I consider anyone who has contributed to the free and open source software community to be a contributor to the book you are holding. The backbone of any Linux distribution is formed by the organizations that produce the distributions, the major projects included in Linux, and the thousands of people who give their time and code to support Linux. So, thanks to you all! I’d like to acknowledge several contributors for their participation in previous editions. Wayne Tucker originally wrote the chapters on Debian, LAMP servers, and mail servers. Bill von Hagen has contributed updates to the SUSE, Yellow Dog, and Ubuntu chapters. Warren Wyrostek served as technical editor to this edition. Thanks to the folks at Wiley for helping me press through the project. Sara Shlaer did an excellent job helping me stay on track as I balanced my work on this book with my new full-time job with Red Hat. Katie Wisor shepherded the book through the production process. Thanks to Margot Maley Hutchison and Maureen Maloney from Waterside Productions for contracting the book for me with Wiley.

And fi nally, special thanks to my wife, Sheree. There’s no way I could do the work I do without the solid support I get on the home front. I love you, and thanks for taking such good care of Seth, Caleb, and me.