We greatly appreciate the pioneering work of Richard Stallman, without whom there would never have been the GNU Project, and of Linus Torvalds, without whom there would never have been the Linux kernel. Countless others have worked on parts of the GNU/Linux operating system, and we thank them all.
We thank the faculties of Harvard and Rice for our undergraduate educations, and Caltech and Stanford for our graduate training. Without all who taught us, we would never have dared to teach others!
W. Richard Stevens wrote three excellent books on UNIX programming, and we have consulted them extensively. Roland McGrath, Ulrich Drepper, and many others wrote the GNU C library and its outstanding documentation.
Robert Brazile and Sam Kendall reviewed early outlines of this book and made wonderful suggestions about tone and content. Our technical editors and reviewers (especially Glenn Becker and John Dean) pointed out errors, made suggestions, and provided continuous encouragement. Of course, any errors that remain are no fault of theirs!
Thanks to Ann Quinn, of New Riders, for handling all the details involved in publishing a book; Laura Loveall, also of New Riders, for not letting us fall too far behind on our deadlines; and Stephanie Wall, also of New Riders, for encouraging us to write this book in the first place!