Alan Pope wrote: > Whilst I appreciate that not everyone likes books in dead-tree form, some > do, so let's focus this on that group of people who do. > > I've been wondering if there's a set of Ubuntu related topics that are not > covered, or not covered well in the current set of books available. > > What would you like out of an Ubuntu book? >
Of all the books I have about Desktop Ubuntu, only one (Keir Thomas, Beginning Ubuntu Linux, Apress) has any detail about how to use Open Office Calc. (This example because I was called upon to make some spreadsheets.) There's too much about operating systems, installation and trouble shooting in most linux books, when what many people want to do I think is actually use the computer to make stuff. This may seem like moving the stress from ubuntu to the likes of Open Office, Gimp etc, but the operating system should, in the normal course of things, be transparent to the (non-hacker) user. Installation is a bit of a weird case, in that either one page will suffice (cd in drive, change bios to boot from cd, start installer, answer questions, make a cup of tea) or a veritable encyclopaedia covering every piece of hardware that's ever been made. I don't think I've ever seen any of the install problems I've had in any book, save for reconfiguring xfree/x.org. With Ubuntu being pre-installed on Dells and others, perhaps a book targeted at those users could skip installation altogether, although a peripheral troubleshooting guide would sadly be necessary. I don't books to cover more than one variant; the result is a lot of unnecessary information for the reader, superficial coverage of the versions not concentrated on, and a squeeze on the space available for the primary version covered. (Other *buntus should be mentioned, but it would be better if they had their own tome.) Really, I think this is an area where POD (Print On Demand) should come into its own; people could order a book tailored to their own needs (e.g. they have a preinstalled Dell; they are using Kubuntu; they are using the desktop not a server; they require a guide to the applications; and so on). And finally, what I would really like to see isn't be about the operating system at all, but about the community. It's really difficult keeping track of all the news, what's happening and where to go to help out / sort a problem. HTH John -- John Levin http://www.technolalia.org/blog/ -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.org/UKTeam/
