A review of Ubuntu Unleashed 2010 Edition

One Minute Bottom Line

Review

I read this book because I was putting together a couple of new Ubuntu machines for development and customer demos and, after 12 years of using Red Hat almost exclusively (RHEL for the last 5, which I still use to run a local instance of Oracle 11g Enterprise Server), I wanted to move development to Ubuntu to take advantage of the newest versions of MySQL and PHP. I also wanted to expand my system admin experience beyond Red Hat distro’s, so I chose Ubuntu over Fedora. I therefore needed a book that would give me a thorough introduction to Ubuntu.

My first impression was that this book was a bit of a throwback because it is more than 750 pages long (excluding the index), includes an Ubuntu installation 9.10 DVD, and a free offer to get the newly released 10.4 DVD by mail. Several years ago this would have been the norm rather than the exception. Today most computer books are more narrowly focused and, therefore, shorter. With high speed internet becoming ubiquitous, downloads have replaced DVD’s.  I wonder if the included DVD has a noticeable effect on installation and usage of Ubuntu, compared to downloading and burning a disc yourself. After all, by buying and reading the book one could argue that you have already made a substantial investment of both time and money, one that you are unlikely to squander.

The book’s 32 chapters and 3 appendices are divided into seven sections:

Installation and Configuration explains how to install Ubuntu , configure hardware, set user preferences, update your system, use Gnome and X, learn how to utilize the command line.

Desktop Ubuntu demonstrates how to access the internet, setup an email client, utilize Open Office, play multimedia files, configure printing and play games.

System Administration covers managing users, automate systems tasks, setup networking, remote access and monitor and backup your system.

Ubuntu as a Server guides you through the installation of a file, print, ftp, email, proxy, database, LDAP and web servers.

Programming Linux introduces PERL, Python, PHP C/C++ and Mono.

Ubuntu Housekeeping covers security, performance tuning, advanced command line usage, installing, removing and updating software and kernel management.

Appendices contains a history of Linux and Ubuntu, installation resources and a list of Ubuntu and Linux resources.

While it is clearly stated in the introduction that the “Sams Publishing Unleashed books offer an-in-depth look at their subject, taking in both beginner and advanced users.” This attempt to be all things to all people is the books biggest weakness. By attempting to meet the needs of the beginner and advanced desktop user, system admin and programmer in one book, I am not convinced anyone is well served. I think this book should have been split into several titles with a more focused definition of its intended audience (Ubuntu for the desktop, Ubuntu for the System administrator etc.) As a result not every chapter will apply to every reader which for me raises the question of value.

This lack of focus was particularly apparent in the programming chapters. How much can you learn about PHP, PERL, Python, C++ or Mono in thirty pages? The authors themselves acknowledge this fact in the C/C++ chapter where rather than describing the language itself they explore the development tools available for C/C++ development (i.e., make, subversion, the GNU compiler). They even go so far as to say “If you are looking to learn C or C++ programming, this part of the book isn’t the right place to start—unlike PERL , Python, PHP or even C#, it takes more than  a little dabbling to produce something productive with C.” I would argue that this is not the right book to learn any programming language.

Several chapters left me wanting more (e.g. setting up email relaying, recommended installation directories, setting up SSL for Apache etc.). There were some topics left out altogether virtualization chief among them. I found this omission rather strange since it often provides the best method of running non native programs, and can provide a superior experience as opposed to wine. Had the audience been better defined I feel would have had space to address these issues.

In addition I felt that the authors took a few cheap jabs at Microsoft. I think the days of us needing to knock another operating system or product should be behind us If Linux can’t stand on its own merits after 20 years it needs to improve rather than knock others.  These stood out all the more so because the authors pointed out Microsoft’s use of FUD against Linux. As the old adage says treat others as you want to be treated.

I also would have liked to see a greater integration of security issues. I believe that security is of such importance it deserved a section in nearly every chapter. How many beginners or desktop users will read past the server and programming chapters to read about security (chapter 28) and updating software (chapter 31)?

Overall, this book gave me the ability to get my new development servers up and running quickly and fairly easily. Including some of the things I have had trouble with in the past using Red Hat (i.e. installation dependencies, printer drivers). I especially appreciated the chapters on setting up an email server, installing software and configuring apache the Ubuntu way. Despite its faults I would recommend this book to anyone looking to setup a server environment, however, if you are only looking to use Ubuntu as a desktop (PC replacement) you may find a better value elsewhere.