Today is the official release date of my newest title -- the Ubuntu Linux Desktop Visual Blueprint. Though April 9 is the "official" date of release, I just got back from Singapore where I saw copies of the book already on display in the bookstores!
The Ubuntu Linux Visual Blueprint covers the Hardy Heron release of the Ubuntu Desktop operating system and goes into a great deal of detail concerning not only the base OS, but also the bundled applications, including Open Office. If you are looking to adopt the Ubuntu Desktop, this book is a nice "how to" -- the "missing manual" if you will.
If you have not looked at the Ubuntu Desktop, but are curious about whether a Linux desktop system is right for you, I would encourage you to download Hardy Heron and check it out. It's quite impressive and for many people would be a perfectly acceptable Windows replacement. Indeed, those of you who are tech-oriented really have no excuse any more. If you're sick of Windows, you now have a viable option.
This title is my second for Wiley's Visual Blueprint Series. The books take a visual, step-by-step approach to the subject and are highly task-oriented. I'm working now on another title for Wiley, this time the Joomla! Bible, which is slated for release in September of this year.
It's been a solid week of writing on the new Joomla! Bible title. I've hit the magic 25% mark this week and am pulling out all the stops in hopes of making the 50% mark around the end of the month. These early chapters are the easiest of the bunch and the ones I am most familiar with. The biggest struggle right now is balancing out the writing with my other responsibilities at water&stone. Maybe there will be a day when I can exclusively write, but that day is not today.
The release date of the Ubuntu Visual Blueprint is getting close -- 19 April. I hope to obtain a sample chapter in PDF format this week. I will post that here and on Scribd to give you a feel for what that book is like.
Ubuntu Linux is fast becoming the "people's Linux" and provides a secure and simple desktop operating system that provides both ease of use and a number of powerful applications for free. Ubuntu Linux: Your visual blueprint to using the Linux operating system provides the essential coverage for end-user productivity. With an emphasis of the preloaded applications that accompany Ubuntu, this book will cover multimedia applications, Web and email applications and a powerful suite of productivity tools that allow you to create documents, spreadsheets and presentations.
Wiley has informed of the release date for my Ubuntu Desktop book -- looks like it will be on the shelves April 19. It's now available from Amazon.
I'm still running the 8.10 release on several machines in the office and we're quite happy with it. Could this be the release that breaks things open for the Linux Desktop? Might well be the case. It's certainly the first Linux desktop distro I am willing to recommend to friends and clients. If you haven't looked at it yet you should.
I've just committed to my next writing project -- a how-to for the new Ubuntu Desktop. The book will be part of Wiley's Visual Blueprint series (the same series I worked on for the Mambo book a couple of years ago.)
The working title is Ubuntu Linux : Your Visual Blueprint to the Linux Operating System. The text targets the new 8.10 series desktop (aka "Intrepid Ibex"), which is now in beta and is slated for final release at the end of October. The publication date of the book has yet to be finalized, but it should be out early '09.
I'm looking forward to this one -- we run Ubuntu servers in our office and we have a couple of desktops running the Hardy Heron release (8.04). This will be a good chance to become more fluent in what looks set to be the dominant flavor of the linux desktop.
