Book Review: Ubuntu Unleashed

Posted by tripwire45 on Sep 21, 2006 2:45 AM EDT
The Linux-Tutorial; By James Pyles
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I've just finished two reviews on Ubuntu related books (The Official Ubuntu Book published by Prentice Hall, August 2006 for The Linux Tutorial site and Ubuntu Linux for Non-Geeks published by No Starch Press, August 2006 for Linux Magazine...appearing in the October 2006 edition) so I wasn't really interested in chapters titled "What is Ubuntu", "Installing Ubuntu" or "The X Window System". To some degree, all Linux distro instructional texts must cover the basic information about what Linux is and how it works so I'm not trying to be cynical. However, when you've read the same material in book after book, it tends to get old after awhile. I was more interested at what made this book different. What makes Ubuntu "unleashed"?

My first clue that this book was different came from the back cover where it states: "User Level: Intermediate-Advanced". That was a surprise. Much of the reason why Ubuntu is among the darlings of the Linux distros is because it's supposed to be easy enough for the complete newbie to use. Ubuntu is supposed to remove the "fangs" from Linux that tend to scare most Windows users off. Now this book says, "If you aren't an intermediate to advanced user...stay away". I was intrigued. After all...what could make Ubuntu "intermediate or advanced"? I know that the distro is based on Debian and that much of Ubuntu's potential is likely to remain untapped by the average home user (and to be fair, the same can be said for Windows XP). Still, what "advanced" features could this book present? Most books tend to aim for the widest possible audience (widest amount of sales). What could Hudson and Hudson (and Mark Taber at SAMS) have in mind with Ubuntu Unleashed?

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