Background

In 1986, Daniel Solin got his first computer, a Sinclair Spectrum, with the unbelievable RAM amount of 16 kB. This little black machine still has a special place in Daniel's heart (although it's physically located in Dan's closet nowadays). In 1992, Daniel converted to PC's, and has sticked with this standard since then.

In 1994, Daniel came over an ancient version of Slackware Linux, and has been using this wonderful system ever since, although he doesn't only use the Slackware distribution these days, but is familiar with most Linux distributions

After a few years of using, testing and hacking various Linux and Unix systems, Daniel started a Linux consulting business. This project worked out pretty well, and he did all kinds of Linux consulting jobs, from system installations to development of custom software solutions.

After years of both studying and working, Daniel finally got his degree in computer science in the beginning of 1999. At that time, he was teaching programming and studying at the same school, at the same time!

In May of 1999, an editor at Sam's Publishing contacted Daniel, offering him a contract for a book titled "Slackware Linux Unleashed". Daniel got very excited about this and didn't have to think twice before he accepted the offer. This project led Daniel into a few other documentation projects. And, in February 2000, he got the opportunity to start writing full-time. Daniel has now decided to quit his job as a programming teacher, to fully concentrate on the writing.

Specialties

Because Daniel has a background as a programming teacher, and he always has been a devoted Linux/UNIX fan, he has a wide experience of Linux in general as well as user-level Linux programming.

However, Daniel has, after many years of experience, specialized in Linux GUI (Graphical User Interface) Programming, and masters all the popular Linux GUI libraries, including Qt, Gtk+, wxWindows and XForms. Daniel has just finished his first Linux GUI book, "Sam's Teach Yourself Qt Programming In 24 Hours".

Daniel also has a great interest of web-programming. He has been involved in several CGI (Common Gateway Interface) projects, where he has developed software for the WWW using C/C++, MySQL and PHP. He has written guestbooks, message boards, counters, customer systems etc using the above listed programs and languages.

Daniel also has a quite good expertise in low-lever graphics programming. He masters the SVGAlib library for Linux, and has created a few simple games and demos with it. If you're interested, test his own (simple) implementation of the famous Nibbles game: nibbles.cpp.

As stated, Daniel Solin also has a wide experience of Linux in general. He has used Linux since 1994 and masters all the popular Linux distributions, including Red Hat, Slackware, TurboLinux, Caldera, Debian and Suse.

Current Projects

Daniel is currently working for Sam's Publishing and has just finished his book, "Sam's Teach Yourself Qt Programming In 24 Hours". At the moment, Daniel is preparing for his next project for Sam's Publishing, another Linux GUI book.

If Daniel manages to keep his Acquisitions Editor satisfied, he will hopefully continue writing for Sam's.

Old Projects

Daniel is the author of "Sam's Teach Yourself Qt Programming In 24 Hours". He was also a contributing author of "Slackware Linux Unleashed" and "Caldera OpenLinux Unleashed".

Daniel has also worked as a C/C++ programming teacher for two years, and has run his own Linux consulting business.