The Official Ubuntu Book (5th Edition) 5th Edition

It's my own fault for buying this book without actually peeking inside first. I was looking for an intermediate book on the specifics of Ubuntu, but this book is not it.

Not only is there very little technical info about Ubuntu, but there are dozens of pages that are about the internal workings of Canonical that is of virtually no interest to anyone.

And what really bugs me about any book, is the wasted pages on how to use common apps, like word processing and drawing apps. This is about as wasteful of pages as explaining how a mouse works. Give me a break!

There are better Linux books out there for any experience level. Stay away from this one.
Steve.

As described

Received book quickly with no flaws!

Good book for absolute beginners. You won't become a Linux/Ubuntu expert from this one book, but it will help you get started with Ubuntu.

This book is one of the bet boos I have ever read ,, why ?

I am a new user for Ubuntu and I bought this book to learn how and what is Linux and Ubuntu and this book complete the mission indeed and I'm very interested now to learn more and more about Ubuntu .

ok so we have good book and disc two that work good they is NO problem if you do not understand this book you can get help

To many people, right or wrong, Ubuntu is synonymous with Linux. Ubuntu does much to publicize Linux and is responsible for much growth in popularity of Linux in the last few years.
This book covers Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, the latest stable release of Ubuntu. LTS (Long Term Service) means Ubuntu 10.04 has support for three years (until April 2013) instead of the usual eighteen months of most Ubuntu releases.
The authors of The Official Ubuntu Book are prominent members of the Ubuntu and the Linux communities.
The book was written before Ubuntu 10.04 was frozen. There could changes after the writing the book but it was decided to get the book out in time for the release.

This book contains about 400 pages in a 7x9 format, not too bulky and nicely portable. About 350 pages comprise the subject matter. The cover is very different from older official Ubuntu books, varying shades of purple and not the traditional Ubuntu orange, expressing the new theme of Ubuntu. Included is an installation DVD containing the desktop installation, alternate installation and server installation.

'The Official Ubuntu Book, Fifth Edition, begins with a history and the mission statement of Ubuntu. The general organization of the project and related projects are briefly covered.

The installation section explains obtaining installation media and installing Ubuntu in clear detail. Partitioning is thoroughly and clearly covered. When the CD/DVD is booted, a menu appears on-screen. This menu includes the option of checking the media for defects. This is my first step. After checking the integrity of the installation media, try the Live CD to explore Ubuntu and determine if audio, video and peripheral support is satisfactory.

Much of the text is about the actual use of Ubuntu. Desktop layout, desktop and menu navigation, and customization are well covered. Core desktop programs and utilities are discussed thoroughly. Additional programs are introduced but are not discussed in great detail. Finding, installing and removing programs, much different than Windows, is covered. Many other administration tasks are discussed in these pages. There is a guide to Kubuntu, the KDE desktop version of Ubuntu, and Netbook Edition, especially designed to for netbooks.

Many other versions of Ubuntu, both official and unofficial, are mentioned. These other versions are worth investigating as another version of Ubuntu might better suits specific needs as multimedia or old computers with limited resources.
There is a brief but useful discussion of setting up a server. This is a good introduction but, as pointed out in the text, server administration is too complex to be covered in a general Ubuntu guide. It takes several books, not one chapter to cover this subject.

This book has much information on the Ubuntu community. Ubuntu is unique among Linux distributions in it's community emphasis.

There are many projects related to Ubuntu including translation, packaging software and other behind the scenes tasks necessary to make Ubuntu work. Users are invited to join these groups according to their abilities. Part of the Ubuntu philosophy is "anyone can play."

Ubuntu Forums, a question and answer forum sponsored by Ubuntu, is explained. Here users ask questions and volunteer answers. This is the most obvious and a very active part of the Ubuntu Community.
At the end of the book, the command line is explained and demystified ... sort of. Some things can't be done or can't be done as well from the GUI. The command line isn't difficult but does require some effort to learn. Approach with caution, not fear. With the various distributions, desktops and menu systems, the command line is the universal language of Linux.
This is an excellent starter book about Ubuntu as well as a reference for later use. The Official Ubuntu Book should assist the user in getting up to speed with Ubuntu quickly and effectively. It is all Ubuntu and not filled with frills to increase page count. Instructions on installation and using Ubuntu are very concise and clear. This is the best Ubuntu book I read in my 5 years with Ubuntu.

There is some very worthwhile information of the Ubuntu community. This will make the use of Ubuntu easier and more enjoyable. The community is a very important and helpful part of Ubuntu.

This book is both disappointing and shallow. It teaches you nothing that you can't learn by merely browsing Ubuntu. The introduction is long, boring, irrelevant. Ubuntu is very simple to use now days. No one needs a guidance of how to click it here or there. The part about Ubuntu's installation is poor redundant, and who needs it anyway if all info is on a screen during the installation. Ubuntu's website and help files do much better job on describing its functionality and they are getting updated with Ubuntu, unlike this book. The power of Linux is in its command line. This book does nothing to extend your understanding of it. I found that books freely included with Ubuntu 10.10, 4-Disks DVD Installation and Reference Set provide much greater info. I firmly believe, that if I spend this kind of money on a book about Linux, assuming there's plenty of free information available out there, it should contribute to my core understanding of a subject. This book is a general chitchat as you can find on countless forums. It gives an impression that authors themselves aren't really knowledgeable. I don't think that real Linux guru will waste his time by describing how he clicks onscreen interface buttons. It is beyond me, how book like that, gets positive reviews unless they are friends and family. That was about the content.
Now few words about the form. As someone else mentioned it, this book apparently is another self published compilation by many authors and it needs an editor. Most of it is very poorly written and inconsistent. Freely available Ubuntu documentation does better job. I give it 2 stars because they tried, but I can't recommend this reading to anyone. If you wan't really great book on Linux get Unix and Linux System Administration Handbook. It is a great reading.