Customer Reviews

Ubuntu Unleashed 2010 Edition: Covering 9.10 and 10.4 (5th Edition)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is not my full review of this book, only a preliminary review since I spent only a couple of hours to scan through it. I was mostly looking for new features that has been added to ubuntu 9.10. Sadly didn't find a lot of new features that are specific to ubuntu 9.10. Most of the material in this book are general Linux / ubuntu. Some of the content are old and not being used in ubuntu 9.10 & some new features in 9.10 are not even mentioned. For example, 9.10 uses GRUB2 which is the default boot loader. No where in this book ever mentioned about GRUB2. It is possible that this book is written a while ago, but ubuntu has added new features & author did not update this book.

after reading the negative comments on this page, I have first download a .pdf version of this book, to take a good look at it.
this book is a lie.
this is an old edition with a fallacious title (8.04 LTS with some new print screens and some updates here and there) but the underline doc is for 8.04:
a full chapter on the deprecated and xorg.conf (not present in 9.10); nothing about any of the changes in 9.10 as the new GDM (see: [...]) or GRUB2 (already mentioned in another comment); Print screens of the 8.04 LTS version (but for ONE single 9.10 GNOME desktop print screen); the list is long.
DON'T BUY THIS BOOK!!!
The book content itself is good though (what what it worth), but the publisher should be stoned to death for his lie. Imagine I sell you an old Amiga with an flashing new sticker "Updated for playing 1920 HD movie", that's what this book is all about: a big fat lie.

EDIT 2010-02-11: this book is such a swindle, I have contacted SAMS publishing & InformIT. I don't expect much, but will keep with an update. I still can't believe what I read in this manual. 100% old content (but some print-screens and mentions to "karmic-dev" here and there along the pages). Such a shame and a complete rip-off for those purchasing this book.

EDIT 2010-04-10: no answer from SAMS publishing, InformIT, or the author. I have read elsewhere, this series has some serious trouble keeping up with the pace of the Ubuntu updates (a nice touch to call an "editor's lie"). Let see how it goes with the 6th edition?

If you're new to Ubuntu Linux then this book may be of some help. But for those of us who have been using Ubuntu for a while, this book is totally unnecessary.

Ubuntu changes too fast for the publishers to keep up. And Ubuntu does have a lot of features which do stay from release to release. Given the fast development cycle of Ubuntu, most people are better off using online documentation of changes rather than buying a hefty tome (in weight and price).

This book says "Covering 9.10 and 10.4" (sic) on the front cover, back cover, title page and copyright page. Only when you read the last sentence of a paragraph in the introduction 17 pages into the book do you see "This book covers Ubuntu version 9.10". And then, on all 826 pages, there is not a single mention of Ubuntu 10! Not one. Not until you get to inside back cover, where they try to get you on their mailing list by offering a DVD by mail. I don't see how they could get away with selling this book in stores, but when buying on Amazon it's hard to catch stuff like this even when you can preview portions online.

The book doesn't stand up well as a 9.10 intro either. The publisher has reused old pre-9 screenshots and old pre-9 content, and chapter sections written by four different authors are just slapped together in a way that often makes for very choppy reading. I would be embarrassed to be associated with this book as author or editor, and the packaging of this product makes me embarrassed for the entire marketing profession! The authors all seem perfectly competent and I hate to injure their royalties with this review but this book is a scam and I bet they had very little to do with this edition.

On the very last page they offer you a replacement disc - A disc! In this century! - for an upgrade to Ubuntu 10.04 and other software all of which can be downloaded elsewhere for free, along with a PDF document on what's new in 10.04 WHEN AVAILABLE. As far as I can tell it's June 2010 and that PDF is still not available, but maybe that's just because they haven't replied to my customer service request. The autoreply says they got my message THREE WEEKS AGO. This whole DVD by mail idea is just a trick to get people on their mailing list, and I'm not going to bite. They send the PDF electronically to people outside the USA, so I contacted the publisher (InformIT / Pearson Education / SAMS) asking for the PDF only because I don't want the DVD, and they didn't even have the courtesy to reply to me!

Not worth your time, untrustworthy publisher, low-quality book. This one is going back to Amazon.

I just received this newly published book and tried to make a backup of the enclosed DVD.
When I inserted the disk in the DVD drive, Windows popped up a warning message that there was no disk in the drive. The warning window refused to close after I removed the DVD, no matter what I tried. I finally rebooted and that brought up my anti-spyware program StopZilla with the warning that it had found and blocked several instances of a rogue program SoftCop that I allowed to be removed. I then tried the DVD in my external DVD drive, with the same results. Evidently the DVD is infected with SoftCop, a known rogue anti-spyware program that installs a virus and then offers to remove it at a price.

After rebooting in Ubuntu 9.10 the DVD read all right and offered to update my installation - not necessary of course since I was already using it.

I haven't read enough of the book yet to evaluate it, although it seems to be heavy on the use of the terminal, something Ubuntu is trying to make unnecessary. Also, updating from earlier editions is incomplete, and some of the functions described are changed in 9.10

If you want to get Ubuntu 9.10 you can download it for free from Ubuntu, either the CD version (for several platforms) or the extended DVD. If you are running 9.4 now you can probably update it with the book's DVD, as long as you avoid Windows.

I think the Authors really did a good job of writing in an understandable language and organizing the book in a logical format. I've found myself flipping through and finding many golden nuggets of information. I personally would not have picked this book up because of the title, since I'm not a big Ubuntu user. But Ubuntu Unleashed 2010 edition is packed full of information, 32 chapters and a hefty appendix to be exact. It is not all Ubuntu - specific either, meaning most of the content should work on just about any Linux distribution. This book would not be rendered useless if you don't decide to go the Ubuntu route. I recommend taking a look at the contents and buying this book, as I'm sure you'll be pleasantly surprised at the topics it covers. I think it would be a great book for someone that is interested in Linux in general, it reads well but can also be used as a quick reference. I wish I had a book like this when I was getting started, it would have saved me a whole lot of time and effort.

Other reviews I've read have said that it has too much terminal use in it, which is something Ubuntu is trying to eliminate. While this may be true, if you want the most out of your Linux distribution, the fact is you will at some point use a terminal. Commands are less likely to change as much as graphical interfaces. Although some things may be slightly outdated I don't think that this book should be re-written, as it is in the nature of open source and technology to change. If you keep this in mind I don't think you'll be disappointed with it.

This book has helped me unleash the power of Ubuntu and the terminal commands. I would recommend this book to anyone.

So far the book has had every answer we have needed to assure a successful installation.

Andrew Hudson, et.al.'s Ubuntu Unleashed, 2010 Edition covers 9.10 and 10.4 of the Ubuntu Linux distribution and offers Mac and Windows users alike keys to using Ubuntu for an easy Linux environment. From installing and customizing Ubuntu to running a printer server, connecting to a local network and the Internet, and playing games on Linux, this comes with Ubuntu on DVD and an upgrade to 10.4, and is a winning presentation for any computer library.

This book is exactly what you wish for, to learn a product for practical use and not academical knowledge