SO far, the book is very informative overall. Some areas, Andrew is very specific and other areas, he does not tell how to get there or where the screenshot is from. There is one section that I followed what he said and I did got get the screen shown in the book.

In regards to the claim that you will get a Free Upgrade to 8.10 when its released, it must be said that the statement is misleading. The only time that you would pay for Ubuntu or any Linux distro is if:

A. You decided to donate to the cause
B. You didn't what to make your own install cd by downloading the FREE iso image and burning it to a cd and decided to buy a copy from some of the websites online that sell copys for an extremely low price.

I just wanted to clear up that one small point.

College-level and serious programming collections will find UBUNTU UNLEASHED 2008 EDITION an excellent acquisition, presenting a fine coverage of Ubuntu Linux for Windows, Max and Linux users. From basic installation and using its features to setting up server workstations and productive Linux designs, UBUNTU UNLEASHED comes from professional developers and writers and makes for a comprehensive coverage of all the professional details.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Extremely informative and well written. I would recommend "Ubuntu Unleashed" to anyone interested in obtaining more in-depth information about Ubuntu Linux. This book is extremely useful and provides all the information needed to begin and continue to use Ubuntu Linux. It is very detailed and it is written for the beginner to the very experienced user. It is an extremely good reference book just to keep on hand for future use and problem solving. It also contains a CD for those that do not currently have "Ubuntu Linux v.8.04". Ubuntu Linux puts windows XP to shame and with open source software readily available, there is no comparison....the program and additional software is FREE. If you need a comparable office suite, you need to also download "Open Office, it has "ALL" the programs that Microsoft Office Professional edition has and is as good if not better than Microsoft Office. This book and Linux version in my opinion is a FIVE STAR product.....GET the BOOK and Software you will not regret it.

W. Harvey
9-12-08

First off, this book is not for beginners.
Second, the information is not in any order and has a cobbled-together format which is annoying and even confusing; so much so that I even returned it.
I agree with the criticisms given in the other reviews so no need to repeat all that.
If you're an absolute beginner with Ubuntu, Marcel Gagne's book: "Moving to Ubuntu Linux" is very good, but not great.
A very good book that's more advanced is William Von Hagen's: "ubuntu Linux bible" - but he's coming out with an updated version in 2/09, so you could wait for that.
I just got into using the Ubuntu OS and have to say I like it a lot, but you still have to use the command line for some things and I have yet to see any book that explains it in easy to understand terms.

The book contains lots of misinformation and long outdated notions, and approaches things in a way that doesn't make sense either for Ubuntu novices or those experienced with Linux.

E.g. on pages 30 and 31 it indicates that Ubuntu 8.04 doesn't enable Universe and Multiverse by default, which has not been true for a while.

E.g. In its introduction to Python on page 561 it says "Although PHP is fundamentally similar to Java and Perl, Python is closer to C and Modula-3, and so might look unfamiliar at first." Java and PHP are light-years apart, and saying Python is closer to C is bizarre.

The section on backups recommends tape drives for many classes of user - a slow, expensive and long outdated technology.

It wastes people's time talking about telnet.

Most everywhere I look, there is misinformation. I'm going to stop looking now.

I won this book in a raffle, and plan to recycle it rather than confusing someone else by giving it away.
There are much better Ubuntu books out there by folks that actually work on the distribution, like the "Official Ubuntu Book" (3rd Edition) by Benjamin Mako Hill, Corey Burger, Jonathan Jesse, and Jono Bacon.

I was having trouble configuring my Ubuntu installation for programming C and this book and DVD provided me with all the resources that I needed to fix my problems. The book provided the needed information and the DVD provided the needed software packages. I could not have been happier with this combination. I wish that I had had this book before I setup my Ubuntu system!

I hate this book. I own the first and the second edition which covers ubuntu 7.04.

I think they took their fedora unleashed book and replaced all instances of "fedora" with "ubuntu" and published the result as ubuntu unleashed.

The book contains things which are not true or simple for ubuntu. For example it talks about /etc/inittab but there is no such a folder in ubuntu. They are not even aware that there is a graphical application to install graphic drivers. The music player they referred to was Beep Media Player (nothing wrong with it as an audio player per se) which isn't even installed on Ubuntu by default. The list goes on.

So that book may be a good fedora book but it is not a good ubuntu book.

May be they fixed things in later editions, I have not seen them. But there are definetely better ubuntu books out there.

Ubuntu 8.10 isn't released yet, how can the book cover Ubuntu 8.10? As the name of 8.10 the intrepid ibex revers to is released in october (10) of 2008. And yet I can purchaase this book right now? Alphas have just been released. Must be a mgical book

Jonathan