Moving to Ubuntu Linux

Marcel Gagné is best known as author of the Linux Journal's "Cooking with Linux" series, which has earned the magazine's Readers' Choice award for favorite column four years in a row, and as the regular "Linux Guy" on G4/TechTV Canada. His books include Moving to the Linux Business Desktop and Linux Administration: A User's Guide (both from Addison-Wesley.) He is one of the Linux world's most familiar and respected voices.

Acknowledgments xix

Foreword xxi

Chapter 1: Introducing Ubuntu! 1

But What Is Linux? 2

Is Linux Really FREE? 4

What’s a Distribution? 4

Linux and the GPL 5

What Do I Gain? 5

What Do I Lose? 7

Some Tips on Using This Book 8

Quick Tips and Shelling Out 9

Meet Your Desktop 9

Help Me! 10

About the DVD 12

It’s My Philosophy 13

Resources 14

Chapter 2: Running and Installing the Ubuntu Live DVD 15Ready to Try Ubuntu Linux? 17

HELP! 18

Installing the Ubuntu Live DVD 31

Remember to Share 40

Resources 40

Chapter 3: Getting Your Hands Dirty (Desktop Overview) 41Getting to Know You . . . GNOME 42

Logging In 43

Becoming One with the Desktop 44

Your First Application 46

Windows, Title Bars, and Menus, Oh My! 48

Command Central 52

A Polite Introduction to the Command Line 54

Give Me More! 55

Changing Your Password; It’s All About You! 56

User Security 58

Much Ado About sudo 60

I Need More Help! 61

Logging Out 62

Navigating Your Ubuntu Desktop 64

Resources 64

Chapter 4: Navigating Nautilus 65Files, Directories, and the Root of All Things 66

Wherever You Go . . . 70

Search Me . . . 71

Navigating Networks 75

Uh, Roger, Copy That . . . 78

Creating New Folders 79

Copying Files and Directories (and Moving, Too!) 80

Deleting Files and Folders 86

Other Interesting Places to Visit 87

My World, My Way 88

Making Your Home a Home 88

Chapter 5: Customizing Your Desktop (or Making Your World Your Own) 89I Am Sovereign of All I Survey . . . 90

Save My Screen, Please! 93

Moving Things Around 95

Is That a Theme or a Motif? 98

Adding Icons and Shortcuts to Your Desktop 102

Applets Galore: Back to the Panel! 106

Miscellaneous Changes 109

Resources 109

Chapter 6: Printers and Other Hardware 111Yes, It Runs with Linux! 112

Plug and Play 113

Printers and Printing 114

Getting Familiar with Your Other Hardware 123

Modems versus Winmodems 129

What? More Devices? 132

Resources 133

Chapter 7: Connecting to the Internet 135Before You Begin 136

Getting on the Net 137

Connecting to the Net with a Modem 137

Cable Modems and High-Speed DSL 143

Going Wireless 144

Okay, I’m Connected—Now What? 146

Resources 147

Chapter 8: Installing New Applications 149Linux and Security 150

Identifying Software Packages 151

The Simplest Way to Add Applications 151

The Synaptic Package Manager 155

Installing Software with Synaptic 158

Keeping Ubuntu Up-to-Date 162

DEBs, the Shell Way 164

Chapter 9: Instant Messaging, and IRC, Too! 169Why Jabber? 170

Instant Messaging with Gaim 170

IRC: Internet Relay Chat 176

Resources 182

Chapter 10: Surfing the Net with Firefox 183Mozilla versus Firefox 184

Extending Firefox 193

Wrapping Up—Other Browsers to Consider 196

Resources 197

Chapter 11: Evolution: Email and More! 199Be Prepared . . . 200

Evolution 200

Sending and Receiving Mail 204

Your Little Black Book 207

Attached to You . . . 209

Other Options 210

Resources 210

Chapter 12: Evolution: Keeping Organized 211Evolution and Planning 212

Resources 223

Chapter 13: OpenOffice.org Writer (It Was a Dark and Stormy Night . . .) 225Getting Started with OpenOffice.org Writer 226

Alternative Word Processor Choices 244

Resources 244

Chapter 14: OpenOffice.org Calc (Tables You Can Count On) 245 Starting a New Spreadsheet and Entering Data 246

Nice, Colorful, Impressive, and Dynamic Graphs 252

Final Touches 255

Alternatives 257

Resources 257

Chapter 15: OpenOffice.org Impress (For When You Need to Impress Someone) 259Getting Ready to Impress 260

Instant Web Presentations 270

So What’s with the Penguin? 275

Extra! Extra! 276

Alternatives 277

Resources 277

Chapter 16: OpenOffice.org Base 279The Beginning: Creating a New Database 280

Setting the Table 284

Creating Mailing Labels 289

Further Exploring 293

Resources 294

Chapter 17: Digital Art with the GIMP 295Ladies and Gentlemen, Start Your GIMP 296

Printing Your Masterpiece 303

Tools, Tools, and More Tools 305

On to the Tool Icons 306

Touching Up Photographs 314

What Is Script-Fu? 317

Resources 317

Chapter 18: If Music Be the Food of Love . . . (Ubuntu Linux Multimedia) 319Adjusting the Levels 320

Playing Audio CDs with the Sound Juicer 321

A Simpler CD Player 323

Ripping and Burning Songs 324

Playing Your Songs 329

Can You Feel the Burn? 331

Put Another Nickel In . . . 340

Resources 345

Chapter 19: Would You Like to Play a Game? (Very Serious Fun) 347Ubuntu Preinstalled Games 348

Must-Have Linux Games 364

More Games! I Need More Games! 368

Resources 369

Chapter 20: Turning Ubuntu into Kubuntu 371Installing the Kubuntu Desktop 372

Doing It with the Shell 379

Resources 379

Chapter 21: Taking Command of Ubuntu Linux 381Linux Commands: An Easy Start 382

Working with Files 384

A Peek at Metacharacters 386

File Permissions in the Shell 386

More on rm (or, “Oops! I didn’t really mean that”) 389

Making Your Life Easier with alias 389

Standard Input and Standard Output 392

Pipes and Piping 394

Linux Commands: Working with Directories 397

There’s No Place Like $HOME 399

More on File Permissions 399

User and Group Ownership 400

Who Was That Masked User? 403

Finding Anything 405

Processes 409

Working with Editors 416

Resources 424

Appendix A: The GNU General Public License 425

Index 435