Ubuntu Made Easy

I recently started to use Linux, specifically the Ubuntu distribution, as my primary operating system after a hiatus of many years. Finding Ubuntu and Unity quite a different world from the my years with RedHat and SuSe, I decided to pick through Ubuntu Made Easy by Rickford Grant and Phil Bull. The only other contender which seemed relevant for the job was The Official Ubuntu Book (7 Ed) by Matthew Helmke.

Ubuntu Made Easy is just the latest in a series of introductory Linux books written by Grant. The book covers everything: installation, Unity interface, keyboard shortcuts, installing applications, all kinds of usage scenarios and even a very helpful chapter on how to get involved with the Ubuntu community. The book is hands-on, so newbies can try various projects to get familiar with the OS. The chapters on Unity, keyboard shortcuts and Ubuntu community were the most useful to me. I just flipped through the rest since either I knew it or was irrelevant to me.

The authors have a fun and laid back tone to their writing that makes the book a joy to read. There was a lot of trivia about Ubuntu that I was not aware of that made Ubuntu quite interesting in my eyes. At ~480 pages, the book is quite a tome. It is aimed at the new user and seems to get that job done well. But if you know the ropes around Linux already, I recommend picking it up at the library for a few quiet hours.