I just received my copy of Ubuntu Unleashed 2010 Edition and I am thrilled. Since I am one of the authors, consider this more of an announcement than a review as well as an invitation to take a look and see if the book interests you. This book is intended for intermediate to advanced users, as opposed to my work on The Official Ubuntu Book, which is aimed at being an introduction of Ubuntu to people new to Linux.
Interesting that it reads “10.4” at the bottom right.
Looking good š
Ubuntu Unleashed is definitely worth a buy if you want to get to know Ubuntu a lot better. Had the pleasure of reading Ubuntu Unleashed for 7.04.
Daniel: Argh. I commented that this needed fixing more than once during the process. I will have more control during the next iteration as the Hudson brothers are not going to be involved with the book any longer and I’ll be the primary person responsible (note: I’m not blaming them, this error just slipped through somehow despite attempts to fix it). Hopefully we won’t see a repeat of such a silly mistake.
Martin: thanks for the kind words.
You say you’ll have more control – does this mean that you and Ryan will be writing a lot of it? š
Joe: all of it. I already have the next revision mapped out ready to be (re)written. We expect it to come out next June.
“note: Iām not blaming them, this error just slipped through somehow despite attempts to fix it”
That’s good, because we weren’t involved with this at all – no words, no PDFs, no cover proofing, etc. In fact, the first time we were told the book was even happening was when we were told someone else had already written it š
Still, this is a bit of a silly thing to put on the cover, particularly given the top review for the book on Amazon says that it’s barely updated for Ubuntu 9.10 never mind the twinkle-in-Shuttleworth’s-eyes that is 10.04. I’m not sure how valid that review is, mind you, as Pearson don’t seem to have bothered sending a book out to me as yet.
You – or someone – should be have been sent a PDF proof copy of the cover to approve. You might want to give them a kick about this to make sure it happens for the next version.
I just purchased this on Amazon for delivery tomorrow. I’m not overly concerned about that few bad reviews claiming that it doesn’t really cover the new stuff in 9.10 let alone 10.04 since I’m still early enough along in my Linux/Ubuntu learning curve that I’m confident there will still be a lot of value in the material for me… but I’m wondering if you, the author, have anything to add regarding that notion?
Are the reviewers off-base, or is this book admittedly “not really about the unique new stuff in 9.10/10.04 and more just about general Ubuntu/Linux stuff” (which as I said is fine by me at my level, but makes the title a bit of a misnomer”.
Just curious. Thanks.
BTW, I really love your blog’s design/theme.
First, thank you.
The reviews are sometimes accurate and sometimes overly harsh. I did comment on several of them on Amazon.
What happened was that Ryan Troy and I did a quick update in a very short time to material that existed from the previous edition. We feel the information in the book is good and useful. Much of it is more general to Linux and not as Ubuntu-specific or 9.10/10.04 release specific as we would like. That said, I’m not embarrassed to have my name on the 2010 edition as I still believe it is a very good book, even with the admitted shortcomings that have been pointed out. From what you say above, I think you will find the book useful and (hopefully) enjoyable.
I am in charge of revising the entire book next Fall (and will start in September or so) and have already made plans for substantial improvements for the next release slated to come out in January 2011 to be based on Ubuntu 10.10, which only starts development next week with the Ubuntu Developers’ Summit (which I will attend and participate in). Ryan Troy will be helping with that revision as well.
Cool, thanks for the explanation and candor. I am definitely looking forward to adding this to my growing library of Big Fat Technical Books (just love a nice big programming book).
Cheers.