Getting Started withUbuntu 12.04 Second Edition 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 downloaded for free from http:// ubuntu-manual.org/ or purchased from http://ubuntu-manual.org/buy/ gswue/en_US. A printed copy of this book can be ordered for the price of printing and delivery. We permit and even encourage you to dis- tribute a copy of this book to colleagues, friends, family, and anyone else who might be interested. http://ubuntu-manual.org Second Edition 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 Trying out Ubuntu Installing Ubuntu—Geing started Finishing Installation Ubuntu installer for Windows e Ubuntu Desktop Understanding the Ubuntu desktop Unity Using Launcher e Dash Workspaces Managing windows Browsing files on your computer Nautilus file manager Searching for files and folders on your computer Customizing your desktop Accessibility Session options Geing help Working with Ubuntu All the applications you need Geing online Browsing the web Reading and composing email Using instant messaging Microblogging Viewing and editing photos Watching videos and movies Listening to audio and music Burning CDs and DVDs Working with documents, spreadsheets, and presentations Ubuntu One Hardware Using your devices Hardware identification . Displays Connecting and using your printer Sound Using a webcam Scanning text and images Other devices Soware Management Soware management in Ubuntu Using the Ubuntu Soware Center Managing additional soware 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 Choosing amongst Ubuntu and its derivatives Finding additional help and support e Ubuntu community Contributing A License Creative Commons Aribution–ShareAlike . Legal Code Creative Commons Notice Glossary Credits 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 (such as installation and work- ing with the desktop) as well as hardware and soware management, work- ing with the command line, and security. We designed this guide to be simple to follow, with step-by-step instructions and plenty of screenshots, allowing you to discover the potential of your new Ubuntu system. Please bear in mind that this guide is still very much a work in progress and always will be. It is wrien specifically for Ubuntu . , and LTS is an abbreviation for “Long Term Support.” although we have aimed to not limit our instructions to this version, A new LTS version is released every 2 years. Starting with Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, both the it is unavoidable that some things will change over the life of Ubuntu. Desktop version and the Server version will Whenever a new version of Ubuntu is released, we will incorporate up- have five years support, meaning you get free dates and changes into our guide, and make a new version available at security updates for at least five years. http://www.ubuntu-manual.org. Geing Started with Ubuntu . is not intended to be a comprehensive Ubuntu instruction manual. It is more like a quick-start guide that will get you doing the things you need to do with your computer quickly and easily, without geing bogged down with technical details. As with prior versions, Ubuntu . incorporates many new features, including enhancements to the Unity shell and . More about the Unity shell and what it means, HUD is an abbreviation for heads-up display. and the , can be found in Chapter : e Ubuntu Desktop. It is a new concept, integrated into Unity as of Unity 5.2; it is still in development. For more detailed information on using Unity and the Ubuntu desk- top, see the “Ubuntu Desktop Guide,” which can be obtained in any of the following ways: ‣ in the Dash, type yelp; ‣ in the desktop menubar, click Help ‣ Ubuntu Help; ‣ go to https://help.ubuntu.com, Ubuntu . ‣ Ubuntu Desktop Help. e Internet is also an excellent resource. For example, on https://help. ubuntu.com you will find documentation on installing and using Ubuntu, and at the Ubuntu Forums, http://ubuntuforums.org, and Ask Ubuntu, http://askubuntu.com, you find answers to many Ubuntu related questions. More information about Ubuntu’s online If something isn’t covered in this manual, chances are you will find the and system documentation can be found in Chapter 8: Learning More. information 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 People sometimes wonder how to pronounce connecting with others—living in a global community where your actions Ubuntu. Each “u” is pronounced the same as in the word put. 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 charge, along with its regular enterprise releases and security updates. ‣ Ubuntu comes with full commercial support from Canonical and hun- dreds 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 financial the power of Linux and open source, but was also aware of weaknesses that and technical support for Ubuntu. It has employees based around the world who work prevented mainstream use. on developing and improving the operating Shuleworth set out with clear intentions to address these weaknesses system, as well as reviewing work submitted by and create a system that was easy to use, completely free (see Chapter : volunteer contributors. To learn more about Canonical, go to http://www.canonical.com. Learning More for the complete definition of “free”), and could compete with other mainstream operating systems. With the Debian system as a base, Shuleworth began to build Ubuntu. Using his own funds at first, Debian is the Linux operating system that installation s were pressed and shipped worldwide at no cost to the Ubuntu is based upon. For more information visit http://www.debian.org/. recipients. Ubuntu spread quickly, its community rapidly grew, and soon Ubuntu became the most popular Linux distribution available. With more people working on the project than ever before, its core fea- tures and hardware support continue to improve. Ubuntu has gained the aention of large organizations worldwide. One of IBM’s open source op- erating systems is based on Ubuntu. In , the French Police began to transition their entire computer infrastructure to a variant of Ubuntu—a process which has reportedly saved them “millions of euros” in licensing fees for Microso Windows. By the end of , the French Police antici- pates that all of their computers will be running Ubuntu. Canonical profits from this arrangement by providing technical support and custom-built soware. While large organizations oen find it useful to pay for support services, For information on Ubuntu Server Edition, and Shuleworth has promised that the Ubuntu desktop system will always how you can use it in your company, visit http:// www.ubuntu.com/business/server/overview. be free. As of , Ubuntu is installed on an estimated % of the world’s computers. is equates to tens of millions of users worldwide, and is growing each year. As there is no compulsory registration, the percentage of Ubuntu users should be treated as an estimate. What is Linux? Ubuntu is built on the foundation of Linux, which is a member of the Unix family. Unix is one of the oldest types of operating systems and has pro- vided reliability and security in professional applications for almost half a century. Many servers around the world that store data for popular web- sites (such 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 controller of the operating system; it is responsi- ble for allocating memory and processor time. It can also be thought of as the program which manages any and all applications on the computer itself. Linux was designed from the ground up with security and hardware While modern graphical desktop environments compatibility in mind, and is currently one of the most popular Unix-based have generally replaced early command-line interfaces, the command line can still be a operating systems. One of the benefits of Linux is that it is incredibly flex- quick and efficient way of performing many ible and can be configured to run on almost any device—from the smallest tasks.