Many thanks to all the people who shared their experiences. And especially to the Belgian Linux users for hearing me out every day and always being generous in their comments.
Also a special thought for Tabatha Marshall for doing a really thorough revision, spell check and styling, and to Eugene Crosser for spotting the errors that we two overlooked.
And thanks to all the readers who notified me about missing topics and who helped to pick out the last errors, unclear definitions and typos by going through the trouble of mailing me all their remarks. These are also the people who help me keep this guide up to date, like Filipus Klutiero who did a complete review in 2005 and 2006 and helps me getting the guide into the Debian docs collection, and Alexey Eremenko who sent me the foundation for chapter 11.
In 2006, Suresh Rajashekara created a Debian package of this documentation.
Finally, a big thank you for the volunteers who are currently translating this document in French, Swedish, German, Farsi, Hindi and more. It is a big work that should not be underestimated; I admire your courage.