Great book and Great learning experience | Official Ubuntu Book, The (3rd Edition)

Great Book- so stop apologizing! | Official Ubuntu Book, The (3rd Edition) | Benjamin Mako Hill, Corey Burger, ...

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	• Official Ubuntu Book, The (3rd Edition) Benjamin Mako Hill, Corey Burger, ... Prentice Hall PTR, 2008 - 512 pages average customer review:based on 49 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

This book will help you get started

I have had an Amazon account for many years, purchased many books, and have not written one review until this one. That should speak to how strongly I feel about this book. I've been a fan of Linux and Open Source software since the mid 90's and I had have had high hopes for the Ubuntu project since I heard about it a couple years ago. I must admit I didn't know much about the project except for their general "mission" but that was enough to peak my interest. This book is perfect for someone like me who wants to find out more and eventually spread open source to friends, family, and community. The book starts with a very good explanation about the history of the project and people involved. It clearly explains the goals and ideas that are held dear to the team and it's community. Then it gives you a basic understanding of the various aspects of the Ubuntu Project. Chapter 2 takes you right into installing Ubuntu and getting it up and running. The information about the installation program is very comprehensive and gives you real-world advice about what choices you should make and why. Chapters 3 & 4 take your fresh new system and show you what you can do with it. More than just showing you how to install new applications it shows you which applications come installed by default for many common tasks like browsing the web, sending and receiving email, IM, even VOIP. Chapter 5 gives you a basic understanding of the Ubuntu Server install which is still in its infancy, but looks very promising for a SysAdmin like me. Chapter 6 gives a very good start to taking care of your system and while there is much more documentation on-line, one of the things I loved was how often they point you to a URL where you can learn more about a topic. I really wish they had also done this in Chapter 3 when they discuss the basic applications, I kept thinking that it would be great if they dropped URL's for the alternative projects as well as sites that give tips for using the ones they mentioned. Next the book goes into detail about Kubuntu and the differences between it and Ubuntu. Chapter 8 was exactly what I was hoping to get from the book when I purchased it. For me it is the Ubuntu community that makes it so attractive and this chapter clearly explains how it operates and how to become part of it. If you're interested in contributing to Ubuntu, not necessarily in a programming capacity, then this chapter will help you make the first steps. Finally the book goes over the other associated projects with the Ubuntu distribution. Things like the Bazaar, Launchpad, and Malone are discussed so people can see how this project goes beyond being just another Linux distribution. Don't pass up the appendices as they contain good information such as windows equivalent programs. I plan to loan my copy of the book to a few of my friends who are still windows users and see if reading it convinces them to at least give Linux a try and then help them make those first steps. The Ubuntu distribution is determined to make Linux easier for all people and this book may help further that goal buy providing their current users a way to introduce the ideas of Ubuntu to the people they know. It even comes with an install DVD.

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Great book and Great learning experience

You can take this review as you would like, as I am one of the authors of the book. However, it was a great time working w/ all of the other authors, along with Prentince Hall.
The best part of this book is the chapter on Kubuntu as some of the other books mention but do not cover it a lot. Kubuntu, which is covered in Chapter 7, is Ubuntu with KDE as the default desktop enviroment. Information covered in Chapter 7 includes how to install diferent packages using Adept, Kubuntu's package manager, using the file manager Konqueror, ripping CD's using KAudiocreator and many other programs installed by default.

This is a great book

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Great Book- so stop apologizing!

This is a great place to start for anyone considering making the move to Ubuntu and open source software. Thr first chapter gives a quick recap of the what exactly "open source" software means including F/OSS, Free Open Source Software, and a bit of background on the Ubuntu project itself. Some might skip that chapter but since that was exactly some of the info I was looking for, it was very helpful. . .except, "stop apolozgizing for writing such a great book!" At least three if not four times in the first chapter, the phrase, "If you've made it this far. . . " or "If you are still reading this. . . " was used. Hey guys, you did a great job, no need to apologize. I mean why else would someone buy this book rather than download it for free? ;-)

Why? becuase it puts into one useful package everything one needs to know and I can take it with me on the airplane or beach or poolside, because it saves me time, because it's convenient, because time equals money and paying for good information is the open source business model. Yes, Ubuntu and other Linux distros are free but the time it takes to learn a new OS is not. This book makes that move easier and quicker.

Two other small nits:
- The included DVD is PC only. Since the DVD only includes the regular CD image, couldn't both the Mac & PC images fit?
- Chapter 6 is huge! That's a little bit scary given that it covers troubleshooting and seems to indicate that there are more than a few problems. Granted someone will only look there if they are having problems and I know you probably wanted to cover some common problems but maybe pare it down and toss some of that stuff into an appendix.

Nice forward by Mark, and just an overall nicely pacakged product - kind of like Ubuntu itself. :-)

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Just what a beginner like me needed.

I decided to try Linux this summer when I was building a new computer and I got a defective Windows XP sp2 installation disk. While I was waiting for a replacement to be sent, I tried installing Fedora 5 Core, and SUSE 10.1 since they were given to me and just sitting on my shelf. I was soon lost and frustrated. I had no clue what I was doing or was supposed to do. So I ordered the Linux for Dummies book which helped get me better oriented, but it was woefully incomplete and seemed to sometimes assume that I knew something already about Linux. Then a friend recommended Ubuntu. I ordered this book first, and read the first 2 chapters before I tried installing it. I had much better success this time around. The few problems I had (such as configuring my modem), were resolved with some more reading on the subject. This book is just what I needed to explain to me about how Linux works generally, and how Ubunto is different than other distributions of Linux. It explains things and doesn't launch into a bunch of geek-speak about using "sudo bash logged in as root on terminal bla, bla, bla." The explainations of unfamilliar technical terms were easy to understand and in a logical order. The only suggestion I have is that there is a lot of bragging and horn-blowing about how wonderful Ubuntu and the Ubuntu community is throughout most of the book. That is great for the introduction, but becomes trite when you are trying to learn about the "nuts and bolts" of using Ubuntu in later chapters. That is only a minor complaint, however. This is an excellent book for someone who knows nothing about Linux and would like to give it a try. They say that Ubuntu is "Linux for human beings." I would agree with that, and say that this book is for human beings as well.

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