full circle magazine #65

45

REVIEW

covers very, very briefly in a very

random order – Micro-blogging,

playing media, the Office suite,

connecting and configuring

Internet, Printing, email, web

browsing, file sharing and games.

Advanced Topics then goes off

the rails a bit, installing alternative

desktops actually describes only

one – Gnome Shell. Does anyone

run Gnome Shell on Ubuntu? Any

new users?

Working Effectively Using

Ubuntu then talks about

Workspaces. Surely this belongs in

an earlier section? Switching

between applications, perhaps?

Next comes Customising Ubuntu,

which demonstrates the scope and

ambition of this manual – installing

lenses and scopes, third party

applications, and customising the

appearance. The Privacy Manag e r

also gets a mention. Part III,

Getting Help contains pointers to

various forums, wikis and

newletters.

As a free "manual produce d by

the community for the

community," it is an excellent

effort; time and experience may

well suggest to the team some

better ways of doing things.

Ubuntu, An Absolute

Beginners Guide

by Courtney Loo, edited by Justin

Pot

http://courtneyloo.wordpress.com/

2012/01/23/ubuntu-an-absolute-

beginners-guide/

You can tell when a technology

is becoming popular when the

general tech press starts producing

material for it:

Honestly, these manuals are

starting to drive me crazy. How can

so many people get this so wrong?

Take a tip from a good marketing

department. Grab the viewer from

the get-go; show, tell, sell. Give

them pictures, colour. Give them

the gee-whizz..

They don't want a history

lesson. They don't need Sociology-

101. They need answers. What is it,

why do I need it, why is it so much

better than what I'm using now?

Courtney Loo's manual is only

32 pages long. Less than half that

is the material that should be in An

Absolute Beginners Guide.

It begins with the classic

mistake; What is it, the Ubuntu

Philosophy, How can it be free.

Jokingly referring to Linux, the

dreaded L-word, it tries to

demystify and explain Linux.

Meanwhile, I'm still waiting...

Chapter 3, Ubuntu Releases, is

an entirely unnecessary history

lesson in a horrible looking page

full of version numbers, code

names and releases. BORED! CUT!!!

Page 10: Installing. Finally!

Different ways of installing Ubuntu

is quite a useful run-down; via ISO,

USB stick, Dual-boot, co-existing

with Windows and Mac, or through

Wubi. Better!

Chapter 5 is Support and

Community. Hang on, I haven't

seen any of it yet! You haven't

shown me? Why do I care about

other free documentation and

Launchpad Answers?

Chapter 6, page 16: Getting

Started with Unity. Except it

doesn't. "Before Unity The re Was

GNOME: A Little Bit Of History"

NOOO!!! I don't CARE!!! I don't give

a rat’s-tail about Gnome and its

Fisher-Price foot-print logo. This is

Chapter 6! GET ON WITH IT!!!

Page 17 finally shows me and

describes Ubuntu Unity. The next

few pages are dense (more

whitespace here, please), and

finally give me some decent