Learn how to do things in Ubuntu the right way.

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Product Description

Ubuntu is a complete, free operating system that emphasizes community, support, and ease of use while refusing to compromise on speed, power, and flexibility. It's Linux for human beings--designed for everyone from computer novices to experts. Ubuntu is the most in-demand Linux distribution, and this official guide will get you up and running quickly.

Learn how to seamlessly install and customize Ubuntu for your home or small businesses. Its open source power can be used in schools, government, or by corporations, and is suitable for both desktop and server use. The Ubuntu community is built on the premise that software should be available free of charge, and that people should have the freedom to customize and alter their software in whatever way they see fit.

Written by leading Ubuntu community members, this is the only book that you need to become a savvy Ubuntu user.

• Covers the latest version of Ubuntu--Ubuntu 6.06LTS
• Covers every standard desktop application from word processing, spreadsheets, Web browsing, e-mail, instant messaging, music, video, and, of course, games, all the way to software development, databases, and other server applications
• Includes real-world troubleshooting advice contributed by Ubuntu users from around the world
• Learn about the extended Ubuntu community, which includes translators; software developers; teachers; people who love to hand out CDs and help friends try free software; artists; people who write documentation, tips, and guides; accountants; and even a lawyer or two.
• Covers both Ubuntu and Kubuntu desktop systems
• Explains Ubuntu Server installation and basic administration, complete with advanced installer features like LVM and RAID

This book comes with a version of Ubuntu that can run right off the DVD, as well as the complete set of supported packages for Ubuntu, including Kubuntu. Try out Ubuntu on the DVD. If you want to keep it, install it directly from your desktop.

Community Contributors: James Stanger, Jorge O. Castro, Matthew East, Quim Gil, Dennis Kaarsemaker, David Bain, Alan Barnard, David Clayton, Manu Cornet, Scott Dier, Oskar Jönefors, Jason LaPrade, Avinash Meetoo, Julien Rottenberg, Stephen Sandlin, David Symons, Paul van Genderen, Andrew Zajac

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #380101 in Books
• Published on: 2006-08-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 2
• Binding: Paperback
• 448 pages

Review

"The Official Ubuntu Book was well written and covered all topics that is necessary for a new Ubuntu user who is either trying out Ubuntu for the first time or just got fed up of Windows. It was a great read and there were enough pictures to fully understand what the authors were trying to portray."--Michael Levy, Blogger, Gnuman.com

 

“Benjamin Mako Hill et al have produced an excellent book that speaks to everyone who uses or is considering using Ubuntu. The book is traditionally organized, easy to read, and provides consistently useful content. The book is a winner and belongs on the bookshelf of the Ubuntu newbie and veteran alike. As an Ubuntu user, I found it interesting and helpful on several occasions and I'm sure as my use of Ubuntu lengthens, I'll have more occasions to consult this text.”-- James Pyles, Reviewer, The Linux Tutorial

From the Back Cover

Ubuntu is a complete, free operating system that emphasizes community, support, and ease of use while refusing to compromise on speed, power, and flexibility. It's Linux for human beings--designed for everyone from computer novices to experts. Ubuntu is the most in-demand Linux distribution, and this official guide will get you up and running quickly.

Learn how to seamlessly install and customize Ubuntu for your home or small businesses. Its open source power can be used in schools, government, or by corporations, and is suitable for both desktop and server use. The Ubuntu community is built on the premise that software should be available free of charge, and that people should have the freedom to customize and alter their software in whatever way they see fit.

Written by leading Ubuntu community members, this is the only book that you need to become a savvy Ubuntu user.

• Covers the latest version of Ubuntu--Ubuntu 6.06LTS
• Covers every standard desktop application from word processing, spreadsheets, Web browsing, e-mail, instant messaging, music, video, and, of course, games, all the way to software development, databases, and other server applications
• Includes real-world troubleshooting advice contributed by Ubuntu users from around the world
• Learn about the extended Ubuntu community, which includes translators; software developers; teachers; people who love to hand out CDs and help friends try free software; artists; people who write documentation, tips, and guides; accountants; and even a lawyer or two.
• Covers both Ubuntu and Kubuntu desktop systems
• Explains Ubuntu Server installation and basic administration, complete with advanced installer features like LVM and RAID

This book comes with a version of Ubuntu that can run right off the DVD, as well as the complete set of supported packages for Ubuntu, including Kubuntu. Try out Ubuntu on the DVD. If you want to keep it, install it directly from your desktop.

Community Contributors: James Stanger, Jorge O. Castro, Matthew East, Quim Gil, Dennis Kaarsemaker, David Bain, Alan Barnard, David Clayton, Manu Cornet, Scott Dier, Oskar Jönefors, Jason LaPrade, Avinash Meetoo, Julien Rottenberg, Stephen Sandlin, David Symons, Paul van Genderen, Andrew Zajac

About the Author

Benjamin Mako Hill is on the Ubuntu Community Council governance board, and on the founding Ubuntu team with the charge to help grow the Ubuntu development and user community during the first year. With the community off the ground, Mako returned to graduate school at the MIT Media Lab where he works on the One Laptop Per per Child project.

Jono Bacon is an Open Source consultant, speaker, and writer living in the United Kingdom. Jono spends his days helping people to move to Open Source and speaks at conferences around the world about Open Source and its community

Corey Burger is a member of the Ubuntu Documentation Team, the Laptop Testing Team, and has been involved with Ubuntu since December 2004. As leader of Ubuntu Canada, he works to promote Ubuntu to individuals and organizations across Canada.

Jonathan Jesse is a member of the Kubuntu Documents Team, works on bugs for the Kubuntu team, tests builds for the Laptop Testing Team, and helps out on the wiki as well.

Ivan Krstic is one of the Ubuntu Server Team administrators and has previously served as director of research at the Medical Informatics Laboratory at Zagreb Children's Hospital, where he depended on Ubuntu Server for mission-critical backend tasks. He is now developing software architecture for the One Laptop Per Child project

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Customer Reviews

A good introduction, but lacks depth and power user tips
I have been using Ubuntu for about a year now and when I first started using it I craved for a good book to help me sort out the teething problems. There were none available at the time (as opposed to the huge amount now being published) so I resorted to the Ubuntu forums for help. This book is written by the people who contribute to those forums and answers a lot of the questions I had and many more besides. It also contains an excellent foreword by Mark Shuttleworth, the founder of Ubuntu, which explains lots about the philosophy of Ubuntu and has some interesting history of the project.

However, I have discovered that I have actually become quite adept at using Ubuntu without realising it, so this book has been redered almost useless to me. Despite being able to use Ubuntu quite well, I was hoping to get some power user tips such as using the Beryl display manager and configuring the apache web server and using mysql or other database programs. Some of the tips alos refer you to the forums as 'there isn't enough room to cover this in the book', which can be frustrating.

I would recommend this as an essential 'users manual' for anybody who is new to Ubuntu, but would look elsewhere if you are reasonably experienced and looking for advanced techniques.

Bit preachy, fine for newbies, not for the more experienced
Be warned: there is an awful lot of self-congratulation and sermon-giving in this book. Ubuntu has a community, it has a strong sense of ethics and there is a Code of Conduct. It's all very admirable, but most of us would be content to read that on a web-site.

What one wants from a book is ease-of-reference to common but tricky situations, where regular "help", "man" and online facilities may be a little difficult to follow.

The book is excellent at the very early stages of installation, though since Ubuntu is famous for its ease-of-installation this is not altogether necessary. There is a rather random chapter on typical problems but it didn't address a problem I had - I had downloaded and apparently installed a program from one of the repositories - easy enough - but it did not appear in any of the regular Ubuntu application menus and it was far from easy to work out where on the computer the package had landed and how to start it up.
My advice is: think carefully about your level of expertise before buying this book and consider which of the other available titles may suit you better.

Great to have a hard copy
All the information in this book can be easily found on the internet. But I love having the hard copy right there next to you. I am a newbie with Ubuntu and found this book very helpful to get me setup and started. And flicking through the pages had me discover some useful things I would have otherwise missed. some places in the book, really lacked detail and had me searching the internet (for example, setting up a dual boot system, where the book skims the subject).

Over all I am very happy with Ubuntu Linux. and this book was a great start up guide / introduction.