issue 20 - Book Review

Its subtitle describes it perfectly: Tips, Tricks, Hints, and Hacks. Ubuntu Kung Fu begins with a brief 'crash course' on Ubuntu administration. It quickly discusses Ubuntu's desktop, passwords, files, and package management - all within 40 pages.

No mean feat in itself. But that's not what the book is about. It's about neat little hints and tips to enhance your Ubuntu experience - 315 of them!

The helpful little nuggets are listed in the book from one to 315. The tips are also listed at the beginning of the book, divided into sections: Application Enhancements; Command-Line Tricks; General Productivity Tips; GUI Enhancements; Hardware Hacks; Image, Document and Multimedia Tips; Security Hacks; System Administration; Miscellaneous; and Windows/Mac OS Migration.

Not only that, but they are also cross referenced. So, should you read the tip on monitoring the power consumption of a laptop, it refers you to the laptop power-saving tricks - very helpful! And since each trick is effectively independent of the others, you can just dive in anywhere, or read a particular bunch of tricks.

Most of the tips are very helpful, but there are some that make you realise how awkward some applications can be. Take tip #53 - Make Calculator Round Up (or Down) to Two Digits. Not something I'm desperate to have, but it's amazing that for this tip you need to load up gconf-editor, and dig deep, just to enable a feature so necessary in a calculator! I'll pass on #54 - Follow the Moon's Phases.

Most tips are no more than a paragraph of 12 lines, but some -such as securing Ubuntu for kids, installing Avant Window Manager, and using Compiz - are more than a single page. The book is based upon Ubuntu 8.04, but, as the author says, the tips are distro independent and could, in theory, work on any Linux distribution.

Ubuntu Kung Fu is a fun book. You needn't read it cover to cover. Its tips cover a wide range of topics, it's easy to read, and to cap it all off, it has a cute cat on the cover that looks like it's doing kung-fu. What more could you ask for?