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<title>Preface</title>

<sect1 id="preface-foreword">
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<title>Foreword</title>

<para>Having helped out with Linux From Scratch for a short time, I
noticed that we were getting many queries as to how to do things beyond
the base <acronym>LFS</acronym> system.  At the time, the only assistance 
specifically offered relating to <acronym>LFS</acronym> were the
<acronym>LFS</acronym> hints (<ulink url="&hints-root;">&hints-root;</ulink>). 
Most of the <acronym>LFS</acronym> hints are extremely good and well written 
but I (and others) could still see a need for more comprehensive help to 
go Beyond <acronym>LFS</acronym> - hence <acronym>BLFS</acronym>.</para>

<para><acronym>BLFS</acronym> aims to be more than the
<acronym>LFS</acronym>-hints converted to <acronym>XML</acronym> although
much of our work is based around the hints and indeed some authors write
both hints and the relevant <acronym>BLFS</acronym> sections.  We hope that 
we can provide you with enough information to not only manage to build your 
system up to what you want, whether it be a web server or a multimedia desktop
system, but also that you will learn a lot about system configuration as
you go.</para>

<para>Thanks as ever go to everyone in the <acronym>LFS</acronym>/<acronym>BLFS</acronym> 
community; especially those who have contributed instructions, written text, 
answered questions and generally shouted when things were wrong!</para>

<para>Finally, we encourage you to become involved in the community; ask 
questions on the mailing list or news gateway and join in the fun on #lfs at 
irc.linuxfromscratch.org. You can find more details about all of these in the 
<xref linkend="introduction"/> section of the book.</para>

<para>Enjoy using <acronym>BLFS</acronym>.</para>

<blockquote><literallayout>Mark Hymers
markh &lt;at&gt; linuxfromscratch.org
BLFS Editor (July 2001&ndash;March 2003)</literallayout></blockquote>

<para>I still remember how I found the <acronym>BLFS</acronym> project
and started using the instructions that were completed at the time.  I could 
not believe how wonderful it was to get an application up and running very 
quickly, with explanations as to why things were done a certain way.
Unfortunately, for me, it wasn't long before I was opening applications that 
had nothing more  than "To be done" on the page.  I did what most would do, 
I waited for someone else to do it.  It wasn't too long before I am looking 
through  <application>Bugzilla</application> for something easy to do.
As with any learning experience, the definition of what was easy kept
changing.</para>

<para>We still encourage you to become involved as <acronym>BLFS</acronym> is 
never really finished.  Contributing or just using, we hope you enjoy
your <acronym>BLFS</acronym> experience.</para>

<blockquote><literallayout>Larry Lawrence
larry &lt;at&gt; linuxfromscratch.org
BLFS Editor (March 2003&ndash;June 2004)</literallayout></blockquote>

<para>The <acronym>BLFS</acronym> project is a natural progression of
<acronym>LFS</acronym>.  Together, these projects provide a unique resource for
the Open Source Community.  They take the mystery out of the process of
building a complete, funtional software system from the source code contibuted
by many talented individuals throughout the world.  They truly allow users 
to implement the slogan "Your distro, your rules."</para>

<para>Our goal is to continue to provide the best resoure available that shows
you how to integrate many significant Open Source applications.  Since these
applications are constantly updated and new applications are developed, this
book will never be complete.  Additionally, there is always room for
improvement in explaining the nuances of how to install the different packages.
To make these improvements, we need your feedback.  I encourcage you to
participate on the different mailing lists, news groups, and
<acronym>IRC</acronym> channels to help meet these goals.</para>

<blockquote><literallayout>Bruce Dubbs
bdubbs &lt;at&gt; linuxfromscratch.org
BLFS Editor (June 2004&ndash;Present)</literallayout></blockquote>

</sect1>

<sect1 id="preface-whoread">
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<title>Who would want to read this book</title>

<para>This book is mainly aimed at those who have built a system based
on the <acronym>LFS</acronym> book.  It will also be useful for those who are 
using other distributions, but for one reason or another want to manually build
software and are in need of some assistance.  <acronym>BLFS</acronym> can be 
used to create a range of diverse systems and so the target audience is 
probably nearly as wide as that of the <acronym>LFS</acronym> book.  If you 
found <acronym>LFS</acronym> useful, you should also like this!</para>

<para>Since Release 5.0, the <acronym>BLFS</acronym> book version matches
the <acronym>LFS</acronym> book version. This book may be incompatible with
a previous or latter release of the <acronym>LFS</acronym> book.</para>

</sect1>

<sect1 id="preface-organization">
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<title>Organization</title>

<para>This book is divided into the following parts.</para>

<sect2><title>Part I - Introduction</title>
<para>This part contains information which is essential to
the rest of the book.</para></sect2>

<sect2><title>Part II - Post <acronym>LFS</acronym> Configuration and Extra 
Software</title>
<para>Here we introduce basic configuration and security issues.  We also
discuss a range of editors, file systems and shells which aren't covered in
the main <acronym>LFS</acronym> book.</para></sect2>

<sect2><title>Part III - General Libraries and Utilities</title>
<para>In this section we cover libraries which are often needed by the rest
of the book as well as system utilities.  Information on Programming
(including recompiling <application>GCC</application> to support its full range 
of languages) concludes this part.</para></sect2>

<sect2><title>Part IV - Connecting to a Network</title>
<para>Here we cover how to connect to a network when you aren't using 
the simple static <acronym>IP</acronym> setup given in the main
<acronym>LFS</acronym> book.</para></sect2>

<sect2><title>Part V - Basic Networking</title>
<para>Networking libraries and command-line networking tools make up the
bulk of this part.</para></sect2>

<sect2><title>Part VI - Server Networking</title>
<para>Here we deal with setting up mail and other servers (such as
<application><acronym>SSH</acronym></application>, <application><acronym>CVS
</acronym></application>, etc.).</para></sect2>

<sect2><title>Part VII - Content Serving</title>
<para>In this part we deal with databases and web server software.</para></sect2>

<sect2><title>Part VIII - X + Window Managers</title>
<para>This part explains how to set up a basic
X Window System installation along
with some generic <application>X</application> libraries and Window managers.</para></sect2>

<sect2><title>Part IX - KDE</title>
<para>For those who want to use the K Desktop Environment or some parts of
it, this part covers it.</para></sect2>

<sect2><title>Part X - GNOME</title>
<para>GNOME is the main alternative to KDE in the Desktop Environment arena and 
we cover both GNOME-1.4 
and GNOME-&gnome-version; here.</para></sect2>

<sect2><title>Part XI - X Software</title>
<para>Office programs and graphical web browsers are important to most people.  
They, along with some generic <application>X</application> software can be 
found in this part of the book.</para></sect2>

<sect2><title>Part XII - Multimedia</title>
<para>Here we cover setting multimedia libraries and drivers along with some
audio, video and <acronym>CD</acronym>-writing programs.</para></sect2>

<sect2><title>Part XIII - Printing, Scanning and Typesetting</title>
<para>The <acronym>PST</acronym> part of the book covers things from
<application>Ghostscript</application>, <application><acronym>CUPS</acronym>
</application> and <application>DocBook</application> 
to installing <application>TeX</application>.</para></sect2>

<sect2><title>Appendices</title>
<para>The Appendices cover information which doesn't belong in the main
book; they are mainly there as a reference.</para></sect2>

</sect1>

</preface>