How to Do Everything Ubuntu® About the Author Jeffrey Orloff is the director of technology and one of the founding members of Safewave, LLC, where he oversees the IT department and security for the iLAND5.com network for kids. Through his work with Safewave and the iLAND5.com project, he is actively involved with the Safewave Foundation, a not-for-profit organization that helps promote online safety for kids. Jeffrey also has spent over 13 years working with educational technology as a classroom teacher, a technology coordinator with the School District of Palm Beach County, a network administrator for Survivors Charter School, a post-secondary IT instructor for courses including IT security, Windows Server, and GNU/Linux, and as part of an educational software development team. About the Technical Editor Since 1995, and under the cover of darkness, Bill Bruns has been a technical editor, working on more than 125 books relating to operating systems, the Internet, web servers, HTML, and Office applications. In his day job, he is the webmaster for the Student Center at Southern Illinois University Carbondale (www.siucstudentcenter.org). He is also involved with several other not-for-profit organizations as a stalwart volunteer, always being asked to undertake the challenge of webmaster. Over the years, he’s managed all sorts of servers and workstations, and been pleased with the performance of Linux and Ubuntu. Bill holds bachelor’s degrees in Telecommunications and English Literature from Indiana University and a Masters of Public Administration from New York University. Copyright © 2009 by The McGraw-Hill Companies. Click here for terms of use. How to Do Everything Ubuntu® Jeffrey T. 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Under no circumstances shall McGraw-Hill and/or its licensors be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, punitive, consequential or similar damages that result from the use of or inability to use the work, even if any of them has been advised of the possibility of such damages. This limitation of liability shall apply to any claim or cause whatsoever whether such claim or cause arises in contract, tort or otherwise. DOI: 10.1036/0071549366 This book is dedicated to my wife, Jackie, and my two children, Priscilla and Jeffrey. Thank you for the sacrifices you made while I was working on this book. You are what motivates me in everything I do. This page intentionally left blank Contents at a Glance PART I Meet Ubuntu 1 Ubunt-Who? Get to Know Ubuntu . 3 2 Exploring the Ubuntu Desktop . 17 3 Make It Personal—Fine-Tune the Look of Ubuntu to Your Taste . 33 PART II Manage Ubuntu 4 Housekeeping: Update and Maintain Ubuntu . 53 5 Installing Peripherals . 65 6 Beyond the Basics: Install Extra Software . 75 7 Time to Upgrade: Installing New Hardware . 85 8 Keep It Safe—Securing Ubuntu . 93 PART III Open the Door to OpenOffice 9 The Write Stuff . 111 10 Spread It Out with Calc . 125 11 I’m Impressed . 139 12 All Your Base . 149 13 Drawn to Open Source . 163 PART IV Reach Out 14 Share and Share Alike—Networking Ubuntu . 175 15 Can We Talk? Communications and the Internet . 189 16 Master of Your Domain—Web Design Tools . 203 17 Playing Nice with Windows . 215 PART V Having Fun with Ubuntu 18 Fun and Games—Play Games with Ubuntu . 231 19 Play that Funky Music—Making the Most of Multimedia . 245 20 Get Smart! Using Educational Software . 269 vii / How to Do Everything Ubuntu Linux/Orloff/4936-6/Front Matter viii Contents at a Glance PART VI Advanced Ubuntu 21 Coming Out of Your Shell—A Guide to GNU/Linux Shell Commands . 281 22 The Emacs Text Editor . 297 A Install Ubuntu . 307 Index . 321 New HTDE design / How to Do Everything Ubuntu Linux/Orloff/4936-6/Front Matter For more information about this title, click here Contents Acknowledgments . xvii Introduction . xix PART I Meet Ubuntu CHAPTER 1 Ubunt-Who? Get to Know Ubuntu . 3 The Ubuntu Philosophy . 3 GNU, Linux, and the Free Software Movement . 4 The History of GNU/Linux . 6 Enter Ubuntu . 8 I Think, Therefore I Promise… . 9 Ubuntu’s Release Cycle . 10 The Ubuntu Community . 12 Contribute . 12 Help and Information . 13 Community Structure . 13 Ubuntu Emerges . 14 Welcome to the GNU/Linux Community . 16 CHAPTER 2 Exploring the Ubuntu Desktop . 17 Get a Copy of Ubuntu . 17 Download Ubuntu . 18 Burn Your Ubuntu Files . 20 Request an Ubuntu CD . 21 Buy Ubuntu . 22 Run Ubuntu from a Live CD . 23 Start It Up! . 24 A First Look at the Ubuntu Desktop Environment . 26 The Top Bar . 27 The Main Screen . 29 The Bottom of the Screen . 29 Finishing Up with the Live CD . 31 ix / How to Do Everything Ubuntu Linux/Orloff/4936-6/Front Matter x Contents CHAPTER 3 Make It Personal—Fine-Tune the Look of Ubuntu to Your Taste . 33 Change the Desktop Background . 33 Installing New Wallpaper . 36 The GNOME Art Manager . 39 Change a Theme . 41 Install a New Theme . 43 Place Icons on Your Desktop . 44 Setting a New Screensaver . 45 Change the Login Screen . 46 General . ..