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<preface id="preface">
<?dbhtml filename="preface.html" dir="preface"?>
<title>Preface</title>

<sect1 id="preface-foreword">
<?dbhtml filename="foreword.html"?>
<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 - 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 - June 2004)</literallayout></blockquote>

</sect1>

<sect1 id="preface-whoread">
<?dbhtml filename="whoread.html"?>
<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">
<?dbhtml filename="organization.html"?>
<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>