Ubuntu Unleashed 2014 Edition: Covering 13.10 and 14.04 PAP/DVD Edition

This is a really great manual, not a Betty Crocker cookbook of Ubuntu! This the only supplement to the Ubuntu website I needed to get me back into Linux.Windows XPocalypse encourages this return after 20+ years (Actually 25 years for Unix and version 2 for Linux) so I'm a bit rusty. It is sort of like coming home from a long trip and finding that your family has completely refurnished the house, thrown out the junk and added a home entertainment center. I needed a good guide and this is the perfect one.The book is written in the traditional manner of its predecessors. It well organized and there are visible (but not tactile) gray chapter number marker tabs on the page margins. Organization is in Parts/Chapters/Subchapters, with tips and notes highlighted.As the author says on page 3 "This book varies in its coverage from deep to shallow over its wide range of topics. This is intentional." As a reader I really like this a lot. There are sufficient headings, subheadings and other cues so that readers can either add or subtract from their reading depending on their level of need for detail. You see that same style of book organization in a lot of the old FORTRAN and DOS tutorial books, but for some reason it seems to have gotten lost by some writers in this ADHD century.Here are the major parts of the book:Contents at a GlanceTable of ContentsIntroductionPart-I Installation and configurationPart-II Desktop UbuntuPart-III System administrationPart-IV Ubuntu as a serverPart-V Programming LinuxIndexDVDMy comment about the Ubuntu DVD installation process:Part I, also called Getting Started has two chapters. Chapter 1 is Installing Ubuntu and Post-Installation Configuration, Chapter 2 is Background information and resources. I skimmed chapter 2 first. I would strongly recommend reading page 42-47 first, which is information regarding resources, online support and the Ubuntu community. When I installed Ubuntu on my laptop I used online support from my soon-to-be-defunct Windows XP desktop then switched to reading online support from the Ubuntu laptop, but not everyone has the luxury of two computers. Which is the reason for reading about online support and making such decisions before starting the installation.The enclosed DVD contains the current release 13.10. The DVD will work in demo mode or will install, showing the same instruction screens as the website tutorial. If the reader is using it to upgrade 12.04 or a previous release or wants to upgrade from 13.10 to 14.04 the book won't necessarily help but all the needed info is right there for you on the Ubuntu website. I plan on upgrading this spring because 14.04 will be a long term support release like 12.04 was, but 13.10 will be transiently supported.

Matthew Helmke does a great job covering all the bases for newer Ubuntu users (introduces the desktop interfaces as well as the command line) to the new features for the more advanced Ubuntu users (virtualization, OpenStack, Juju, etc). This book even covers some of the new capabilities for supporting touch/mobile platforms.If you want to learn more about Mir, the replacement for X, this book does not cover that. Mir is considered ready for use by testers but is not the default in 13.10 and will not be the default in the new 14.04 LTS.This 2014 Edition covers both Desktop and Server. If you want to set up a LAMP (Linux Apache MySQL PHP) web server, you're set. There are primer sections for Perl, PHP, and Python. It also covers Nginx, FTP server, email server, PostgreSQL, NoSQL, etc.This is an excellent reference for the home user, network professional, or tinkerer.

I think this is a good summary of the more important things about Ubuntu. It doesn't go into the depth I wished for. for instance, the Unity GUI is so weird for the standard Windows user (talking about Windows up to version 7 here) that more material on this would be necessary. Unity is the first thing you see about Ubuntu Linux and it is hard to master so I think there should be more material on this.Other things are touched but then not handled in depth quoting that it would be too much material to cover in the book. I think the book should leave out some of the more obscure aspects and rather focus on a more in depth approach of the more important things.Still it is a good overview for a total newcommer like myself.

This book has a LOT of good information in it, especially if you want to become a much more proficient user of Linux and learn to "power use" the command line. But I was personally hoping for more of a "troubleshooting" guide which could help for common and troubling problems which Linux has in the modern PC world. And example of this is Linux's complete lack of printer support in the marketplace. This book did nothing to tell me how to get Ubuntu to recognize my printer and I had to look to online sources to figure out a work around to get it to function with Ubuntu. The book is nice, but just not what I needed so I only give it three stars.

I highly recommend this book because it covers steps that are not covered by online web pages or man pages. I'm not new to being a Linux user, but I'm new to being a Linux admin. I found all online sources to be woefully lacking in completeness, and users unwilling to give me complete steps. This book covers those gaps by explaining things simply, in easy steps, and a clear layout.Normally I read 5-10 different web pages to try and fix my problem before I post a question on a forum, but all those pages failed, and when I read this book, it was because the web pages were incomplete, unprofessional and sloppy. This book really helps.

Got a copy of Ubuntu Unleashed 2014 Edition recently. It is definitely a help in getting up to speed with the Ubuntu 13.10 edition that is included with the book, but fails to answer many of the new Ubuntu user's questions. Many of the illustrations such as control programs they list simply do not exist on the distribution media and do not work. This is not a criticism unique to this book but is more common with "How to" type computer books in general. "Unleashed" answers many of new users questions in a very general context like saying which programs are used with Ubuntu, but not detailed examples of how to install, call, or use those programs.

I generally "invest" in every new edition of this franchise and have never been disappointed for having a current desk reference for the latest release of Ubuntu. I only give it a four because it is it is not a complete desk reference, even on the current version of Ubuntu and I supplement it with other books as well. The other thing I like is the availability of updates on the release of 14.04 from the publisher.

Ok.

I am getting less problems now with Linux , but when I do i always consult this book among others

Well worth the money

Very informative

Interesting points, not as extensive as I would have like but useful.