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.

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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.

Dead tree publications

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

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

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

Re:Dead tree publications

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.

This is a book report, not a review

n/t

One of the first hacks in the book..

... 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.

other uses for one hack

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.

Or could be very useful for showing $[RECENTEXWINDOWSUSERRELATIVE] what they did that was a no-no. Plus provide hundreds of chuckles to Linux maestros who get to laugh at the video of the silly user who smacked his system upside the head yet again.

distro fragmentation

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*.

Regarding 101-things-to-do dept

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

Where's the icon?

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

A better book on hacking would be:

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. [wikipedia.org]

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.

Ubuntu Hacks

Take Debian, hack it, yield Ubuntu.

Use ubuntuforums.org

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

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

...this is a book summary, not a book review.

I'm not saying it isn't useful, nor that it doesn't have a place on /., but it most certainly is not a book review. It's a reasonably helpful summary of contents.

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

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

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

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 [digitalelite.com] newsletter.

I also have Tom.DigitalElite.Com [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 [digitalelite.com] roasted java bean blend---smooth, satisfying, and oh so mmmmm, just like my blog [digitalelite.com].

At my blog [digitalelite.com], 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 [digitalelite.com] "Lonely Fornication" baseball cap.

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

Ubuntu Hacks... thanks for the review!

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/ [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

That's UNencumbered to you

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.

The book is outright wrong on several points

From the book:

The Dapper Drake release of Ubuntu Linux includes the new gnome-power-manager package, which enables ACPI sleep much like the system-tray power applet in Windows. Finally, sleep "just works" in Linux. The gnome-power-manager applet is configured to start automatically, and it lives in GNOME's panel notification area. If you right-click on the little battery icon, you'll see a menu pop up, as shown in Figure 4-1.

Figure 4-1. gnome-power-manager in action

This deceptively simple little application gives you a lot of control over your laptop's sleep behavior. If you click on Preferences, you'll see the Power Management Preferences dialog box shown in Figure 4-2. In this dialog's Sleep tab, you can configure different behavior depending on whether you're plugged into AC power or running on battery. One of the most interesting features is your ability to control the backlight brightness of your laptop's screen depending on the machine's power state. It happens to work out that a large consumer of power in a laptop is the screen's backlight, so being able to automatically turn down that lamp while on battery will help squeeze more runtime out of the system while it's unplugged.

Figure 4-2. The Sleep tab of gnome-power-manager

The Options tab (see Figure 4-3) is where you can set the default type of sleep you wish for the system to use, as well as what actions will engage the sleep mechanism. For this hack, the default sleep type is set to Suspend, which refers to ACPI sleep. (Hibernate [Hack #39]">Figure 4-3) is where you can set the default type of sleep you wish for the system to use, as well as what actions will engage the sleep mechanism. For this hack, the default sleep type is set to Suspend, which refers to ACPI sleep. (Hibernate [Hack #39] is a totally different type of sleep mechanism.) If you wish, under the Actions section of the dialog box, you can set the system to automatically sleep when the laptop lid is closed. This is a very handy feature if you're on the go: simply shut the lid and run off to your next appointment; then open the lid later, and the machine will wake up without any intervention.

Figure 4-3. gnome-power-manager's Options tab

The Advanced tab of the dialog (Figure 4-4) controls the notification icon's behavior. If you want the icon to appear only when you're charging or discharging, or you want to turn off the icon altogether, here's where you change those settings.

Figure 4-4. gnome-power-manager's Advanced dialog
When you have all your settings configured to your liking, simply click the Close button, and the dialog box will close, saving your configuration changes.

Testing ACPI Sleep

Your system is now ready for you to test sleep mode. Ensure that your system is running on battery; then simply shut the lid of the laptop and see what happens. You should hear the hard disk power down, and one of the power LEDs should indicate a power-state change by blinking or some other method. Hopefully, your machine went to sleep properly. Now you need to see if it wakes up correctly. Simply open the lid, and the computer should start waking up. When it's ready for use, you'll be prompted for your system password by gnome-screensaver. Enter your password, and your system should be in the exact same state as it was when you powered it off.

Thanks to the hard work of the Ubuntu developers, something that used to be extremely difficult to accomplish in Linux has been made very easy.

I followed the instructions above on my Toshiba Satellite that's running Ubuntu Dapper Drake and noticed a few things...
1. Those listings for figures don't display images in the Safari Online version of the book.
2. There is no "Sleep" tab on the power management tool.
3. There is no "Options" tab on the power management tool.
4. There is no "Advanced" tab on the power management tool.
Okay so those are minor quibbles, right? How about:
5. There are no instructions at all b

The Good Old Books are better

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.

Still this primitive ?

I've used Linux for about 10 years now, and recently helped move RH into an investment bank. But I stay away from it on the workstation these days, and this review is a good example of why...

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

A need? Only if something, somewhere is broken. The only thing I need to know to run my powerbook is that occasionally I need to charge the battery. Configure the wireless card? No, it just works. Setup bluetooth? No, it just works. Hibernating? Dunno about that, but if I just close the lid the laptop goes to sleep.

Re:Sick of B&N favoritism

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

Of course it could be because Amazon has patented the rather obvious idea of one-click shopping. That's why I don't buy from Amazon but that's probably not the case here.

G

Re:Sick of B&N favoritism

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

Re:The Linux Flaw

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

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.

Re:The Linux Flaw

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

Re:The Linux Flaw

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 [ubuntu.com] 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

What [amazon.com] about [amazon.com] the [amazon.com] Microsoft [amazon.com] hacks [amazon.com]? 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.

Re:The Linux Flaw

Such books exist for every mainstream OS. Including MacOS X.

Re:One..

IANAEM (english major) but I don't think it's entirely appropriate to use "one" in a case such as this.

Perhaps there's a Slackware Hacks book coming out ?

Re:The Linux Flaw

I love linux ... but sadly this statement sums up it's flaw ... in order to do oridinary tasks, you must know "hacks". Non-techy users just can't understand, let alone perform such "hacks".

Ah - so if "Ubuntu Hacks" gives a bad impression, what do you think of "Windows Annoyances" [annoyances.org] available from all good booksellers?

Cheers,
Toby Haynes

Re:Ok. You Piqued My Interest.

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 [allofmp3.com]? Which can come in higher quality.

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

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:The Linux Flaw

in order to do oridinary tasks, you must know "hacks".

I still can't figure out how to set programs like calc.exe under windows to stay ontop of others while using the other applications.

Non-techy users just can't understand, let alone perform such "hacks".

I'm a techie user and I still can't get Windows todo most of things I want.

Re:One..

Seriously though, who writes like that anymore?

People that write correctly, that's who.

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

Re:The Linux Flaw

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!

Dapper Hacks, or Ubuntu in general?

I know I'll get modded down for this, but...

I really like Ubuntu, but since I upgraded to Dapper from Breezy, things that used to work flawlessly are now either a pain to get working or still impossible.

three useful hacks off the top of my head: USB scanning - broken in Dapper. Haven' t found a way to fix it yet. USB printing - broken in Dapper, but found an answer in the Ubuntu forums. Touchpad driver - broken in Dapper. Haven't found a way to enable sidebar scrolling.

Any hacks mentioned to get these simple things working again?

All these things worked out of the box with Breezy.

Re:One..

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:Sick of B&N favoritism

Slashdot's linking to B & N, supposedly because they get nice kickbacks, shows a disgusting disregard for us readers, considering that Amazon has it cheaper.

AFAIK, slashdot editors refuse to link to Amazon in protest of their "one click patent".

Re:Ok. You Piqued My Interest.

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/ [nanocrew.net]

You're absolutely right...

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

With MS-Windows [google.com] you don't need to know any hacks. There are books [annoyances.org] about MS-Windows [amazon.com] 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:One..

I actually think it's quite refreshing to read a well written and measured article on the web. So much stuff on the web seems to be written by the same people that graffiti public toilets.

Re:RestrictedFormats

On the Ubuntu wiki's RestrictedFormats page there is information pertaining to getting stuff from iTMS: here [ubuntu.com]

Re:One..

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

    They would both think "RTFM".

Re:But what version?

In the last paragraph of the review it says the hacks are for Ubuntu 6.06, aka Dapper Drake.

Re:The Linux Flaw

Do you mean to say that this is never the case on Windows?

I can't count the number of times I've had to edit the registry manually, copy some dll, install some weird application in order to do something perfectly ordinary.

The main difference as I see it is that most of these things are at least well documented on a Linux system. It might not be immediately obvious where to find the documentation, but it is out there somewhere. And to me that pretty much sums it up. Everybody run into problems with servers and networks. When I am faced with a problem on Linux I am ALWAYS - WITHOUT EXCEPTION - confident that it CAN be solved and that the information IS there - it's just a matter of how much I have to Google to find it. On Windows my general feeling would be: Well - if I am in luck someone had this problem and I might find a solution. If not - I'm fucked.

Re:One..

Shakespeare says, "Well, Hey! nonny, nonny"

Chaucer says: " Alas, I may well wepe with syghes depe! "