Geing Started with Ubuntu . The Ubuntu Manual Team Copyright © by e Ubuntu Manual Team. Some rights reserved. cba is work is licensed under the Creative Commons Aribution–Share Alike . License. To view a copy of this license, see Appendix A, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/./, or send a leer to Creative Commons, Second Street, Suite , San Francisco, California, , USA. Geing Started with Ubuntu . can be purased from http://ubuntu-manual. org/buy/gswu/en. A printed copy of this book can be ordered for the price of printing and delivery. An electronic copy of this book can be down- loaded for free. We permit and even encourage you to distribute a copy of this book to colleagues, friends, family, and anyone else who might be interested. http://ubuntu-manual.org Revision number: Revision date: -- :: - Contents Prologue Welcome Ubuntu philosophy A brief history of Ubuntu Is Ubuntu right for you? Contact details About the team Conventions used in this book Installation Geing Ubuntu e Live CD Installing Ubuntu Login Options e Ubuntu Desktop Understanding the desktop Managing windows Switing between open windows Using the Applications menu Using the System menu Browsing files on your computer Nautilus file browser Searing for files on your computer Customizing your desktop Accessibility Managing your computer Geing help Working with Ubuntu Geing online Browsing the web Reading and composing email Staying organized Using instant messaging Microblogging Viewing and Editing Photos Wating videos and movies . Listening to audio and music Working with documents, spreadsheets, and presentations Taking notes Ubuntu One Seing up Ubuntu One Ubuntu One Preferences More information Hardware Using your devices Hardware identification Displays Connecting and using your printer Sound Burning CDs and DVDs Using a webcam Scanning text and images Other devices Soware Management Soware management in Ubuntu Using the Ubuntu Soware Center Managing additional soware Synaptic Paage Manager Manual soware installation Updates and upgrades Advanced Topics Ubuntu for advanced users Introduction to the terminal Ubuntu file system structure Securing Ubuntu Why Ubuntu is safe Basic security concepts Users and groups System updates Firewall Encryption Troubleshooting Resolving problems Troubleshooting guide Geing more help Learning More What else can I do with Ubuntu? Open Source soware Distribution families -bit or -bit? Finding additional help and support A License Creative Commons Aribution–ShareAlike . Legal Code Creative Commons Notice Glossary Credits Team Leads Authors Editors Designers Developers Translation Editors Special thanks Past Contributors Index Prologue Welcome Welcome to Geing Started with Ubuntu, an introductory guide wrien to help new users get started with Ubuntu. Our goal is to cover the basics of Ubuntu (su as installation and working with the desktop) as well as guide you through some of the most popular applications. We designed this guide to be simple to follow, with step-by-step instructions and plenty of screen shots, allowing you to discover the potential of your new Ubuntu system even if you are a novice computer user or are migrating from another operating system for the first time. Please bear in mind that this guide is still very mu a work in progress and always will be. It is wrien specifically for Ubuntu ., and although we have aimed to not limit our instructions to this version, it is unavoidable that some things will ange over the life of Ubuntu. Whenever a new version of Ubuntu is released, we will incorporate updates and anges into our guide, and make a new version available at http://www.ubuntu-manual.org. Geing Started with Ubuntu . is not intended to be a comprehensive Ubuntu instruction manual. It is more like a qui-start guide that will get you doing the things you need to do with your computer quily and easily, without geing bogged down with tenical details. If you are aer more detail, you will find excellent resources available at http://help.ubuntu.com. Ubuntu’s built-in system documentation is also very useful for accessing help on specific topics, and can be found by cliing System ‣ Help and Support in Ubuntu. More information about Ubuntu’s online If something isn’t covered here, ances are you will find the information and system documentation can be found in Chapter : Learning More. you are looking for in one of those locations. We will try our best to include links to more detailed help wherever we can. Ubuntu philosophy e term “Ubuntu” is a traditional African concept that originated from the Bantu languages of southern Africa. It can be described as a way of connect- ing with others—living in a global community where your actions affect all of humanity. Ubuntu is more than just an operating system: it is a community of people that come together voluntarily to collaborate on an international soware project that aims to deliver the best possible user experience. . The Ubuntu promise ‣ Ubuntu will always be free of arge, along with its regular enterprise releases and security updates. ‣ Ubuntu comes with full commercial support from Canonical and hundreds of companies from across the world. ‣ Ubuntu provides the best translations and accessibility features that the free soware community has to offer. ‣ Ubuntu’s core applications are all free and open source. We want you to use free and open source soware, improve it, and pass it on. A brief history of Ubuntu Ubuntu was conceived in by Mark Shuleworth, a successful South African entrepreneur, and his company Canonical. Shuleworth recognized Canonical is the company that provides the power of Linux and open source, but was also aware of weaknesses that financial and technical support for Ubuntu. It has employees based around the world prevented mainstream use. who work on developing and improving Shuleworth set out with clear intentions to address these weaknesses the operating system, as well as reviewing work submied by volunteer contributors. and create a system that was easy to use, completely free (see Chapter : To learn more about Canonical, go to Learning More for the complete definition of “free”), and could compete with http://www.canonical.com. other mainstream operating systems. With the Debian system as a base, Shuleworth began to build Ubuntu. Using his own funds at first, installation s were pressed and shipped worldwide at no cost to the end user. Ubuntu spread quily, the size of the community rapidly increased, and it soon became the most popular Linux distribution available. With more people working on the project than ever before, Ubuntu con- tinues to see improvement to its core features and hardware support, and has gained the aention of large organizations worldwide. For example, in , Dell began a collaboration with Canonical to sell computers with Ubuntu preinstalled. Additionally, in , the Fren Police began to transition their entire computer infrastructure to a variant of Ubuntu—a process whi has reportedly saved them “millions of euros” in licensing fees for Microso Windows. By the year , the Fren Police anticipates that all of their com- puters will be running Ubuntu. Canonical profits from this arrangement by providing tenical support and custom-built soware. While large organizations oen find it useful to pay for support services, For information on Ubuntu Server Edition, Shuleworth has promised that the Ubuntu desktop system will always be and how you can use it in your company, visit http://www.ubuntu.com/business/ free. As of , Ubuntu is installed on nearly % of the world’s computers. server/overview. is equates to millions of users worldwide, and is growing ea year. What is Linux? Ubuntu is built on the foundation of Linux, whi is a member of the Unix family. Unix is one of the oldest types of operating systems and has provided reliability and security in professional applications for almost half a century. Many servers around the world that store data for popular websites (su as YouTube and Google) run some variant of a Unix system. e Linux kernel is best described as the core, or almost the brain, of the operating system. e Linux kernel is the shi manager of the operating system; it is respon- sible for allocating memory and processor time. It can also be thought of as the program whi manages any and all applications on the computer itself. Linux was designed from the ground up with security and hardware com- While modern graphical desktop envi- patibility in mind, and is currently one of the most popular Unix-based op- ronments have generally replaced early command-line interfaces, the command erating systems. One of the benefits of Linux is that it is incredibly flexible line can still be a quick and efficient way and can be configured to run on almost any device—from the smallest micro- of performing many tasks. See Chapter : Advanced Topics for more information, computers and cellphones to larger super-computers. Unix was entirely com- and Chapter : The Ubuntu Desktop to mand line–based until graphical user interfaces (s) began to emerge in the learn more about and other desktop early s. environments. ese early s were difficult to configure and clunky at best, and gen- A desktop environment is a sophisticated erally only used by seasoned computer programmers. In the past decade, and integrated user interface that provides the basis for humans to interact with a however, graphical user interfaces have come a long way in terms of usability, computer using a monitor, keyboard and a reliability, and appearance. Ubuntu is just one of many different Linux dis- mouse. tributions, and uses one of the more popular graphical desktop environments To learn more about Linux distributions, see called . Chapter : Learning More. Is Ubuntu right for you? New users to Ubuntu may find that it takes some time to feel comfortable when trying a new operating system.