’t know if he was coding properly or not. He wished there was someone to provide feedback. George asked me if I could help. I said I could give a try for free and if Martin liked it, we could talk about some sort of paid mentoring. ^[feedback]

I read Martin’s code and it was good, but there was opportunity of improvement. I spoke with Martin, but I didn’t tell him all my ideas right away. Instead, asked him questions that helped him come up with his own ways to improve the code. A few days later George told me that Martin was ecstatic! George hired me to mentor Martin and I realised I could do more of this. I needed to write some course materials as well. ^[feedback]

I’d had the idea for this book for months before that. Linux documentation is scattered around the web, often out of date, incorrect or incomplete. On the one hand, there’re some quality books, but they cost money and readers cannot contribute to them. On the other hand, there’re wikis, but they’re unreliable and tend to be a chaotic. I wanted to try another model. ^[feedback]

Here is how it works: the online version of this book has a [feedback] link located at the end of every paragraph, a simple way to provide feedback to the editors. If you provide feedback and your suggested changes are incorporated into the book, your name will feature as a contributor to the book. In this model we combine the collaborative creativity of a wiki with the quality of a curated book! ^[feedback]

To demonstrate the power of collaborative writing, I haven’t written this book from scratch. Paul Cobbaut has written a great series of books entitled Linux Training. Unfortunately, the books are now out of date, as they last received modest updates in 2015. The Userbie series is an updated, restructured and partially rewritten version of the original series, created by myself and the Userbie team. ^[feedback]

The book is completely Open Access – you don’t have to pay to read it online. So how do we make money? You can purchase live help over a video link or make a purchase from Amazon using our affiliate link, so that we earn a commission. Find out more in the boxes below. ^[feedback]

In case you’re curious about the origin of the name Userbie, the Old Norse suffix -bie means a village or settlement. Userbie then means a village of users. The word Userbie also rhymes with the word newbie. ^[feedback]

I’ve put a lot of heart into preparing this book and I hope you’re going to get a lot of value out of it. Please let me know about your experiences with it. Has it helped you land a lucrative job? Have you felt proud for what you’ve achieved with Linux? I’m looking forward to hearing from you. ^[feedback]

– Aleksander Korzyński: ak AT wants-no-spam.akorzy.com ^[feedback]