Beginning Ubuntu Linux: From Novice to Professional

by Keir Thomas

According to DistroWatch, the industry standard for determining Linux distribution penetration and popularity, Ubuntu is presently the #1 most popular distribution out of the 100 monitored variations, beating out heavyweights such as Fedora and SUSE. Indeed, a huge user base has assembled around this community-driven distribution since its inception. Efforts will surely be bolstered as a result of the recent formation of the Ubuntu Foundation, backed with an initial funding round of $10 million and the considerable resources of project founder and tech magnate Mark Shuttleworth. This edition is the update to the best-selling first book introducing Ubuntu Linux. Adapted from Keir Thomas' best-selling Beginning SUSE Linux: From Novice to Professional (Apress, 2005), Thomas guides readers through the most commonly desired yet confusing concepts and tasks confronted by new Linux users. Purposely focused on end users to satisfy the growing interest in migrating away from Windows to the increasingly mature Linux desktop platform, this book serves as a guide to a rapid and transparent familiarization of those features most treasured by general and power desktop users alike.

Genres: Reference, Computers, Nonfiction, Programming

684 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Keir Thomas has nearly two decades experience as a magazine journalist and author, working largely in the home computing field but also covering leisure. In recent years he’s also written fiction.

His most recent computing books are iPad and iPhone Kung Fu and Mac Kung Fu (Second Edition), and his novel The Rock & Roll Beers is now on sale as Kindle, Kobo, Android and iBook eBooks.

He has written over 10 other best-selling computing books, one of which won a Linux Journal award and one of which has been read by more than 1,000,000 people worldwide. His $0.99 Kindle computing ebooks, written as a “publishing experiment”, consistently top Amazon’s sales charts — beating titles by the world’s biggest publishers.

Prior to book authoring he edited several computer magazines in the United Kingdom and continues to write for many other titles. He blogs professionally for publishing giant IDG and in the past has written for several high-profile independent sites.

His work has been translated into many languages, including German, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Polish.

Are you still reading? Wow. Good for you. Keir lives in Manchester with two cats and one woman. His hobbies include walking and cycling. There. That’s everything.

Reviews

[Niclas Overby Ⓝ · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just a terrible add-on book from a humble bundle.

[Kyle Sorkness]

Granted I read an outdated version of this book, I found much of its information to be general enough to apply to even the latest version of Ubuntu. As an Ubuntu newbie, I appreciated both this book's easy-to-understand language that left few concepts undefined and its relative comprehensiveness. Although I wouldn't say this book took me "From Novice to Professional," as its subtitle promises, I would say that I feel fairly grounded in the basics concepts of Ubuntu (and GNU/Linux in general) and am prepared to move on to more specialized books and guides.

[Austen · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found this far too remedial for my purposes. This is focused on the computer illiterate, which is probably a small segment of users installing and using Linux. I found "Ubuntu for Non-Geeks: A Pain-Free, Get-Things-Done Guide" by Rickford Grant and Phil Bull to have more useful information that goes beyond simply installing and turning on the computer.

[Onionboy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is good if you are considering moving from Windows to Linux. It gives a good overview of all the aspects to consider and serves as a good introduction to the whole concept. You can get a feel for what it will be like if you make the switch.

[Bigfatdummy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some very useful tips.

[M. Mirzamani · Rating 3 out of 5]

So far so good. Easy readings. However, I am waiting to see where it takes me.

[Joe]

Good way to finally completly setup a linux box

[Azharuddin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good book for beginner to Linux. Here is my detailed book review of this book. http://geeyk.com/beginning-ubuntu-lin...

[Michael Mize · Rating 4 out of 5]

Boring