This book is designed for four main types of readers. The first type of reader is the normal NCSU student, faculty, or staff member who wishes to simply use Realm Linux as a computing platform. This can be a student using the Daniels facility for completing computing assignments (e.g. a writing a program for a CSC 116 lab course), faculty and staff in their offices as their main computing platform, researchers, or any one using the Kit that is administrated by an NCSU Systems Administrator.

The second category of reader will be the more experienced user of Linux who wishes to install the Kit on their computer and to have the a greater amount of control over the system. This user will typically be a faculty or staff member or a student who is knowledgeable about Linux and the Open Source computing environment it provides and who wishes to not only use the Kit but also to amdinister their own Realm Linux platform.

The third category of user will the be NCSU Systems Administrator who is asked to support a Realm Linux installation either in a lab or in a faculty / staff office. Persons in this category will often also be in either the first or second categories as well. Although no prior Linux administration experience is necessary for reading this guide, it will be extremely helpful to you if you have at least a passing familiarity with at least one UNIX variant, and will be even more helpful if you are familiar with Linux or Realm Linux through prior use.

The fourth category of users is the smallest category; these are the users who want the benefits of Realm Linux (including AFS and Hesiod) on a machine in their homes, and are willing to deal with the various issues that such a setup causes. Although the Kit has been proven to work on off-campus sites, it is not at all well tested. The effort involved in getting Realm Linux to work off campus is such that we cannot support off campus installations except through email, and not very well at that.