Why read Ubuntu Hacks?

1. If Ubuntu is the entry-level Linux distro, then Ubuntu Hacks is the book that helps the entry-level user take advantage of the great software and tools Linux has to offer.
2. I would have saved myself a lot of effort if I owned this book on the day that I install Ubuntu on my machine.
3. In many ways, Ubuntu Hacks is an introduction to the software available to all Linux users. So, if you are looking for some “real Ubuntu hacks”, you may be disappointed, _{but that is ok; that just means that the title of the book is a bit of a misnomer, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that the books isn’t valuable.}
4. Some subjects (like kernel building) aren’t really examined with much detail and refer users to seek help elsewhere.
5. The command-line based instructions are great for those new to using the terminal. There are quite a few hacks that provide visual instructions only, but Ubuntu Hacks had far less GUI-based instructions than the other Ubuntu books I perused at the bookstore.
6. If you aren’t a techie, but you want to explore Linux and its myriad of software options, Ubuntu Hacks is for you.
7. A lot of the hacks in Ubuntu Hacks you can figure out on your own or find on the internet.
8. Things that I would like to know about Linux/Ubuntu that weren’t addressed in Ubuntu Hacks:
   • File system organization… whys and best practices (i.e. Hack #101 – Get a good visual picture of the linux file system in your head)
   • A brief history of Linux, Debian and Ubuntu (i.e. Hack #102 – How to tell friends & family about Ubuntu in a non-freakish way)

I have discovered that mac ipods (those that have been restored to factory settings on a mac) are read by Ubuntu as read-only, which means you can’t change the music on a mac ipod from a Ubuntu machine [1]. Alternatively, windows ipods (those restored on a windows machine) are read/writable, which means you can upload new music to that ipod.

I figured this out after reading the ipod linux (a version of linux that runs on your ipod) installlation instructions. ipod linux requires that the ipod you want to install ipod linux on is a windows ipod. Since we don’t have a working windows machine at my house, I used a windows machine my husband brought home from work and restored the ipod to its factory settings on it. Thinking that the reason that ipod linux requires that windows ipods be used, I plugged my ipod up to my linux machine and tada, it wasn’t read-only!

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1: I didn’t think about this until later, but I am guessing that I could have changed the device’s permissions using sudo. I thought I had tried that, but I guess I didn’t do it correctly.

mouseHole is a personal proxy server written in ruby, allowing you to…

rewrite the web as you view it, altering content and behavior as you browse. Basically, it’s an alternative to Greasemonkey, which does similar things from inside the Firefox web browser.

To get mouseHole up and running, first install the required gems (json and sqlite3) if you don’t already have them installed. I encountered the following issues while installing those gems…

Installing json

lib/json/editor.rb:977:50: ’:’ not followed by identified or operator

The solution is to remove the colon from line 977.

Installing sqlite3

The command for installing the sqlite3 gem is gem install sqlite3-ruby and not gem install sqlite3.

Lastly, if you are running Debian or Ubuntu, visit http://localhost:3704 instead of http://127.0.0.1:3704 after starting mouseHole.

Ok, so not all of these so-called features are particular to Ubuntu (most are Gnome features), but having switched from XP, these are the little things that I am enjoying about running Ubuntu on my machine:

Rollover Music: Place mouse over mp3 file icon and the file begins to play… magically!

All of the Programs that are easy to install & free: Synaptic Package Manager or sudo apt-get are simple and straight forward. Installing new software doesn’t mean a two day detour for a newbie like myself, as it might with another linux distribution. My favorites are Gimp (which runs better on linux than XP), Vi, OpenOffice Math and Text Editor (with tabbed browsing). And there are more out there to try!

File Preview: Previewing files in Ubuntu is much easier than in XP. Text, PowerPoint and pdf file icons show you what the first couple of lines or first slide or first page.

Yep that’s it.

Anyone have any other cool Ubuntu-isms?

UPDATED: Oh, yeah I forgot because it is so intuitive… breadcrumb file navigation. In the file explorer, your location is listed and each folder name in the list is a link to that folder. Very nice.

My HP desktop was fried and so I replaced it with a linux box from walmart.com. It came with Linspire installed, but I immediately put Ubuntu on it… just to see what all of the hype was about.

My Ubuntu Newbie Links

• List of software you love on Windows/Mac that have equivalent versions in linux: here
• Ubuntu Dapper Drake wiki: here
• An Ubuntu Blog
• Install ruby: gems or non-gems