A practical guide to Ubuntu Linux arrived

The 23rd of the last month I got a request by email for a Perl program able to email attachements. The sender asked me if I did such small projects, and what the cost would be. After some email exchange on some details we agreed upon Perl help in exchange for books and I asked a copy of "A Practical Guide to Ubuntu Linux" by Mark G. Sobell, which was ordered via my Amazon Wish List.

And today the book arrived, a hefty tome of over 1100 pages with a full Ubuntu release on a live/install DVD included. The preface of the book, on page xxxvi to be more exact, states that the DVD holds the Gutsy Gibbon 7.10 release of Ubuntu Linux. To be more precise:

The included DVD incorporates all the features of the live/install Desktop CD as well as the Alternate and the Server CDs. It also includes all software packages supported by Ubuntu. You can use it to preform a graphical or textual (command line) installation of either a graphical or textual Ubuntu system. If you do not have an Internet connection, you can use the DVD as a software repository and install any supported software packages from it.

While with the release of Ubuntu Hardy Heron 8.04 the DVD might sound outdated, but I think it's good to have it included with the book. Some people prefer to wait until most issues are ironed out of 8.04, or just are (more) happy with Gutsy.

The brief contents (page ix) divides the book into 7 parts. The title of each part and a short summary, based on the titles of the chapters in each part, is given below:

Part I Installing Ubuntu Linux

Overview and step-by-step installation of Ubuntu.

Part II Getting started with Ubuntu Linux

Introduction, utilies, filesystem, and the shell.

Part III Digging into Ubuntu Linux

GUIs: X and Gnome, the Bourne Again Shell (bash), networking and the Internet, and programming bash.

Part IV System Adminstration

Core concepts, files, direcories and filesystems, downloading and installing software, printing with cups, building a kernel, administration tasks, and configuring a lan.

Part V Using Clients and Setting Up Servers

OpenSSH, ftp, exim4, NIS, NFS, Samba, DNS/Bind, firestarter and iptables, and Apache web server.

Part VI Appendixes

Regular expressions, help, security, the free software definition, and the Linux 2.6 kernel.

Before part I are: contents, preface, and Welcome to Linux. The latter explains the GNU - Linux connection, gives a quick overview of Linux, and explains the convetions used in the book. After part VI a glossary and the index follow.

Like I already wrote, a hefty tome. And my first impression of the book, by just browsing through it, is a very good one. I hope to be able to write a real review of "A Practical Guide to Ubuntu Linux" in the near future.

Also today

• A book and some music (overview)
• Scars on Broadway hitting the torrents