Starting out

This publishing will be based on the /Examples/book/ubuntubook-ch3-html/UsingUbuntuontheDesktop.html. Not all of the articles are relevant to my work at this point in time and many are very straight forward so will therefore not be covered at this stage.

My Ubuntu system was setup at work with the guidance of my boss Ashley and assistance of my colleague Warwick. On the first day when the system was installed we had to download various packages, which included:

FTP

Bind

Apache

Sun

Samba

MySql5

php5

Perl

Python

Bluefish

Nvu

Some of the applications we installed using Synaptic while other was installed through command line; not sure which ones were done with what. The only reason we did things through command is that we have to get familiar with using it. Using Synaptic package manager makes life allot easier for a person like me with little experience in Linux.

For now if you are following this "Learning Ubuntu" it does not make much difference if you don’t have the above packages installed yet. I will be running through the help files provided.

The Official Ubuntu Book:

My fist readings will be done from The Official Ubuntu Book. This can

be located in Places/Home Folder/Examples/book-toc.html

Once you have opened book-toc.html there are 3 options:

"Using Ubuntu on the Desktop"

"Support and Typical Problems"

"Using Kubuntu"

Using Ubuntu on the Desktop:

1) Find Your Files and Folders:

When using your computer you often need to save and open files

and folders, move them around, and perform other tasks. The Places

menu contains a bunch of entries to access different parts of you

computer and the network. These include:

* Home Folder: Most important folder, same as My Documents. Each user

has own one, most saved things end up here.

* Desktop: The desktop folder is inside your home folder, displays icons that

are on your desktop.

* Computer: Same as My Computer.

* Network Servers: Displays servers that are accessible from your Local network

Same as Network Neighbourhood

* Connect to Server: Create a connection to a network server. Can add icon to

Desktop, when clicked, provides a list of remote files in the desktop file

Manager. You can then treat this window like any other file manager window

and drag files back and forth. This is really useful for copying files to other computers.

* Search for Files: Use this to search for files on your computer.

* Recent Documents: Click this submenu to display the most recently used documents.

2) Configure Your System:

The third and final menu, System, is used to configure the system and customize

your desktop. Inside the menu are two submenus.

* Preferences: Contains items for customizing the look and feel of your (user's) desktop.

* Administration: Configure system wide settings such as networking, users, printing, and more.

To use these menu items you need to know the system administrator password

--> Which is the first user created on the system.

3) Task Bar:

Quick Tip: You can switch between multiple applications in Ubuntu just like in Windows

by pressing Alt-Tab. When you press this key combination, a small window appears that

can be used to switch between active applications.

On the bottom right of the task bar you will notice four cells. Each one of these is

a new desktop which can run its own applications. Moving applications between virtual

desktops-if you have an application on the first desktop, just right-click the brown

window or the taskbar entry, select Move to Another Workspace, and pick the relevant

workspace number. The menu also has Move to Workspace Left and Move to Workspace Right options, too. This makes moving applications between your workspaces quite simple.

4) Creating Documents with OpenOffice.org:

I dont want to spend time on this at the moment as it is almost the same as MS Word

which is just something that you play around with when you need something done.

Here are a couple of useful bits to get started with:

reads and writes Microsoft Office file formats.

Export documents as Web pages, PDF files, and Macromedia Flash animations.

Uses an open file format that is publicly documented. this is to get around

vendor lock-in.( only a specific program can open a specific document)

I.e. MS Word will be able to open these files.

5) Create Graphics with the GIMP:

Not for now...

I have to push myself to find the artist within...

ERROR!

Artist not found...

6) How Linux Stores and Organizes Files

Folder and Directories

When reading about file management, don't get confused by the terms "folders" and "directories"-both words describe the same thing.

In the Windows world each disk drive is labelled with an identifying letter such as C: for your hard disk and a: for the floppy drive. In the Linux world, however, everything is part of the same file system organization. As such, if you have two or three hard disks, a CD drive, and USB stick all plugged in, they will all be part of the same folder structure.


PIC

Right at the top of the tree is the root folder, referred to as /. Inside this folder there are a number of special system folders, each with a specific use. As an example, the /home folder contains a number of home directories for each user on the system. As such, the jono user account has the home folder set to /home/jono.

What folder does what

FOLDER	USE
/boot	Contains important files to boot the computer including the bootloader configuration and the kernel.
/dev	Each device on your system (such as sound cards, Webcams etc) has an entry in this folder. Each application accesses the device by using the relevant items inside /dev.
/etc	Systemwide configuration files for the software installed on your system are stored here.
/home	Each user account on the system has a home directory, and they are stored here.
/lib	Important system software libraries are stored here. You should never need to delve into this world of the unknown.
/media	Media devices such as CD drives and USB sticks are referenced here when they are plugged in. More on this later.
/mnt	Other devices can be mounted later. Again, more on this later.
/opt	Optional software can be installed here. This folder is usually used when you want to build you own software. If you don't build your own software, you ignore this folder.
/proc /sys	Information about current running status of the system is stored here.
/root	This is the home directory for the main superuser.
/sbin	Software that should only be run by the superuser is stored here.
/usr	General software is installed here.
/var	This folder contains log files about the software on your computer.

Viewing hidden files and folders:

click VIEW--> Show Hidden Folders

Note: This is something that i came across when I accidentally deleted a couple files off the desktop. Firstly I couldn’t find a Trash on the desktop to restore the files and secondly I couldn’t use the CTRL-Z to undo the delete. To find the files that have been deleted got the home folder, then click VIEW--> Show Hidden Folders, there you will find a Trash folder

with the deleted items in it.