The Geospatial Desktop might sound like a generic book about deskotp GIS. It's not. It's about open source desktop GIS. The subtitle "Open Source GIS and Mapping" provides the important distinguisher.
Furthermore it's a revision of the book originally titled Desktop GIS. I confess I'm not familiar with the first edition and changes in the second one seem to focus on updates in the software discussed, rather than any key new principles. The book is by Gary Sherman, founder of the Quantum GIS project.
Per the publisher, the original sold out quickly (published 11/2008) and has been out of print for some time. The reviews of the original were quite good on Amazon. I find it interesting (1) that this book is still popular even as desktop GIS is, I think, diminishing in use in favor of apps on other platforms and (2) that print texts continue to be in demand.
