Ubuntu Hacks

Ravi writes "I recently got hold of a very nice book on Ubuntu called Ubuntu Hacks co-authored by three authors - Kyle Rankin, Jonathan Oxer and Bill Childers. This is the latest of the hack series of books published by O'Reilly. They have made available a rough cut version of the book online ahead of schedule which was how I got hold of the book but as of now you can also buy the book in print. Put in a nutshell, this book is a collection of around 100 tips and tricks which the authors choose to call hacks, which explain how to accomplish various tasks in Ubuntu Linux. The so called hacks range from down right ordinary to the other end of the spectrum of doing specialised things." Read on for the rest of Ravi's review. Ubuntu Hacks - Tips and Tools for Exploring, Using and Tuning Linux author Jonathan Oxer, Kyle Rankin and Bill Childers pages 447 publisher O'Reilly rating 9 reviewer Ravi ISBN 0-596-52720-9 summary This book contains around a 100 hacks in configuring various aspects of Ubuntu.

The book is divided into 10 chapters each containing a collection of hacks on a particular topic.

In the first chapter titled - Getting Started, the authors explains how to install Ubuntu on a Mac and Windows PC, moving data like mail from windows Outlook express to Ubuntu, setting up a printer and more. This chapter contains a total of 14 hacks. And my favorite hack is the one where the authors explains how to create a customized version of Ubuntu Live CD containing ones favourite applications.

The second chapter dwells on the topics related to customizing the Ubuntu desktop. Here the authors give tips to install Java, customize Ubuntu desktop, install additional window managers, synchronizing ones PDA and Pocket PC, just to name a few. This chapter contains around 27 tips. My favourite one here would be how to create PDF files by using the print command from any application in Ubuntu.

Ubuntu like other main stream GNU/Linux distributions is encumbered by the patent restrictions related to various popular multimedia file formats. The net result is one cannot play multimedia files like mp3, wmv or quick time in a default Ubuntu installation. In the chapter titled "Multimedia", one gets to know how to enable audio and video applications bundled with Ubuntu to play these restricted media files.Topics like CD ripping, playing encrypted DVDs and playing any media formats using the all time popular mplayer are also explained in simple detail. But the one hack which takes the prize is that which explains how to buy songs at the iTunes music store and download the music on Linux.

Laptop users have some advantages as well as disadvantages over people using the desktop. And considering that the number of laptop users are ever increasing, there is a need to explain how to configure and take care of ones laptop running Ubuntu - like prolonging the battery life, configuring the wireless card on the laptop, hibernating, setting up bluetooth connection and so on. The 4th chapter contains around 8 detailed tips which deals with these interesting topics related to a laptop. I really liked the tip explaining how to make ones laptop settings roam with ones network which could be quite useful for people who are always on the move.

Chapter five of this well structured book deals exclusively with configuring and fine tuning X11 - the X Windows System. Here one gets to know how to configure ones mouse the old fashioned way by editing the requisite section in the X configuration file.As an example, the authors elaborate on a special case of configuring a seven button mouse with a tilted scroll wheel to work properly in Ubuntu. This chapter additionally contain a slew of tips to configure different difficult to configure hardware like the touch pad, setting up dual head displays, installing and configuring Nvidia, ATI and Matrox proprietary graphics drivers to work in Ubuntu and more.

The next chapter titled "Package Management" has a collection of tips in managing packages. Over and above explaining how to install, remove and update packages using apt-get, synaptic and Adept, this chapter also contain tips on creating ones own Ubuntu package from source, cache packages locally from source and more. I especially found the hack where the authors explain how to create ones own Ubuntu package repository really informative.

The seventh chapter dwells exclusively on Security. Usually Ubuntu for the desktop comes with all the ports closed by default which makes it relatively secure. But in these times of cheap high speed Internet access when a home network is connected to the Internet at all times, it is always prudent to run a firewall on ones machine. In this chapter, the authors explain how to setup a robust firewall using iptables and firewallbuilder and then manage it from the Ubuntu desktop. But that is not all, there are tips on configuring SUDO to limit permissions to different users where one gets to know how to do it the command line way. But my favourite tip in this chapter is the one which explains how to encrypt the file system to protect important data. This chapter contains a total of six in-depth hacks all related to enhancing the security of the machine running Ubuntu.

Ubuntu developers have always persevered in providing easy to use front-ends for conducting the most common system administration tasks - be it creating additional user accounts or managing the services running on ones machine. But at times the user is forced to do system administration tasks the command line way. In this chapter titled "Administration", the authors explain for instance how to compile a kernel from source the Ubuntu way and also ways of installing multiple copies of one kernel version on the same machine which could be useful for testing purpose. There are tips for taking backups as well as restoring them. I found the hack titled "Rescuing an unbootable system" really useful. This hack is in fact a collection of tips where common rescue scenarios are elaborated. I found this chapter full of very useful tips as varied as ways of synchronizing files between different machines, mounting a remote filesystem and even a tip on creating videos by capturing what is done on the desktop which could be really useful when shared with others while seeking help on a particular error.

A virtual machine is a simulated computer-inside-another-computer, allowing one to boot an extra operating system inside the primary environment. The next chapter titled "Virtualization and Emulation" explains the different virtualization and emulation technologies available which allow one to run windows/Dos applications and games in Ubuntu, running Ubuntu inside Windows and so on. Here the authors gives in-depth step-by-step walkthroughs in configuring and running virtualization and emulation technologies such as Xen, VMWare server and Wine which imparts a lot of importance to this chapter.

The final chapter of this excellent book which is also the 10th chapter deals with setting up a small home/office server. Here one gets to know how to install and configure a Ubuntu server from scratch. All the topics like setting up quotas to control disk space usage among users, setting up an SSH server, configuring Apache web server, building an email server, DHCP server, DNS server and so on which are a part and parcel of an office server setup have been given due importance in this chapter.

All the ten chapters combined, there are a total of 100 tips (Oops! hacks) in this unique book which are based on the latest version of Ubuntu - Dapper Drake. What is worth noting is that one is not expected to read the book from cover-to-cover rather, you can flip to the hack you are interested in and carry on from there which makes this book a very good reference for setting up and configuring all things related to Ubuntu. At this point, one might have questions in ones mind whether many of the solutions listed in this book aren't already available on the net in popular Linux/Ubuntu forums. True, with some searching one might be able to get what one is looking for. But if you ask me, it is always nice to have something tangible in ones hands while reading instead of having to stare at the monitor for hours on end. More over, each and every tip in this book has been tested by the authors on the latest version of Ubuntu (Dapper Drake) and is guaranteed to work. In writing this book, it is clear that the authors have put in a lot of hard work in covering all facets of configuring this popular Linux distribution which makes this book a worth while buy.

You can purchase Ubuntu Hacks - Tips and Tools for Exploring, Using and Tuning Linux from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

Comments

Dead tree publications

[Afrosheen]

I totally agree with the author in that I like having a real book in my hands when I'm working on something new, difficult, etc. I don't think the value of a book can ever be underestimated.

Re:Dead tree publications

[Rob T Firefly]

Very true. Besides the intangible benefits of having the "real" book, with computer stuff it's always nice to have some hard copy reference material. There will always come a time when the problem you need to fix is keeping you from getting onto the damned Internet to find the fix for your problem.

Re:Dead tree publications

[Anonymous Coward]

I like having a real book in my hands when I'm working on something new, difficult, etc.

Exactly. Nothing better than having a book in your hands to read when taking a shit.

Re:Dead tree publications

[Afrosheen]

Yay, my grammar troll bait caught two! I get a +4 cloak of haste now. Thanks guys!

Re:Dead tree publications

[Anonymous Coward]

I see you already got + 2 Boots of Revisionary Motivation. Unfortunately, I have an Amulet of Divination of Bullshit, and therefore pwned you already.

Re:Dead tree publications

[DittoBox]

I have to agree there. The reason isn't generally about having a hard copy (although it is nice to have when a system goes tits up) but rather that most tech books are written as page-by-page textbooks. This makes them far easier to follow and learn from than a manual. This is because manual's are generally for reference or very brief introductions to whatever you're trying to learn, they rarely help in actually grokking the subject.

Most of the time manual's simply outline what functions foo, bar and baz do seperately rarely giving you 'recipes' for using foo, bar and baz together.

This is a book report, not a review

[stratjakt]

n/t

One of the first hacks in the book..

[GonzoTech]

... tells a user how to post information on slashdot pertaining to the book itself. An advertisement hack, which is very similar to the wonderful people who write books on, "How to write a book and make a million dollars from it," collections.

Re:Sick of B&N favoritism

[sammyo]

I'd agree most any forum other than Slashdot. If a slashdoter is fooled by a link or
fails to do their own research they should be reading zdnet...

Re:Sick of B&N favoritism

[GonzoTech]

You mean I don't have to go to B&N? THANK GOD!

distro fragmentation

[b17bmbr]

shouldn't most distro hacks be more applicable to any distro, or has linux become too fragmented? every distro has different ways to handle packages, and ubuntu's (synaptic) is a good front end to apt-get. I really like it far better than the rpm methods. however, most "hacks", such as installing LAMP, tuning perforamnce, file sharing, etc., should be mostly the same for all linux distros. I liked the Knoppix hacks from a while ago which was cool in that you could do things like build your own specialty live CD. Things like that are truly hacks. Configuring X or getting DVD's to play in ubuntu are hardly hacks. Ubunut is a great distro and I use it now instead of Fedora or Mandr*.

Re:distro fragmentation

[stinerman]

Generally, a "hack" on one distro will work on another if they are related. For instance, I'm pretty sure most of these would work with Debian with minor adjustments. Of course, many such adjustments will also work just fine with Fedora/etc. if you change "apt-get" to "yum" and "sudo" to "su -c".

In my experiences, one of the main factors tends to be package managment. Does the distro use .deb or .rpm?

Re:distro fragmentation

[Etyenne]

In my experiences, one of the main factors tends to be package managment. Does the distro use .deb or .rpm?

It does'nt make any difference. .deb and RPM are just package format; a way to carry files, meta-data and (de)installation scripts. Technically, they are both pretty close in term of functionnalities. The real difference between distro packaging is two-folds : high-level package manager (apt, yum, urpm, yast, emerge, etc), and quality of packaging.

The two main high-level package manager are apt and yum. Yum is serviceable, but slow (so is YaST). Apt is very fast, but quirky at times. I have a love-hate relationship with both. Functionnally, they are pretty similar.

Where Debian-derived usually spank the competition is quality of packaging. It's hard to beat the result of the Debian packaging policy and thorough QA. Compared to Debian, RedHat feel slapped together by amateur. And don't mention Mandriva, I will puke.

So in the end, RPM or .deb, it does'nt make any difference. Even the choice of high-level package management tools is really just a matter of taste at this point. What really make or break a distro is the amount and quality of work that have gone into brewing the distro.

Re:distro fragmentation

[Etyenne]

however, most "hacks", such as installing LAMP, tuning perforamnce, file sharing, etc., should be mostly the same for all linux distros.

Hummmm ... no. SysV init management, configuration files localisation (layout of /etc), default configuration of various subsystem, etc vary greatly between distro. Example : Apache configuration. In RedHat and friends, the default config is pretty vanilla, and reside in /etc/httpd. In Debian, it's in /etc/apache2, and the way virtual hosts configuration is managed (sites-available/sites-enabled symlinks) is pretty unique (and astucious).

Some people find the differences irritating and call that "fragmentation". Personnally, I think they are mostly superficial, and become clear once you know the fundation and rational behind the distro design. You need to know your tools, anyway.

Re:Sick of B&N favoritism

[NineNine]

Thanks, but I buy locally. I like the few independent bookstores that we have left.

Re:The Linux Flaw

[chrismcdirty]

You act like these types of books/articles don't exist for Windows. Look at digg on any given week. You'll likely see at least one "How to do $x in Windows to speed up $y" or "How to unlock $z in Windows" article.

Re:The Linux Flaw

[Penguin Programmer]

Have you tried Ubuntu? You absolutely do _not_ need any hacks to use it as a normal desktop system. In fact, I would venture to say that it's easier to install and configure than Windows XP is. Of course, most normal users never have to install and configure Windows because it comes with their computers, so maybe that is a moot point. Still, in the 60ish Ubuntu installs I've done (mostly at installfests for average Joe users with laptops), I've had very few Ubuntu installs that didn't detect and configure all the hardware on the machine correctly. Windows XP almost never detects new hardware on a machine correctly. The default Ubuntu setup is very clean and easy to use. It's _different_ from Windows (as it should be - Windows has an ass interface), but not harder to use.

The need-to-know-hacks-to-use-Linux argument no longer holds. It was completely valid when I started using Linux (circa 1998), but today it is 100% myth.

Regarding 101-things-to-do dept

[Valthan]

Shouldn't it be "100-things-to-do" dept since it has 100 "hacks"? Just an observation...

Where's the icon?

[ABoerma]

Odd. This is the first story on Ubuntu I've seen without the Debian icon.

A better book on hacking would be:

[Anonymous Coward]

Ubuntu Hacks - Tips and Tools for Exploring, Using and Tuning Linux

This reminds me of another nice book I purchased recently:

A Dozen Hacks - Tips and Tools for Exploring, Using and Tuning Your Mom.

I found it very useful last night. Although I'm not sure these were really hacks so much as just interesting ways of doing things with your mom.

Re:The Linux Flaw

[amide_one]

In other words, "there's lots of cool stuff you can do if you know how, but it's not always immediately obvious how". So... you want it spelled out for you or what? Except... wait... that's just what's already been done in this book. Except... wait... apparently the simple fact that this book is potentially useful is "what's wrong with Linux". Linux should make it blindingly obvious how to handle the "special case of configuring a seven button mouse with a tilted scroll wheel to work properly". (Does Windows, yet?)

I haven't seen the book but I've used (K)ubuntu and most of the stuff sounds like information that's already pretty freely available -- for instance, "know how to enable audio and video applications bundled with Ubuntu to play these restricted media files" turns out to be covered very nicely on the Ubuntu support wiki. Dunno how much extra this book adds to that info, but the wiki already includes the "takes the prize" tip on how to get stuff from iTMS.

In other words -- don't complain that people are working hard to make it much easier for "non-techy" users to do "oridinary" tasks (like spelling).

Re:The Linux Flaw

[FinchWorld]

Unless theres a piece of hardware that doesn't work out of the box.

Re:The Linux Flaw

[Braino420]

What about the Microsoft hacks? And yes, most of those books talk about "getting updated",installing drivers, web browsing and changing themes. Oh ya, there is even something included in there that isn't in the Ubuntu one: controlling spyware.
I think I've just been trolled.

Use ubuntuforums.org

[Bleeblah]

These sound like basic HOWTOs to me, instead of hacks. And if you need Ubuntu HOWTOs, look no further than www.ubuntuforums.org.

Re:Use ubuntuforums.org

[munpfazy]

These sound like basic HOWTOs to me, instead of hacks. And if you need Ubuntu HOWTOs, look no further than www.ubuntuforums.org.

Yup. Like so many other interesting concepts, the word hack has been all but destroyed by advertising-savvy editors.

It may be a great book, and I'm all in favor of people writing and reading books about linux. (Can't say I've ever bought any myself, since I've always been able to find more than enough information online, but I have no objection to them in principle.) But the title is just silly. It ought to be called something like "Using Ubantu Linux."

Installing Java and adding additional window managers is not a hack by any conceivable definition. You're selecting an existing tool and using it in *exactly* the way it was intended. If configuring X11 by editing the X11 config files as specified by the X11 man pages is a hack, then just about anything you do in the world must also be a hack.

"Hey man, check this out. I just hacked my brand new television."
"Oh yeah? What did you do to it?"
"I brought it home and plugged it in. Then I watched it!"
"Awesome hack! You should write a book."

Ubuntu Hacks... thanks for the review!

[WildBill1941]

Thanks for the positive review of Ubuntu Hacks. As one of its authors, I'm very pleased to see that the book is well received so far. We geared the book for the Dapper Drake release, and doing that was no easy feat as it was a moving target the whole time. We'd write a hack, and then we'd have to continually revise things as the code changed and new features got rolled in. I believe I rewrote the Java hack at least three times, thanks to the fact that Sun relaxed their licensing.

At any rate; I'm very pleased to see that the book is well accepted. Thanks again for the good review. I'd like to add that we're going to continue to update things at the http://www.ubuntuhacks.com/ blog - there's no real content there at the moment, but as we think of new things or there are new developments in the Ubuntu world we'll keep that site up to date.

- Bill

Re:Ok. You Piqued My Interest.

[Ash-Fox]

I'm interested in how to buy music and play music from iTunes Music Store(ITMS) from within Linux. Is this for real or is this iTunes on Wine and a lot of pain?

Use Firefox or Opera to buy music.

There is some software you can use (combined with VLC) to decrypt Apple's DRM files into raw AAC streams, and stick them into .mp4 containers.

However, why would you want to buy from iTunes when you can buy unencrypted (no DRM) high quality files from All of mp3? Which can come in higher quality.

If you want iTunes on Linux OS, you're better off using crossover office instead of Wine, here is the compatibility information.

I'm interested in the video recording as well. Is this desktop video application or is this Flash via VNC?

I use VLC for recording Video on Linux. As for Flash via VNC... What the hell is that about?

My interest is piqued but, not enough to spend $30 to find out that it's just Windows apps running on Wine.

Books take up too much room here, I'm not getting it either.

Re:One..

[gardyloo]

Seriously though, who writes like that anymore?

People that write correctly, that's who.

      Ahem. People WHO write correctly, that's who.

That's UNencumbered to you

[PCM2]

Ubuntu like other main stream GNU/Linux distributions is encumbered by the patent restrictions related to various popular multimedia file formats.

Actually, what you mean to say is that Ubuntu is not encumbered by the patent restrictions on certain multimedia formats, because it does not include support for those formats.

Re:The Linux Flaw

[williambbertram]

I've been using the current Ubuntu at home in a fairly complex environment, and the amount of normal computing tasks that require hacks seem minimal. There were a few thing that required some googline like installing JRE, pptp, and flash but on the whole it's workable. Photo management (simple red eye / crop / slideshow like Picassa, not photo editing with beefy complex apps like Gimp or Photoshop) is still a little rough. Even Picassa for Linux has some major issues to work out. I tried to print several very small .jpg, .gif, and .png files to two different printers and the print jobs were blown up to 300+MB in the spooler. GThumb doesn't have red eye, crop, or any tools like that. I tried several other photo management packages that were ok, but still not quite there. I guess my point is that Ubuntu is very useable, but some tasks are still going to be painful, and others will still require "hacks". This "hack" problem is not limited to Ubuntu though. I sold 10 PC's at a garage sale last year, 5 of which I KNOW are still running Ubuntu because I know the people. NONE of those people have called me with spyware, virus, or any of the goofy buggy shit you commonly see on Windows. People I know who use XP are CONSTANTLY bugging me with spyware, virus, broken MSI installers, windows updates that break something they're using, PC's that won't boot, cheap hardware with poorly written drivers causing BSOD's, you name it. My point is that Ubuntu still requires a few "hacks", but my Ubuntu users seem to require far less maintenance than my XP users. Maybe someone could write a hack for XP that makes less people call me to fix it!

Re:Not to be too pedantic about it, but...

[Cal Paterson]

Well, at least you got to plug your blog either way. Thank god for that.

I mean, if I hadn't discovered you blog (which is automatically linked as part of your user comment header, by the way; hows that for redundancy?) with it's gnome tips, funny pictures and flash animations (that obviously won't work on any real linux-users machine) I would have been seriously intellectually impoverished.

Either way, I think the word I'm looking for is thankyou.

Re:The Linux Flaw

[frostoftheblack]

That's true. But I've tried a bunch of different Linux distros, and based on what I've tried, Ubuntu offers the best out-of-the-box functionality of all of them, as someone has posted. But you're right, it gets ugly when you have to manually install and configure hardware. Graphics cards, touchpads, and dare I say....wifi cards? A wifi card that is not automagically supported (cough, Broadcom-based prior to Ubuntu Dapper) is pretty difficult for someone who has no idea about Linux.

Re:Sick of B&N favoritism

[Anonymous Coward]

How is Powells any more "independent" than Amazon? Both Amazon.com and Powells have multiple large warehouses in various parts of the country, both sell most of their stock online, both get their special orders from the same providers... People think Powells is "independent" because they have a northwest hipster attitude about them, but they're really not any different from Amazon.

Re:One..

[jimmyfergus]

Actually, it's completely appropriate. It seems you, like the British aristocracy, don't understand how to use it. They say "one" when they mean a specific person, usually themselves, too, or at least they used to. In your post, "Such as one did", is nonsense.

It's sad that such useful usage has become passe, usually inappropriately replaced with 'you'. The aforementioned royalty and their hangers-on probably had a lot to do with its fall from grace.

Think about it - to express, for instance, that people should generally be polite, people now usually say "you should be polite", which strictly speaking arrogantly excludes the speaker. Much better to say "one should be polite" ...it's more polite ;).

But then, sadly, ignorant people think you are affected.

Re:The Linux Flaw

[hobo sapiens]

True, but these books don't usually have to have things like "How to upgrade Firefox" and "How to make your DVD software actually play DVDs". As annoying as Windows is, the stuff that requires "hacks" are normally things that the average user is not interested in anyhow. I like ubuntu, I use Dapper Drake and love it so far. However, to get Totem to actually play DVDs, for example, is beyond what a normal user is capable of doing. Try upgrading from Firefox 1.0.8 in Badger without using the CLI. Good luck with that. Not sure if Dapper fixed that, I guess we'll see when Firefox 1.5.5 comes out...

If only people would devote some time to the OSS community trying to fix stuff like this instead of vehemently refuting every /. that points these things out. Then /. posts decrying legitimate difficulties with Linux distros would not need to exist.

Re:Ok. You Piqued My Interest.

[mindtriggerz]

DVD Jon has a program called Sharp(#) Musique that allows you to buy from the iTMS in Linux, and without DRM too. Unfortionatly, if you've used iTunes v6 it does not work for purchasing. However, there is a 3rd party patch floating arround that fixes this. #Musique is availible from http://nanocrew.net/

You're absolutely right...

[mangu]

in order to do oridinary[sic] tasks, you must know "hacks"

With MS-Windows you don't need to know any hacks. There are books about MS-Windows but they aren't about hacks.

BTW, doesn't your browser do spell checking? The one I use, in a standard Ubuntu installation without any hacks, shows your "oridinary" in red, it's easy to find typos that way.

Re:The Linux Flaw

[xenocide2]

You're right. Instead you get "How to use firefox to access windows update from your pirated Windows install" or "How to schedule nightly defrags," or "how to optimize your internet settings." Not to mention that Sun's Java is now installable from multiverse / non-free (or will be eventually if the current Sun PR is to believed, I'm not sure where Debian + java currently stands).

Saying that nobody is busy addressing the "stuff like this" is a lie. The FSF and plenty of other OSS organizations join up to fight software patents, the primary cause that you can't play DVDs, listen to mp3s, or any other potentially patented function in the future with open source software legally. And plenty of other people are finding ways to work with existing patent holders to come to a workable agreement between them. For example, Fluendo recently worked with the MP3 people to join in on mp3 support. There's even more people working on alternatives to restricted software, like Vorbis and gcj. And there are people "trying to fix stuff like this," like Automatix or EasyUbunbtu; they just don't personally advertise on Slashdot where you might read it. I dislike that their solution is an addon program rather than solving the deficiencies within Ubuntu, but that's a personal opinion and there are at least some fixes that are justifiably unmergable with Ubuntu. So it is being solved, by a number of people, in a number of ways. It's just not done yet.

One of the biggest problems I see surrounding the Ubuntu support and help forums is that the "howto foo" authors are all heavily experienced in the command line, so where a GUI tool would suffice they instead jump to console. For you and I, synaptic may provide little value (perhaps that itself is a bug) over apt-get, but it represents a good improvement for the unindoctrinated. The things it does are generally unsurprising, and the features it directly presents to the users are very suitable for their needs (searching, upgrading, descriptions). Of course it isn't perfect yet, but it's far from unusable. I think if the howto authors spent some time using the GUI tools with a focus on their documentation, they'd be able to contribute some insightful advice to developers on improving it, sort of an "eat your own dogfood" scenario.

For the record Dapper is running 1.5.4. The main problem revolved around whether it was appropariate to break people's plugins or not. So far they've already pushed one upgrade to Firefox through, from 1.5.3 to 1.5.4. And it was always feasible to install firefox to your homedir (right click to extract, right click to run), if you were willing to take an adventure on plugins.

Re:One..

[cranos]

SHouldn't that be:

Ahem. People WHO write correctly, that's WHOM.

Re:One..

[Anonymous Coward]

No, it's "that is who" ("that's who") because "is" takes no direct object, rather, it has a subject complement, e.g., "This is he," not *"This is him."

This post brought to you by the Grammatical Inquisition.

The Good Old Books are better

[Bing Tsher E]

I prefer the classic old books on Unix. It should have a chapter on setting up your environment (i.e. .cshrc) and should cover all the important dotfiles. It should have a chapter on ed/ex/vi, preferrably one that starts with the ed commands and branches forward. It needs to have a roff chapter, since that was the first really useful application on Unix. Shell scripting is another must, and should start with /bin/sh and only after that is covered branch into any of the arcana of newer scripting.

When I first started involving myself with the freenixes, there wasn't anything else out there in printed documentation but ye olde Unix books and a few things newer things from O'Reilly (the _UNIX Power Tools_ book is excellent and will remain very very relevant for a long time, if we can fight off the GUI mess people seem to think that other people want). My favorite UNIX book is still one published by Osborne back in, I think, about 1983. It fulfills all the requirements I listed in the above paragraph.

Any book with screenshots in it is disallowed from consideration. If there MUST be illustrations, and there are cases where they are helpful, they should look like nothing more than what one can come up with using Xfig.

Re:One..

[Gryle]

Still, less expected than the Spanish Inquisition!

Re:Not to be too pedantic about it, but...

[caudron]

Well, at least you got to plug your blog either way.

If my blog interests you, perhaps you'd also like to sign up for my Tom.DigitalElite.Com newsletter.

I also have Tom.DigitalElite.Com coffee mugs and t-shirts for the serious fan.

For the more sedate sophisticate such as yourself, I offer a Tom.DigitalElite.Com roasted java bean blend---smooth, satisfying, and oh so mmmmm, just like my blog.

At my blog, you'll find that sarcasm is but one of the many services I provide free of charge.

Act now, I'll throw in a free Tom.DigitalElite.Com "Lonely Fornication" baseball cap.

Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/

Re:One..

[gardyloo]

Imagine what Chaucer or Shakespeare would think should he happen to find himself in modern company.

    They would both think "RTFM".

Re:One..

[DataCannibal]

..or for those who like it in terms of case.

"Who" is only inflected to "whom" in the accusative and dative cases. In the nomanative it remains "who" and in the genetive it becomes "whose". THose who've learned german or latin will know that the verb "to be" always causes the nominative case.

N: That is who.
A: You hit whom?
D: To whom did you give the book?
G: Whose book is this?