The Incredible Guide to NEW Ubuntu Karmic Koala [PDF]
There are a lot of people still stuck with Windows because it’s the ‘easier alternative’. Linux is both cheaper and more versatile than Microsoft’s operating system, but the learning curve has frightened off many people.
In the past we published A Newbie’s Getting Started Guide to Linux, aimed at the making you familiar with the most basic Linux principles.
With the release of a new Ubuntu (Linux for human beings) distribution, Karmic Koala, we felt it was time to go back to the roots and beyond.
We teamed up with Guvnr.com to create the Ubuntu Karmic Koala Bible – a guide that’s both great for Linux initiates, and invariably useful for Linux intermediates. With over fifty pages of copy-paste tutorials, this guide belongs in the virtual library of every Linux user!
We’ll walk you through the installation process, meanwhile shedding some extra light on the partitioning process. Don’t know the value of a SWAP partition? Don’t worry, you will.
The guide is aimed, not only familiarizing you, but on making your Linux experience easier in general. Learn how to define command aliases, making the Command Line Shell easy to use!
Don’t waste any time, download the Ubuntu Karmic Koala Bible now in PDF.
(By) Simon is a student and tech enthusiast from Belgium. On MakeUseOf, he's one of the staff writers. Check Simon out @ http://meme.yahoo.com/slangen/
Thank you very much! Great guide! Thanks again!
(Comments wont nest below this level)hey folks ..
er, Olly Connelly here, author of this guide, (aka the_guv at guvnr.com) ..
hope you like this. or if not that you tell me why. no excuse not to bin Windows now!
please, do me a favor ..
any errors you see, else anything you think is missing, let me know and I’ll be sure to amend for the next Ubuntu Bible edition.
you can reach me at ..
karmic AT guvnr DOT com.
(and a big cheers to the guys at MakeUseOf for making this such a hit.)
Just an interesting thought. I believe you are mistaken when you refer to any GNU/Linux OS as cheap. Take a moment to think about how many man hours go into the development and proactive support of an amazing GNU/Linux OS like Ubuntu. After you take a moment to ponder my point I think you will come to the same conclusion that I have.
GNU/Linux is priceless much like the hope diamond and the Mona Lisa.
(Comments wont nest below this level)I agree with you Landy, cheap is not the right word for Linux (Ubuntu 9.04 in my case).
Dispensed freely to users – would a better term.
It is something that MS users have difficulty comprehending .
Linux is amazing!
(Comments wont nest below this level)Man, this guide is precious! Good work!
(Comments wont nest below this level)This is fantastic. Thank you.
(Comments wont nest below this level)Graphical apps being run with admin rights should be run with “gksudo” rather than just “sudo”.
Otherwise…good job!
(Comments wont nest below this level)cheers pops .. point taken
Not suitable for newbies. Too much command line, .bashrc is not interesting for them. Even for me, though I’ve been using Ubuntu since Hardy. I simply don’t use the command line.
The guide is not high-quality and mostly not about Karmic Koala. The only screenshot from Karmic is the Software Center. Was is that difficult to take those few screenshots used in the guide in Karmic? Do you actually use those apps and Karmic itself?
Did you know that Karmic doesn’t use system beep and the part “Kill the system beep” is simply irrelevant? Should I also say that the author recommends unchecking a non-existing checkbox “Play alert sound” in Karmic’s Sound Preferences? There are other mistakes in the guide found in those command-line commands (read comments for this post on Digg)
This guide should be called “How I use my Ubuntu Jaunty”, because not only the guide is about Karmic, but it’s just a description of author’s preferences, not suitable for everyone. The guide is full of “I like”, “I don’t like”, and is just a description of author’s setup. Normally, guides should be more generic and have less personal opinions.
The guide will be useful for some people who, just like the author, like using command line. Others will simply be scared, and we’ll get another army of commenters saying that “Linux is too techy for us”.
I think it’s time for some Ubuntu users to become more GUI-friendly, because of such “guides” most Canonical’s attempts to promote Ubuntu are lost.
Just like that “Newbies Guide”, it’s a low-quality guide. It’s good that it exists, but we shouldn’t close our eyes on big mistakes just because the guide describes our favorite operating system.
(Comments wont nest below this level)if you don’t like using the command line in linux, i feel sorry for you. the command line is the most powerful thing that exists, and sometimes you simply can’t use a box with linux without touching the command line.
remember, sometimes a GUI isn’t even needed, and if you’re stuck on something like that you can use other OS, like Windows.
everything else you say is just your opinion too.
I don’t need your “sorry”, and I can use a Linux box without touching a command line. I actually use 2 Ubuntu boxes, installed and configured from scratch without touching a command line.
My comment has both my opinion and reality (description of this guide’s mistakes). If you can’t distinguish an opinion and reality I feel sorry for YOU.
You really should get to grips with the terminal. It’s the most powerful thing there. You won’t look back once you start using it.
Your right, we havent looked back sence windows 3.1. You freetards realy havent a clue what the public wants or needs. 17 plus years and still less then 2% market share proves that.
Windows 7 ultimate 64 bit smokes anything OSS copys from others hard work.
“copys ” (sic) ” from others ” (double sic) ” hard work”?
That’s real cute. Any idea where microsoft got its TCP/IP stack (you know, the thing that lets a windows computer talk to other computers on the internet?) for windows 95/98/ME (and 2000/XP, iirc)?
Yeah, from the freetards.
And we only know about this because the someone neglected to remove the BSD license from the http://ftp.exe executable. Care to guess how much ‘freetard-written’ code props up other parts of windows?
.bashrc not interesting for newbies? When I first went through the material (as someone who himself remembers the trouble of making the switch), this was the thing that stood out for me. I remember thinking, “if only I’d known!”.
It allows people to define their own command line aliases, thereby making the shell – perhaps if not ‘easy’ – at least bearable to use for newbies.
And this is something your must realize. The biggest wonders of all happen in the terminal.
Although I respect your opinion, I don’t see how we can make a good Linux guide in your eyes. Our first one detailed the GUI aspects and tried to familiarize newbies to the interface. The second – perhaps as a response to the comments – counts on users to experiment with the interface and supplies them with tips and tricks to make their Linux experience easier in general. Tips and tricks that apply to all Linux users, I might add. Although we encourage adding a measure of character to the writing, I think calling the content opinionated is misplaced.
With my defense above me, I’d like to hear from you – how would you approach the subject? What matters would receive your attention in writing a guide as this. And please, anyone should feel free to answer. We’re not as narrow-minded as you might think.
Haha, well said. I think he just likes being annoying. Or maybe, somehow, because he’s never used the terminal, he thinks he’s some kind of GNU/Linux-based God, when in fact, he is the opposite.
the first step to a great guide would be to get rid of so many mistakes already found by readers. In your answer to me you didn’t explain how this could happen that in a guide about Karmic you refer to non-existing UI elements, for example (see my previous comment). Read other comments, readers find mistakes in your guide.
the second step to a great guide would be to improve it’s overall quality, this means, for example, that screenshots must be taken on Karmic (not Jaunty, not Hardy, just because your guide is about Karmic), and must be taken by the author, not found elsewhere in Google Images having different window styles.
And note, that screenshots is just my EXAMPLE on how you avoid working on quality, this means that you need to do MORE to ensure overall quality of the guide.
the third step to a great guide is to make it suitable for newbies, starting from simple things and following to more advanced. Not the other way, like in your guide. This also requires some structural changes, so that newbies would not be overwhelmed by the amount of information, let first chapters be about UI to make migration to Ubuntu easier, and then tell readers about more advanced things.
the fourth step to a great guide is to give people enough information on how to use the system. This means that after reading the guide people must be able to do their daily tasks with the system. This fourth step is not done right in that previous “Newbie’s guide”, meaning that that guide does not contain all the information necessary for typical user’s daily tasks. By the way, this new guide calls itself a “Bible” but has very limited scope.
the fifth step to a great guide is to make it less personal. “How I use my Jaunty, what I like and dislike” is suitable for your personal blog, but not for a guide called “Karmic Bible”. I’m sure that Ubuntu developers know much better than you about an average user, so your “I like to have this default setting changed to …” is only your personal opinion, in many cases redundant for a proper guide.
In general, real-world technical journalism requires much more than you do. It takes some efforts to jump from the quality of a personal blog post to writing a “Bible”. Good luck with your next guide.
I agree with points one and two. For the record, the screenshots were my fault, and not Olly Connelly’s. I added a few of them last-minute and – true – not all from KK. For the majority of screenshots however, it doesn’t really matter. The goal is to give the reader something visual, something they can grasp – and honestly, most people could care less about the window styles. Those that do pose problems will of course be replaced in future document revisions.
In short, everything you say is true, but most of the claims you make are minor, or otherwise irrelevant.
More attention to the GUI on the other hand might’ve done good to the guide. Some of the more basic stuff has indeed been disregarded to be able to look beyond it. Although the basic interface of Ubuntu is pretty straight-forward (e.g. contrary to Windows, they even have their applications categorized), I agree with your points 3 and 4. More attention might’ve benefited Linux novices as well as the guide in general.
Last but not least, the fifth step. -What?
The ‘personal’ preferences referred to in the guide aren’t items that ‘could’ve’ been included by the Ubuntu devs. Mounting your partitions permanently is something everyone can profit from, but needs to be done manually. Creating command line aliases is not something that can be done by someone else – that’s the whole point of it. Additional software repositories might’ve been included in the release, but does Microsoft provide you with links to software directories? No – because it’s not expected from them, but that doesn’t mean it’s unnecessary.
The only ‘personal’ items in the guide are – apart from the style of writing – the copy-paste lists of command aliases and software repositories. But you might’ve noticed that those were suggestions. If people want to blatantly reuse them, fine – but most of all, they show the reader what’s possible. And is that so wrong?
Just wanted to say, even though it might not always seem like it, I appreciate your comments. I might not agree with all of them, but that’s the whole point of listening to others. We grow through criticism, after all.
As for the fifth step, I actually meant something different. For example, recommendation to “uncheck Ask before emptying the Trash or deleting files” is suitable for the author, but not for everyone. I also meant sentences like “I for one like pretty .. but generally I prefer speed!” using which the guide talks about Software Center. And yes, I meant the style of writing too.
@Dim .. you throw up some interesting points. Else you are missing the point? For sure, I have not put my point across!
The bottom line is that Linux offers the PC user the opportunity to be far more efficient with their time, after the initial learning curve. (Not that there isn’t a learning curve with Windows. It’s easy to forget that.)
Ubuntu, increasingly with each new release, is more user-friendly, to the point that you do not need to use the terminal. But ..
To use the terminal/shell/command line/whetever you wanna call it, it to embrace the power of Linux, while also having GUI options to fall back to. If you like, Ubuntu gives you the “third way”, a middle ground where you can have your cake and chew off what you like.
But look at it like this: you compute for however many hours a day, however many days a week, per month and over however many years. A little up-front knowledge of the terminal will save much time and enhance efficiency over the long haul. (Indeed, just give it a few weeks.)
.. so this guide, which is also very much directed at intermediate users, simply strives to encourage that.
Then again, in retrospect, I agree, this guide should have more GUI-options, even if it points out the time wasted, long-term, in using them.
Otherwise, those errors are noted for the next edition. Thank you.
@Stan .. might I just point out that if it wasn’t for us “freetards”, and the Mac community, you’d be paying double for that sorry excuse of an OS more commonly referred to as Windows. (Doubtless bundled with double the vulnerabilities too, er, as well as Internotquite Explorer).
Might I humbly recommend a Google search for keywords like “opensource” and, conversely, “cartel”.
Truth is, like many, I got my computing heads-up With Windows, and was grateful. Then again, I ended up outgrowing Sesame Street too (more reluctantly).
Excelent Guide…
(Comments wont nest below this level)Is there a project to traslate to Spanish??
Graphical apps being run with admin rights should be run with “gksudo” rather than just “sudo”.
Otherwise…good job!!
(Comments wont nest below this level)thanks
(Comments wont nest below this level)good job
that all need to use ubuntu
Thanks. Honourable work.
(Comments wont nest below this level)Some useful advise in this one. I wish it solved my network manager problem. Basicaly, the only problem I am having with ubuntu karmic is the badly working network manager and no matter how many times I’ve filed bugs, nobody seems to care.
(Comments wont nest below this level)hey Louigi ..
well, I’d hazard a guess noone is responding cos this q has been answered so many times already, at least a ubuntuforums
sudo aptitude install wicd
.. installs wicd, a better quality replacement to network manager, and removes NM.
.. generally solves problems.
you can always swap back easily enough if you want to.
NM is pretty poor. lots of people with no wireless on a new Karmic install, for instance. this should sort that.
.. er, if you followed my Bible and copied the .bashrc aliases, then to install something, like wicd, just type ..
install wicd
which I gotta say is a darn sight easier than using some GUI! Viva el Terminal.
Is there any way we could charge for printing……I know a lot of people could use these……..
(Comments wont nest below this level)Great guide, and don’t buy that crap about newbies being afraid of the command line. I recently found freedom by switching from Win XP to Linux Mint 8 Helena (derived from Karmic) because of a good review on MakeUseOf. If you want to be productive and compute like the big boys, you have to learn how to use the terminal. It’s not so different from the Windows command line, except for being useful and much more powerful. I don’t hate Windows, I still have my XP box. It just seems so outdated now that I’m addicted to Mint.
(Comments wont nest below this level)Anyway, your suggestions are useful to most users, who switched to Linux to gain speed and lose some of the useless clutter. Newbies aren’t stupid, we are simply new. Thanks for the Guide.
I’m on Ubuntu 8.10, Intrepid Ibex, but I’ve dowloaded and burned Linux Mint Helena, tried the LiveCD and man, what a beautiful and impressive distribution. So I believe I’ll install Helena along with Karmic on the new HDD I plan of buying soon to replace my old one.
Wow, I feel like i came with one hand down my pants with the comment i am gonna say. Some peoples responses are like novels, all I want to say is Karmic rocks!
(Comments wont nest below this level)I have about 9 books on Ubuntu and this for me is one of the most usefulone so far.
(Comments wont nest below this level)Thank you for providing an informative if cutesy guide, it is a far easier read for me than most of the dry technical manuals that I have read in the past and inevitably have put me to sleep. You have a few grammatical errors, however, your guide is neatly organised and well thought out in the steps of how to install, customise and secure your system. I also enjoyed the .bashrc information you provided because while I’m not a true “newbie” I am less familiar with that aspect of linux. So in summation, good job.
(Comments wont nest below this level)A very good guide that I used to go through installing Kamic.
My first go at partitioning , and it all went well.
A pity I could not connect to the Internet after , no matter what I did, so regretfully I have gone back to 8.10.
(Comments wont nest below this level)tx y’all for kind comments. real pleased this guide’s been helpful, and especially pleased with those encouraging comments about using the terminal. for me, Linux is all about shortcuts, and the command line makes that possible – and easy – if you use the bashrc file to create some memorable command aliases, or shortcuts .. that’s my tip.
@elderlybloke .. sorry to hear that. networking can be an achiles’ heel with Ubuntu. did you not even have an ethernet connection? generally the wifi will kick in after the initial system upgrade (sudo aptitude update .. sudo aptitude upgrade).
.. alternatively, you may have better luck with Mint.
@Pat/Jean .. too right about Mint. Personally, I prefer Karmic cos I prefer the menu layout to that of Mint’s Helena (Mint is Ubuntu with medibuntu and prettier, no?!) but otherwise they’re equally configurable, that I can see .. but it strikes me Mint is the ideal entry-level Linux OS, a great Windows swap.
(Comments wont nest below this level)Hello guv,
Thanks for your feedback.
I have an ethernet connection that has workded
well with 8.10 and with everything I have used in the past 8 years.
Will leave things as they are for a while and now have my Home directory in its own partition.
This was the first time I had a guide to partitioning that I had confidence in .
(Comments wont nest below this level)Most Geeks lack the ability to convey their knowledge to lesser
mortals.
best of luck with the setup then, Elderlybloke.
“Most Geeks lack the ability to convey their knowledge to lesser
mortals.”
.. demystifying complexities is so much my thing, and I am really chuffed to get a comment like that. Thank you.
(Truth is tho, I ain’t bright enough to call myself a geek
)
Dim is absolutely right in all of his comments. Who is the intended audience for this guide? If it’s for windows users, you need to learn how to talk to them. Don’t lecture them on what’s good for them. Don’t show off your neat hack which they won’t need to use when they’re learning. Indeed, don’t show off at all because it creates the impression that you need to be special to use Linux.
(Comments wont nest below this level)Thanks a lot!
(Comments wont nest below this level)I write this from 9.10 installed, and
I found some reeeealy cool tips and powerful uses.
Keep up thegoodwork!
Stan
“Your right, we havent looked back sence windows 3.1. You freetards realy havent a clue what the public wants or needs. 17 plus years and still less then 2% market share proves that.
Windows 7 ultimate 64 bit smokes anything OSS copys from others hard work.”
400,000 Windows viruses and 4 for Linux. Stan, you’ll understand someday soon about why “people in the know” are using Linux. I’m a brand new Linux user myself, and I’m so glad I took just a few days to learn and use Linux. I was sick of having to redo my crashed Windows machines every 3 months for the past 15 years. The last Windows virus I got installed itself as a rootkit and was examining my password protected storage. Took me five 20 hour days of research, running tons of anti-virus, anti-malware, and anti-rootkits, running hidden services revealers, system service stoppers, anti-homepage hijackers, hidden registry cleaners, LDS fixers, System file checkers, Windows repair installs, to get the machine disinfected. Enough Windows for me Stan. My files, my passwords, my time, my money, and my identity are too precious to lose via this retarded Windows OS. Stan, someday you’ll be using Linux too.
(Comments wont nest below this level)What is it with some people? I’ve been running windows since back in the 3.0 days when it was the ABSOLUTE COOLEST thing on the block, period. Most recently, I’ve run XP for many many years and still do (no VISTA for me). I’ve had maybe one or two malware incidents. And none in recent years. How BAD do you have to be to have a major problem every 3 months??? That’s either not true, or you’re downloading illegal cracked software with trojans attached, or you should be NOWHERE near a computer!
I love Ubuntu (except Karmic – it’s got too many issues for too many people).
1) The absolute BEST way for Windows users to use Ununtu is WUBI. End of story. Could not be easier, but makes some Linux die hards upset like it’s a crime against nature or something. I don’t care what some linux die hards think, WUBI gives a fast Ubuntu install in like 10 minutes with ZERO hard disk configuration issues. And the fact is the majority of everyday users SHOULD have a Windows dual boot install anyway for numerous reasons – yeah, I said it! And on the chance that the user decides in 6 months to make Ubuntu their primary OS, then they will know a lot of the basics of Linux and can tackle doing a real install of Ubuntu in a partition. In fact, that would be a useful guide…how to move your files from a wubi install to a new installation. I saw at least one blog how-to write up about that and it was pretty good.
But here’s what I think about the guide…assuming you want to reach as large an audience as possible.
2) This guide – I agree with the comments saying “who is the intended audience”. I applaud your serious efforts, but the document needs some major cleaning up. The comment about your hacks being misplaced in such a doc are completely true. The use of the word “noob” is a huge mistake and very unprofessional. It does not flow well in many parts. Proxy server aliases? Come on – this isn’t an email to your friends. I only say this so you can take the guide and make it that much better.
3) Forget the linux users saying it’s great. Give the guide to windows users and see what they do on their own – no coaching from you or anybody else. That will get the feedback you need – and no, it should not just be young techie males in the focus group…unless that’s your intended audience?
4) Given that Ubuntu releases twice a year, try to isolate out the generic parts from the release specific parts. If you have it all mixed together, updating this is going to get old fast and you’ll stop working on it as other things take up your time.
5) The CLI versus GUI arguing has been going on since the 80’s (at least) – I was there, I know. Do you know what the “hardcore techs” said back thsn…”Real men use DOS”. We see by market share who won that battle. Most Linux people need to be VERY careful when they talk about the command line in some silly “religious” kind of way because they sound just as ridiculous and hard headed as the “real men use dos” guys back in the day. Yes, the command line is powerful. Yes, it’s a tremendous asset. Yes, every Linux user should learn it. And Yes, Linux will NEVER move out of the tiny desktop market share (US) unless it eliminates the NEED to ever use it. The Web is one of the greatest sucess stories of our time – and it would never be where it is without the gui presentation. NOBODY is running Lynx to surf the web. Nobody. The masses want point and click, not arcane invocations. The guide has to understand that.
6) Be careful of the “linux geek” syndrome. The people that want Linux to be the same as it was in 15 years ago, as if in some special club, are the ones that have doomed it to such a small desktop market share. Technically sound does not have to mean difficult or cryptic. That’s why, even with the Vista failure, Windows 7 will still be on infinitely more desktops than Linux (US). It’s why Ubuntu is crushing the other distros on the desktop and you STILL have other distro people putting it down as “just a pretty face” instead of changing. The guides goals should be “idiot proof” and “ease”. Anything else in your guide weakens its effectiveness.
It took 66 days to create the above comment. Must have been made using Vista;)
(Comments wont nest below this level)