Ubuntu Kung Fu: Tips, Tricks, Hints, and Hacks

Ubuntu Kung Fu: Tips, Tricks, Hints, and Hacks
by Keir Thomas

Ubuntu Kung Fu: Tips, Tricks, Hints, and Hacks
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Book Summary Information

Author: Keir Thomas
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-09-30
ISBN: 1934356220
Number of pages: 400
Publisher: Pragmatic Bookshelf

Book Reviews of Ubuntu Kung Fu: Tips, Tricks, Hints, and Hacks

Book Review: The book that helps
Summary: 4 Stars

Title: Ubuntu Kung Fu Tips, Tricks, Hints, and Hacks
Author(s): Keir Thomas
Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.; 1st edition (September 2008)
Pages: 400
ISBN: 978-1-934-35622-7

Book Format:

Like all other O'Reilly books, I found the indexing and over-all writing style of this technical book very adequate. Essential information is presented in a concise manner. I especially liked the "summary" style that was used when explaining important concepts. The author does a good job of showing code examples and directing you to additional resources for the topics covered.

Scope Overview:

This book gives very detailed explanations on how you can tweak your Ubuntu Desktop installs by getting down and dirty, with screenshots, possible issues that might arise from the tweaks etc. The book does not assume you have a very strong base in the Ubuntu world, but it's not for the light-hearted newbie Linux user either. After reading a few of the chapters, I decided not to navigate from a start to end kind of order, and instead review the tweaks from the index and pick the ones I was interested in, then applied them on my Ubuntu install. Everything happened exactly as the book had laid it out. I was very impressed with how easy they made it for the user.


Material Overview:

GNOME + gcompiz: Now this is true magic! The fact that you can enable the "gooey" GUI for your environment is just plain cool. The 3-D Cube effect when switching virtual desktops is just plain awesome!

RAR File Compression Built-in: Now, this was a nice feature to have! Like the built-in Windows .ZIP support, you can tweak your Ubuntu to allow for RAR compression by a right-click on the file in your X environment. Very nice...

Switch Nautilus to Old Tree View: Now with 8.10 they had somehow managed to get rid of the old view, and the new one, well... it just wasn't working for me! This tip made me a happy man.

View PDFs in shell: What can I say, beats needing to download a PDF reader if you just need a quick peek.


Conclusion:

This book, is pretty much for the every-day Ubuntu Desktop user. They have tons of hints on how to make your environment faster and more efficient, especially if you are a desktop user!

Overall, I wish they would have specified this was for the Desktop edition, and not for the server edition, as originally my intent was for the server tweaks. But still I enjoyed this book very much and would definitely recommend it to any and all Ubuntu fans out there! Thanks for publishing this O'Reilly.


Reviewed by:
Aras Memisyazici
Virginia Tech

Summary of Ubuntu Kung Fu: Tips, Tricks, Hints, and Hacks

Ubuntu builds on a solid base of Debian Linux to create an award-winning operating system that's light-years ahead of its competitors. Ubuntu consistently tops lists of the most popular Linuxes amongst professionals and enthusiasts; Dell recently embraced Ubuntu in its product lines after a user survey indicated overwhelming public support.

Ubuntu Kung Fu provides hints, hacks, tweaks and tricks for every level of user. Guaranteed to be free of the usual dross that fills tips books, Ubuntu Kung Fu is written to be entertaining and, above all, readable. Its 300+ concise tips utilize and exploit hidden or lesser-known features to boost day-to-day productivity. You'll also find tips on tweaking Ubuntu, wrangling the system into shape, optimizing, enhancing security, and lots more. Learn what extraordinary things can be done with Ubuntu.

Written with the migrating Windows or Mac OS X user in mind, Ubuntu Kung Fu avoids the usual Linux/Unix folklore that can send most of us to sleep. The tips have one aim--to produce results as quickly as possible, in an environment where the reader can polish their skills as they read. This is the Linux book for the rest of us.

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