Cheap Printed Official Ubuntu Linux Documentation

A reader writes:"The Official Ubuntu, Kubuntu and Xubuntu 6.06 Desktop Guides, the Official Ubuntu Server 6.06 Guide and the Official Ubuntu Packaging Guide are all now available in print from on-line publisher Lulu. The best part? All of these guide are cheap, in fact the only cost is that of manufacture and shipping, both Canonical and Lulu do not make any profit on the books at all. The Official Ubuntu Desktop Guide for example only costs $6.49 plus postage and contains 98 pages in total. Free downloadable PDF files are available for download on the Ubuntu Documentation Project Lulu website as well as on-line copies at http://help.ubuntu.com. All of the guides are available in many different languages thanks to the Ubuntu Translation Teams. Currently there are about 10 different languages available, more translations will be added to the store as they are compleated in Canonical's on-line project management web site Launchpad. All the guides are dual licenced under the GFDL and Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike licences. This is a really good idea to give Linux users cheap and reliable printed Linux manuals. Lets hope other distributions follow Ubuntu's lead on this one, some of the Gentoo manuals for example available in print this cheap would be really great to see."

New slogan

Ubuntu is no longer Linux for Human Beings, it's
Linux for Old Fogies
or
Linux that Kills Trees.

Seriously though, it's good that actual paper documents are still made availalbe. Until we have e-paper or HP stops raping consumers for 3.5mL of ink at $30 a pop, we need a company like Canonical to keep the printed docs tradition alive.

Fairly unlikely, for Gentoo

If the Gentoo people can't even manage to keep the official branded CDs up to date reliably, I don't fancy their chances for documentation as well... If you want printed documentation, just find a local print shop and get them to do it for you.

The PDFs...

...are available without creating an account at http://help.ubuntu.com/ [ubuntu.com].

what I would like to see...

...is a gui to cli translator, then a simple list that shows where all the *(&^&**(ing files are located in the hierarchy. If you are non leet it is a bear to see what a command line command is compared to what the app is called in the gui menu, nor can you find all the files without already knowing where they are! Catch 22. I just went through this last night when my NTP date/time gui menu applet failed to work (I still don't know why, some update hosed a buncha stuff), I had to google to see what the damn thing is really called or how to do it command line! I found the rdate commands eventually and got my time sync back easily once I found them, but why isn't it right there as a menu option? One freaking sentence, just a single *word* in properties would be enough. Right click gui menu entry, get properties, right there it should say "see blah blah foo". That would eliminate 99% of the BS trying to figure stuff out. We aren't all unix guru admins here, a lot of people just need to use the computer. Ideally this info would be available under "properties" in the GUI menu entry, but it sure isn't in any distro I ever tried out. Does no good to say use the MAN pages when you can't see what the app is REALLY called in the first place to get to the appropriate MAN pages!

Re:what I would like to see...

Also, apropos.

When I first found out about this tool, I thought it was going to be useless compared to locate, but the fact that you can get the title of the man-page entries, plus a short description, is incredibly useful when you don't know exactly what you are looking for.

Ugly!

The real question is, who would want to pay even a pittance for such poor typography? Some of the best-looking books have been produced using free software. Why can't they do the same?

Maybe I can figure out my current problems...

...but I doubt it.
Just tried out the New 6.06 Ubuntu Dapper on a clean install. Although I've been configuring servers for years with Gentoo or RedHat, the Desktop Linux keeps stomping on me. Wireless card (3com 3CRSHPW196) seems to work but doesn't, DNS gets lost every few minutes on static LAN, could not figure out how to import Outlook Express messages and settings into Evolution and many other surprises along the way. It looks nice, but it's so much effort looking at message boards for hours to figure out how to fix things that aren't even broken...

won't open in evince!

I am running Ubuntu Dapper, and the PDF file doesn't display correctly in the default PDF viewer. Isn't that a faux pas?

Lolzo1d

It's a silly attempt of making linux USER FRIENDLY :( Linux is friendly to Linux friendly users! Fruitless is what I call it. Atleast GNU Linux is counting for more everywhere.. :P

Re:Page 1

Page 1: "RTFM"
The END.

Isn't that the OpenBSD User's Guide?

Re:Yeah

So true! People who seek valuable documentation still have to spend much time searching the web and talk with the community. Actual ubuntu documentation is mostly immature or incomplete. Ubuntu realy evolve quite fast and I guess it is very hard for the community to keep up with up to date and coherent informations. Printed support is static by nature. That won't help it beying up to date. If you look at ubuntu server documentation you will see it is mostly pointless. If you need documentation to setup usable servers you won't find anything usefull in it. If you quite know a bit, there is nothing usefull in it either. But I can't rant about it. Ubuntu is free as in speech and free as in beer... WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Give to the community).

I ought to know who realy need printed docs for ubuntu, realy!

Re:Page 1

I guess I should have just made the FP myself. My karma would have been damaged less...

Re:Not as spiffy as commercial offerings

And there's the brilliant use of space wherein pages with a header and footer only (see page labeled v), or a single two-line paragraph describe the following pages (see page labeled #9). Surely this could be formatted better to not waste paper, should one want to print the document. Electronically, whatever, printed, big waste.

Re:Not as spiffy as commercial offerings

There's also not a single screenshot in the book. Newbies love screenshots. So do authors - they get to pad out page after page of their 500 page books with screenshots. There's a useful middle ground, and the Ubuntu documentation isn't it.

I don't think this is the book's intentions. This looks more like a quick reference guide. Have you even tried installing Dapper Drake? Just so you know: it acts as a LiveCD at first, and places you on a desktop with 2 icons. One is listed examples and one says install. Guess what you'll find in the examples folder.... N00b documents with lots of pictures.

Besides, I find command line instructions to be easier to convey to those that are unfamiliar with the gui.