Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Ubuntu: 101 Tips & Tricks
    Ubuntu: 101 Tips & Tricks
    Ubuntu: 101 Tips & Tricks
    Ebook181 pages1 hour

    Ubuntu: 101 Tips & Tricks

    By Jonathan Moeller

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Ubuntu: 101 Tips & Tricks gives users an overview of Ubuntu, from using the Dash and the Launcher to more advanced troubleshooting techniques.

    In this book, you'll learn how to:

    -Master the Dash and the Launcher.

    -Get the most out of the desktop environment.

    -Use the power of Nautilus

    -Connect Ubuntu to networks.

    -Create and eliminate user accounts.

    -Back up your files.

    -Install powerful apps from the Ubuntu Software Center.

    -Employ System Monitor to tame your Ubuntu PC.

    -Use the Terminal command line to perform advanced and powerful tasks.

    -And many other tips.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJonathan Moeller
    Release dateApr 16, 2014
    ISBN9781311579676
    Ubuntu: 101 Tips & Tricks
    Author

    Jonathan Moeller

    Standing over six feet tall, Jonathan Moeller has the piercing blue eyes of a Conan of Cimmeria, the bronze-colored hair of a Visigothic warrior-king, and the stern visage of a captain of men, none of which are useful in his career as a computer repairman, alas.He has written the "Demonsouled" trilogy of sword-and-sorcery novels, and continues to write the "Ghosts" sequence about assassin and spy Caina Amalas, the "$0.99 Beginner's Guide" series of computer books, and numerous other works.Visit his website at:http://www.jonathanmoeller.comVisit his technology blog at:http://www.jonathanmoeller.com/screed

    Read more from Jonathan Moeller

    Related to Ubuntu

    Related ebooks

    Operating Systems For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Linux In Windows

      Oct 18, 2022

      Linux In Windows
      9 min read

    • Article

      Linux From Scratch

      Feb 8, 2022

      Linux From Scratch
      8 min read

    • Article

      Introducing Kali

      Nov 17, 2020

      Introducing Kali
      4 min read

    • Article

      All about Ethernet

      Jan 11, 2021

      All about Ethernet
      4 min read

    • Article

      Kali Linux 2020.3 64-bit

      Nov 17, 2020

      Kali Linux 2020.3 64-bit
      3 min read

    • Article

      Introducing Kali

      Mar 2, 2021

      Introducing Kali
      4 min read

    • Article

      Hacking 101

      May 31, 2022

      Hacking 101
      5 min read

    • Article

      Introducing Kali

      Apr 19, 2021

      Introducing Kali
      4 min read

    • Article

      Bullet-proof Ubuntu 22.04

      May 3, 2022

      Bullet-proof Ubuntu 22.04
      1 min read

    • Article

      Installation And Setup

      May 2, 2023

      Installation And Setup
      1 min read

    • Article

      Data Recovery

      Mar 21, 2022

      Data Recovery
      12 min read

    • Article

      Hacker’s Toolkit 2o22

      May 31, 2022

      Hacker’s Toolkit 2o22
      1 min read

    • Article

      Use Home Assistant NodeRED devices

      May 31, 2022

      NodeRED is an open source graphical programming environment that can be used to complete a large number of tasks. Graphical programming languages tend to be more intuitive than textual programming languages and can be easier to learn. Support is buil

      5 min read

    • Article

      Using Bsd For Linux Users

      Mar 10, 2020

      Using Bsd For Linux Users
      8 min read

    • Article

      Linux Mint 20.2

      Sep 21, 2021

      Linux Mint 20.2
      4 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Ubuntu

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Ubuntu - Jonathan Moeller

      Introduction

      Welcome to Ubuntu: 101 Tips & Tricks. If you've never used Windows 8.1 before, you've come to the right place. You can use Ubuntu to perform a variety of computing tasks, such as office work, Internet browsing, listening to music, and playing games. In this book, we'll show you how to use the Ubuntu interface and get the most out of your Ubuntu PC.

      WHAT IS UBUNTU?

      What exactly is Ubuntu, though? Technically, the full name of the current version as of this writing is Ubuntu Linux 14.04 Raring Ringtail. But what exactly does that mean?

      Linux refers generally to a family of free operating systems based upon the Linux kernel (a kernel is the core component of any operating system). The history of Linux is long and complex, but we can provide a brief sketch here. In the late 1960s and 1970s, AT&T’s Bell Labs developed the UNIX operating system, which was soon used in university computer labs across the United States.

      However, AT&T retained the rights to the UNIX code, which meant that people could not freely alter or distribute it. In response to this, computer programmer Richard Stallman launched the GNU Project in 1983. (GNU stands for GNU’s Not Unix.) Stallman’s goal with the GNU Project was to create a UNIX-like operating system that was nonetheless free to alter and distribute under the principle of Free Software, a philosophical position which argued that software should be free to distribute and alter without legal restrictions. The GNU Project and Stallman himself produced a large number of software tools and programs. Unfortunately, the GNU Project lacked a viable kernel, the necessary core of any operating system.

      This changed in 1991 when a Finnish university student named Linus Torvald became frustrated with the academic licensing for Minix, a UNIX-like operating system restricted to educational use. Torvalds wrote his own kernel, named it Linux, and released it under the GNU free license. Combined with the GNU project, the Linux kernel provided a freely available operating system – an operating system that people could modify and distribute however they saw fit.

      Linux had been born.

      (Many people insist that the proper name of Linux should in fact be GNU\Linux, in recognition of GNU’s vital role, and many GNU programs are used in Linux to this day.)

      Under the terms of GNU’s General Public License (GPL), anyone could modify and distribute Linux. Today, Linux and Linux variants run on every different computing platform, from smartphones to desktop computers to high-end server systems. (Even Amazon's Kindle and Barnes & Noble's Nook e-reader devices are powered by custom versions of Android, a version of Linux designed for smartphones and tablets.) These different flavors of Linux are called Linux distributions. Some distributions are commercially supported endeavors, like Red Hat Linux or SuSE Linux, while others are free and community-supported, like Knoppix or Fedora.

      One of the more venerable distributions is Debian, started in 1993 by a German programmer named Ian Murdock. Debian is well-known for its stability and its strong devotion to free software principles. Unfortunately, Debian also has a famously slow release cycle. Because of this, Debian is frequently forked – a fork is when the code of an open-source project (which is free to share and distribute) is used as the foundation for another open-source project.

      Ubuntu began as one of these forks. Started by South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth through his company Canonical, Ubuntu focused on providing a smooth experience for the end users, offering a version of Linux for people with little experience with Linux or even with computers in general. Ubuntu issues new releases every six months, accompanied by an alliterative code name: Hoary Hedgehog, Breezy Badger, and so on. Each Ubuntu release is supported for 18 months, and every two years a Long-Term Support (LTS) release comes out, which is supported for three years on the desktop version and five years on the server.

      Since the releases come out every six months, there’s sometimes not much of a noticeable difference between them – the end user would notice very little difference between, say, 10.04 and 10.10. In aggregate, however, the improvements add up – Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr is a vastly superior operating system over 5.10 Breezy Badger.

      Today, Ubuntu is one of the most popular available Linux distributions, with a growing market share and a dedicated community of users and developers.

      THE PURPOSE OF THIS BOOK

      The purpose of this book is to provide a basic introduction to using Ubuntu to perform common tasks. It's not intended as an exhaustive, comprehensive overview, but an introduction to the topic - enough to get you started. (Feel free to jump around if a particular topic interests you more than the others.)

      A NOTE ON REPETITION

      As you read this book, you might notice that I repeat some sets of instructions. I wanted each Tip to have its own complete set of directions, so I don’t have to say next, launch Terminal like we discussed on page 153, which means you don’t have to scroll back and forth to refresh your memory. I personally hate it when technical writers do that, so I’m not going to do it here. Additionally, if you want to jump around and read the sections of the book that interest you, this will allow you to do so without having to page back through to find an earlier section. Besides, this is an ebook, so it’s not as if repeating some directions will drive up the printing costs!

      ERRATA

      I have done my best to make sure all the information in this book is accurate and timely, and tested every procedure described in the following chapters. However, I am only mortal, and undoubtedly I have made mistakes. If you notice any errors, you can email me at jmcontact @ jonathanmoeller.com to let me know. The advantage of ebooks over paper books is that ebooks are vastly easier to update and revise, and I can quickly introduce a revised and updated edition to correct any mistakes. (Another advantage of an ebook is that you can have it open on your computer screen as you work, rather than having to look down at a paper book on your desk.)

      ***

      Part I - The Launcher

      In this section, we will discuss the Launcher, the bar of icons running along the left-hand side of the Ubuntu desktop. You will learn how to use the Launcher to open and close applications, and how to configure the Launcher to meet your needs.

      ***

      Tip #1 - Use The Launcher To Open And Close Applications

      For launching and managing open applications, Ubuntu employs the Launcher, the bar running down the left-hand side of the screen. It is sort of a combination of the Windows Taskbar and Mac OS X’s Dock, and offers many of the same capabilities. You can pin and unpin applications shortcuts to the Launcher, and quickly tell at a glance which applications are currently open on your Ubuntu computer.

      To launch an application pinned to the Launcher, left-click on its icon. The icon will flash several times, and then the application will open up. A running application will have a small triangle to the left of its icon on the Launcher.

      You can also open up multiple windows or instances of an application using the Launcher – for example, having multiple Firefox windows open at once, or multiple documents open in LibreOffice. To do so, hold down the SHIFT key while left-clicking on the Launcher icon of a currently running application. A second instance of the application will then launch. If you have multiple instances of an application open, the small triangle to the left of the application’s icon on the Launcher will change to a blue dot. For every open instance of that application, you will see another blue dot to the left of its Launcher icon.

      To switch between the open windows, you can right-click on the program’s Launcher icon, and select the appropriate window from the context menu that appears.

      Finally, you can also use the Launcher to quit applications. Right-click on the Launcher icon of a running applications and select Quit. Ubuntu will then close all the application windows. Note that if you have unsaved work in one of the windows, the program may ask you to save before it closes.

      ***

      Tip #2 - Use Keyboard Shortcuts With The Launcher

      Usually, when using Ubuntu’s Launcher, you can start applications by left-clicking on them with the mouse. Most of Ubuntu’s user interface was designed around using the mouse as the primary input device. However, Ubuntu also includes a number of keyboard shortcuts that allow you to launch any application pinned to the Launcher with a few easy keystrokes.

      Specifically, you can use the SUPER key (usually the WINDOWS key on most PC keyboards) plus the number keys to launch the pinned applications. The applications pinned to the Launcher are order numerically, with the first application assigned the number 1, the second 2, and so on, all the way to the tenth, which is assigned the number 0. Pressing the SUPER key plus the appropriate numeric key will launch that application – SUPER+1 will launch the first application pinned to the Launcher, SUPER+2 the second, and so forth.

      If the application is already running and you use this keyboard shortcut, using the shortcut will switch you to that application. So, if the second application pinned to the Launcher is running and you hit SUPER+2, Ubuntu will switch you to that application.

      What if you want to launch another instance of the running application? To continue the previous example, hitting SUPER+2 will simply take you to the running application, rather than opening another instance. To launch another instance of an already running application, add the SHIFT key to the combination – SUPER+SHIFT+2 will open a second instance of the application pinned to the second spot on the Launcher.

      Note that this

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1