Translations by dvx

<emphasis role="bold">Getting Started</emphasis> - An introduction to the world of Ubuntu and some basic concepts which are useful when getting started.

<emphasis role="bold">Common Tasks</emphasis> - Performing common tasks on Ubuntu, including playing music and video, using the internet, office and graphics programs and more.

You can buy this guide in book form from <ulink url="http://www.lulu.com/ubuntu-doc">our Lulu store</ulink>. You will only pay for the price of printing and postage.

A warning advises the reader of a hazard that may arise in a given scenario.

Cross-reference conventions for print will be displayed as follows:

Links to other documents or websites will look like <ulink url="http://www.ubuntu.com">this</ulink>.

PDF, HTML, and XHTML versions of this document will use hyperlinks to handle cross-referencing.

Type conventions will be displayed as follows:

A sequence of menu selections will be displayed as follows: <menuchoice><guimenu><accel>F</accel>ile </guimenu><guimenuitem><accel>O</accel>pen </guimenuitem></menuchoice>

Mouse actions shall assume a right-handed mouse configuration. The terms <quote><mousebutton>click</mousebutton></quote> and <quote><mousebutton>double-click</mousebutton></quote> refer to using the left mouse button. The term <quote><mousebutton>right-click</mousebutton></quote> refers to using the right mouse button. The term <quote><mousebutton>middle-click</mousebutton></quote> refers to using the middle mouse button, pressing down on the scroll wheel, or pressing both the left and right buttons simultaneously, based on the design of your mouse.

Keyboard shortcut combinations will be displayed as follows: <keycombo><keycap>Ctrl</keycap><keycap>N</keycap></keycombo> .Where the conventions for <quote>Control</quote>, <quote>Shift,</quote> and <quote>Alternate</quote> keys will be <keycap>Ctrl</keycap>, <keycap>Shift</keycap>, and <keycap>Alt</keycap>, respectively, and shall mean the first key is to be held down while pressing the second key.

This book is developed by the <ulink url="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DocumentationTeam">Ubuntu Documentation Team</ulink>. <emphasis>You</emphasis> can contribute to this document by sending ideas or comments to the Ubuntu Documentation Team mailing list. Information about the team, its mailing lists, projects, etc. can be found on the <ulink url="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DocumentationTeam">Ubuntu Documentation Team Website</ulink>.

If you see a problem with this document, or would like to make a suggestion, you can simply file a bug report at the <ulink url="https://launchpad.net/products/ubuntu-doc/+bugs">Ubuntu Bugtracker</ulink>. Your help is vital to the success of our documentation!

This chapter introduces the world of Ubuntu and some basic concepts which are useful when getting started with an Ubuntu system.

Ubuntu includes the very best in translations and accessibility infrastructure that the free software community has to offer, to make Ubuntu usable for as many people as possible.

Ubuntu is released regularly and predictably; a new release is made every six months. You can use the current stable release or the current development release. Each release is supported for at least 18 months.

Ubuntu is entirely committed to the principles of open source software development; we encourage people to use open source software, improve it and pass it on.

Ubuntu is an entirely open source operating system built around the Linux kernel. The Ubuntu community is built around the ideals enshrined in the <ulink url="http://www.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/philosophy">Ubuntu Philosophy</ulink>: that software should be available free of charge, that software tools should be usable by people in their local language and despite any disabilities, and that people should have the freedom to customize and alter their software in whatever way they see fit. For those reasons: <placeholder-1/>

The Ubuntu community is comprised of developers, programmers, testers, techwriters, documentation testers, translators, and most importantly, the people who use Ubuntu every day. We invite you to join this community and help make Ubuntu the operating system you, your family, your friends, and your colleagues will love to use. Help us translate Ubuntu into your language, try it on new and unusual hardware, improve the experience of other users with hints, tips, and FAQs, or help to shape the direction Ubuntu is headed by providing feedback about the software you love most.

Ubuntu is a South African ethical ideology focusing on people's allegiances and relations with each other. The word comes from the Zulu and Xhosa languages. Ubuntu (pronounced "oo-BOON-too") is seen as a traditional African concept, is regarded as one of the founding principles of the new republic of South Africa and is connected to the idea of an African Renaissance.

Based on Debian, one of the most widely acclaimed, technologically advanced, and well-supported distributions, Ubuntu aims to create a distribution that provides an up-to-date and coherent Linux system for desktop and server computing. Ubuntu includes a number of carefully selected packages from the Debian distribution and retains its powerful package management system which allows easy installation and clean removal of programs. Unlike most distributions that ship with a large amount of software that may or may not be of use, Ubuntu's list of packages is reduced to a number of important applications of high quality.

Every Ubuntu release is supported for at least 18 months with security and other updates. Ubuntu 6.06 LTS is a special enterprise-ready release, and is supported for 3 years on the desktop, and 5 years on the server. The development process of Ubuntu 6.06 LTS was slightly longer than usual to concentrate on a number of areas:

Another leading UNIX and Linux desktop is <ulink url="http://www.kde.org/">KDE</ulink>. The <ulink url="http://www.kubuntu.org">Kubuntu</ulink> project offers Ubuntu users an alternative choice to the default GNOME desktop environment. Thanks to the efforts of the Kubuntu team, Ubuntu users are now able to install and use the KDE desktop easily on their system. To get a working install of Kubuntu on an Ubuntu install, install the <application> kubuntu-desktop</application> package. Once kubuntu-desktop is installed, one can choose to use either a Gnome or KDE desktop environment.

Canonical Ltd also sponsors a number of other Open Source software projects, about which more information can be found on the <ulink url="http://www.canonical.com">Canonical website</ulink>.

The <ulink url="http://www.kernel.org">Linux kernel</ulink>, pronounced 'lee-nucks' is the heart of the Ubuntu operating system. A kernel is an important part of any operating system, providing the communication bridge between hardware and software.

Linux was brought to life in 1991 by a Finnish student named Linus Torvalds. At the time, it would run only on i386 systems, and was essentially an independently created clone of the UNIX kernel, intended to take advantage of the then-new i386 architecture.

Nowadays, thanks to a substantial amount of development effort by people all around the world, Linux runs on virtually every modern architecture.

The Linux kernel has gained an ideological importance as well as a technical one. There is an entire community of people who believe in the ideals of free software and spend their time helping to make open source technology as good as it can be.

<emphasis>Text-mode install CD</emphasis> - the text-mode install CD allows you to perform certain specialist installations of Ubuntu. This type of CD is intended for cases such as creating pre-configured OEM systems or setting up automated deployments; it can also be used as a package source for upgrading older installations.

Underneath the root (<filename>/</filename>) directory, there is a set of important system directories that are common across most Linux distributions that are used. The following is a listing of common directories that are directly under the root (<filename>/</filename>) directory:

<filename>/dev</filename> - the <emphasis>dev</emphasis>ice files

<filename>/media</filename> - mounted (loaded) removable <emphasis>media</emphasis> such as CDs, digital cameras, etc...

<filename>/sys</filename> - <emphasis>sys</emphasis>tem files

<filename>/usr</filename> - applications and files that are mostly available for all <emphasis>us</emphasis>e<emphasis>r</emphasis>s to access

Inside each of the three sets of permissions are the actual permissons. The permissions, along with the way they apply differently to files and directories, are outlined below:

files can be edited or deleted

The root user in GNU/Linux is the user which has administrative access to your system. Normal users do not have this access for security reasons. However, Ubuntu does not include the root user. Instead, administrative access is given to individual users, who may use the "sudo" application to perform administrative tasks. The first user account you created on your system during installation will, by default, have access to sudo. You can restrict and enable sudo access to users with the <application>Users and Groups</application> application (see <xref linkend="users-and-groups"/> for more information).

When you run an application that requires root privileges, sudo will ask you to input your normal user password. This ensures that rogue applications cannot damage your system, and serves as a reminder that you are about to perform administrative actions which require you to be careful!

Sudo will remember your password for a set amount of time. This feature was designed to allow users to perform multiple administrative tasks without being asked for a password each time.

Be careful when doing administrative tasks, you might damage your system!

Change Directories: - cd (/directory/location)

Copy Files/Directories: - cp (file or directory name) (to directory or filename)

Remove Files/Directories: - rm (file or directory name)

The <application>locate</application> command will search your computer for any filename you specify. It uses an index of the files on your system to work quickly: to update this index run the command <application>updatedb</application>. This command is run automatically each day, if you leave your computer on. It needs to be run with administrative privileges (see <xref linkend="root-and-sudo"/>).