The Official Ubuntu Book

Matthew Helmke has been an Ubuntu user since April 2005 and an Ubuntu Member since August 2006. He served from 2006 to 2011 on the Ubuntu Forum Council, providing leadership and oversight of the Ubuntu Forums, and spent two years on the Ubuntu regional membership approval board for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. He has written articles about Ubuntu for magazines and Web sites, is the lead author of Ubuntu Unleashed, and has written several books and articles on other topics.

Elizabeth K. Joseph is a professional Linux Systems Administrator currently working at Hewlett-Packard, with a focus on managing the infrastructure for the OpenStack project. She has been working with Linux and around Linux communities since 2002. Elizabeth began contributing to Ubuntu in 2006 and currently contributes to various teams, including Documentation, News, Quality Assurance, and Classroom. Over the years she has served on the Ubuntu Membership Board and is now serving her third term as a member of the Ubuntu Community Council. At home in San Francisco, she serves as one of the leaders of the Ubuntu California team and is on the board of a nonprofit that provides Ubuntu-based computers to schools in need.

Jose Antonio Rey is a community contributor who has been actively participating since 2011. He is a student residing in Peru, whose contributions include helping with the News and Classroom teams, managing Ubuntu On Air!, and being the contact of the Ubuntu Peru team and a member of the LoCo Council. Even though he is not a developer, he has helped with Juju charms and is the author for the Postfix and Mailman charms.

Philip Ballew is an active open source advocate in the greater open source community. He is heavily involved in the Ubuntu project, and spends most of his time contributing to this project. When Philip is not contributing to Open Source, he can be found riding his bike, dancing badly, or attempting to pass his college classes. Philip is eager to get involved in any project that he sees making a difference in the world for the good, and enjoys Ubuntu for this reason. He currently calls sunny San Diego, California, home, and hopes all readers of the book come by and say hello to him there.

Benjamin Mako Hill is a long-time free-software developer and advocate. He was part of the founding Ubuntu team whose charge at Canonical was to help grow the Ubuntu development and user community during the project's first year. Mako is an Assistant Professor at the University of Washington and a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. He holds a Ph.D. from MIT.

Table of Contents

Foreword to the Sixth Edition xix

Foreword to the First Edition xxi

Preface xxvii

Acknowledgments xxxi

About the Authors xxxiii

Introduction xxxv

Chapter 1: The Ubuntu Story 1

The Vision 2

Free Software, Open Source, and GNU/Linux 3

How the Vision Became Ubuntu 7

What Is Ubuntu? 12

Ubuntu Promises and Goals 17

Sustaining the Vision: Canonical and the Ubuntu Foundation 26

Beyond the Vision: Ubuntu Subprojects, Flavors, and Spin-Offs 31

Summary 33

Chapter 2: Installing Ubuntu 35

Choosing Your Ubuntu Version 36

Getting Ubuntu 38

Booting and Installing 42

Installing from the Minimal CD 54

Summary 61

Chapter 3: Getting Started with Ubuntu 63

Getting Acquainted with Unity 65

Using Applications 76

Using Ubuntu in Your Language 85

Configuring a Printer 86

Keeping Your Computer Updated 90

Adding and Removing Programs and Packages 92

Upgrading to the Next Ubuntu Release 95

Ubuntu and Multimedia 96

Backing Up 102

Customizing Ubuntu’s Look and Feel 104

Unity in Other Devices 105

Summary 105

Chapter 4: Finding and Installing Ubuntu Applications 107

Using the Ubuntu Software Center 108

Using Synaptic 115

Useful Software Packages to Explore 118

Summary 145

Chapter 5: Customizing Ubuntu for Performance, Accessibility, and Fun 147

Unity Terminology 148

Appearance Tool 153

Unity Tweak Tool 155

Compiz Config Settings Manager 159

Unity Lenses and Scopes 165

Additional Resources 166

Summary 166

Chapter 6: Becoming an Ubuntu Power User 167

Administering System and User Settings 168

Understanding How Linux Stores and Organizes Files 172

Learning Unity Keyboard Shortcuts 175

Using the Terminal 179

Working with Windows Programs 180

Installing Software from PPAs 181

Compiling Software from Source 183

Summary 184

Chapter 7: Welcome to the Command Line 185

Starting Up the Terminal 186

Getting Started 187

Building Pipelines 188

Running Commands as Superuser 189

Finding Help 190

Moving around the Filesystem 191

Manipulating Files and Folders 192

System Information Commands 193

Searching and Editing Text Files 194

Dealing with Users and Groups 195

Getting Help on the Command Line 196

Searching for Man Files 197

Using Wildcards 197

Executing Multiple Commands 198

Moving to More Advanced Uses of the Command Line 200

Summary 201

Chapter 8: The Ubuntu Server 203

What Is Ubuntu Server? 204

Installing Ubuntu Server 206

Ubuntu Package Management 218

Ubuntu Server Security 229

Advanced Topics 236

Summary 243

Chapter 9: Ubuntu-Related Projects and Derivatives 245

Recognized Flavors 246

Editions 256

Other Distributions 259

Launchpad 261

Bazaar 270

Ubuntu One 272

Summary 272

Chapter 10: The Ubuntu Community 273

Venues 275

Teams, Processes, and Community Governance 289

Getting Involved 299

Summary 302

Index 305