About
Ubuntu is, in my humble opinion the easiest and best way to switch from Windows to a free/open-source operating system. In order to make your transition easier, and to help those that have started using ubuntu, this weblog features a series of articles with tips and tricks.
When I started this blog, I resolved that:
a) I will not regurgitate posts from other websites unless essential.
b) I will not write articles just because I have to write something for the day.
I want the posts on this site to maintain the highest quality and utility. That, in a sentence, has been my goal.
So who am I? I am Carthik, a graduate student, like so many others. I write here when I find something worth remembering or sharing with other other Linux users.
I look forward to trawling mailing list and forum posts (so you don’t have to), and the www to bring you little snippets of helpful information. Some of these tips may also be useful for users of other flavors of Linux, and users of the Gnome desktop.
If you have a news item, or a favourite tip or webpage that you’d like to share, please email me at carthik@ubuntu.com.
Please leave a comment here if you have any suggestions for improvement, or a kind word, or even just a random thought.
I look forward to your support. Someone requested that I put up my wishlist here, and so here it is. I know, nothing’s free… except information. My wishlist mostly has a few books - there are ones that sell for less than a dollar, and the most expensive book costs $65 or so. Any help in feeding my book addiction is welcome 
If you wish to contribute towards my (minimal) expenses, you can send a donation to the email address carthik@ubuntu.com via Paypal. I wish I could add a button here, but since I don’t host this blog, I cannot add the Paypal button’s form here.
Comment Policy:
I reserve the right to remove comments that I find objectionable. This includes comments that are not relevant to the post, and comments that are posted that look like comment spam. Please don’t be offended if I delete your comments, or edit your comment to remove the url(s) in it. After all, it is my blog.
Im student for Duta Wacana Kristian University indonesia , my name andreas, in Duta Wacana Kristian University i put Informatic teknologi, in this smester i put Linux System, but i don’t have laptop for study this, evry day i go to the WARNET ( Internet Sophing Senter ) end make homework in ther, my father and my mother a theacher a Mount get $200( in indonesia Rp 2.000.000). I am hope get the laptop for my study, im sory my englis is not goot, thaks
Greetings,
I’m hoping you can help me with this issue I’m experiencing in Ubuntu 5.10:
in /var/www/testdir I have a file named test.txt. When I right-click that file, goto Permissions, and select the File group drop-down menu, I do not see the group named www-data listed.
However, when I goto System > Administration > Users and Groups and check Show all users and groups, I can see that the www-data group does indeed exist.
My question is: why isn’t the www-data group listed in the filename > permissions > File group drop-down menu? And how do I go about making it appear there?
Thank you for your time,
*Nick*
I’ve had your blog in my blogroll for some time now and I just wanted to say Hi.
Keep it real
Hi,
I’m receiving tons of this kind of error in my try to update from breezy to dapper….any help would be appreciated.
W: GPG error: http://us.archive.ubuntu.com breezy Release: The following signatures couldn’t be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY 40976EAF437D05B5
Mariaanne, This is not the most appropriate place for support requests and the like, but this time, all you have to do is, open the /etc/apt/sources.list file (sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list) and then remove the “us” from the urls, that is, make it http://archive.ubuntu.com instead of http://us.archive.ubuntu.com. You have to do this for all the urls in that file.
Thank you for your help, will try what you said and let you know how I fare. I’m a newbie, big time and so some of the time I learn things by just falling into them and sometimes you just HAVE to ask Nice People
Thanks again.
Hi, I happen to stumble over your nice blog. Since a few months I have Ubuntu installed on my personal computer and I did an upgrade to 6.06 Dapper Drake. In Linux Format (latest issue) I saw an article mentioning Ubunt 6.06 in relation to Xgl, with verrrry nice 3D graphical effects. Well, it seems like the installation succeeded, but I have no eye candy - no nice 3D effects.
Do you possibly have an idea how to configure things so that its worth the effort? On the Suse and Novell websites as well as on Ubuntu forum is some information, but I think I might just miss a starting point, from a beginners point of view.
Keep up the good blog!
Greetz, dJezzer
good evening! I am Mark Aethen Agana a third year Computer Science student. I want to inquire if you can give free ubuntu installer. I want to procure the said software but it is not available here in locallity of philippines. I want to request a copy of it if it is for free! thanks! I am currently also taking CISCO class for CCNA certification and I need to software for practice intently.
thank you!
Hi
Just wanted to let you know got updated to dapper with your kind help, still a newbie but learning more and more every day.
Hoping to do the server installation next and connect both my machines and my husbands to the server for a more secure network.
Again, thanks for the help
I need help for installing the aMsn. I follow the wiki for breezy but I have Dapper and it’s seems that doesn’t work. Please someone help me
Its a great blog which I visit everyday. Keep writing.
In your blog of July 8th you said that you love Opera and would use it as your only browser if only they figured out a way to let you synchronize your bookmarks between different computers. I also had this problem and came across mybookmarks.com (http://www.mybookmarks.com/). Seems to be an almost perfect solution and I am happily using it to access websites using both multiple browsers (Firefox, IE and Konqueror), OSs (Ubuntu, XP and OS-X) and computers.
Hope it is useful to you too.
Thanks for all the advices here. I have just shifted to Dapper, have been a GNU/Linux advocate but never had the chance, til now. I’m into scientific applications in Ubuntu, I’ve installed Google Earth but I believe it lacks a lot of features needed in my job as analyst. Could you provide a tutorial on how to install the WW2D virtual earth system on Dapper? This would be a big help. Thanks in advance.
“When I started this blog, I resolved that:
a) I will not regurgitate posts from other websites unless essential.
b) I will not write articles just because I have to write something for the day.”
Thank you SO MUCH! There are countless sites on the web that do exactly that, and it’s pointless. Let me say “thank you” once again for not joining them
Hi, nice blog… Keep on blogging! :). By the way I’m Jehzeel Laurente, a Coldfusion/PHP/RoR Web Developer from Manila.
Just droppin by…
[...] Ubuntonista over at Ubuntu Blog posted a wonderful link to an interview with Mark Shuttleworth, the man behind Ubuntu. While the overview is cursory and superficial, sometimes you’ll take all you can get. Check it out if you’re so inclined. [...]
whats to say? itried downloading “ubuntu” however it all went rather strangely and i dont see any evidence of it on my desktop and the message iget is that download was completed!!! but where is it?
Hello, i using Ubuntu (Edgy Eft) since several weeks.
During research for information about Linux and Ubuntu i found your site.
Many helpful information.
Setup my PC with Ubuntu and killed Windows.
Before i found Ubuntu i never think to live without this stuff from Redmond. But all works without problem.
Already add your site to my blogroll at http://cybernout.wordpress.com.
I am a contributor for another site called
http://scribez.wordpress.com
Have a look to waste your time (;-)))
Once again. Good work.
Brgds…Cybernout
ei,hi….. nice blog,just droppin’ by…
Hi Carthik,
Nice blog…. I think I have been to your blog quite a few times unknowingly from stumble upon but never knew it was yours. Well, keep the good work going.
Thank you, Darshan.
Carthik, your mail link doesnt point to the place you wish to recieve it! carthik@ubuntu.com would open a message-sender window with ubuntonista@gmail.com
Harsh,
Cool - thanks for the heads up - I fixed the link.
good job carthik, it’s nice blog for ubuntu users
You know what, carthik … I only realized today that you were the author of the Ubuntu blog. I guess I never looked at the byline.
**Hugs!**
Hey Chris!
Yeah, I had kept it a closely-guarded secret for a while.
See you around!
Is your avatar a picture of you? I could swear it was my brother’s twin.
Yes, it is me. Do you have a photo of my alleged twin somewhere, David?
[...] About [...]
@carthik
who is that guy in your pic? it really looks like my father…and im not joking man…thas my dad im sure…
Trez.
That is me, for sure. Someone else above said I look like someone they know too!
lol…that’s crazy man! when i’ll found that pic of my father when he was young you’ll see how crazy it is…
hai, I have lauched a site at http://ubuntustore.co.in to spread ubuntu in India by selling ubuntu CDs and DVDs at a very low cheap cost. I would be very thankful if you write a post about my site in your blog. Thanks in advance.
I read your blog’s feed. I’m glad you are using Ubuntu and writing about it. I too began the switch to Ubuntu a couple of years ago and the switch to Linux as a primary desktop at home at least about four years ago. I too think Ubuntu is the easiest desktop Linux and it’s become better and better in a short period of time. From 6.06 on it’s been a viable competition to XP and with the advent of 7.04 I really don’t think you could compare the two when you consider all that comes with the distribution. I’ve been burning CDs and handing it to all my customers and friends. I’ve also been installing it when and where practical for customers and friends. The support base is better than Fedora in my opinion.
Hi, great blog!
I would LOVE if you could do an article on installing VMWARE tools on ubuntu?
So, that would be a box running linux with a vmware machine that has Ubuntu installed. I just seem to be having no luck at all!
Any help greatly appreciated!
Please feel free to drop me an email about it at:
shane(dot)killian(at)gmail(dot)com
Hola como les vá? Mi nombre es Bianca y estoy interesada en su blog, me parece realmente muy bueno, les cuento que yo también tengo un blog con un amigo sobre la misma temática, y me gustaría hacer un intercambio de enláces para poder atraer más visitantes, si ustedes quieren me pueden escribir a mi mail que es bianca.scotti@hotmail.com, les agradezco su paciencia!
Saludos!
Bianca
Hi Carthik,
I’d like to say thank you for your great blog! I found plenty of useful information here!
As Ubuntu user I would like to share some more information regarding this wonderful OS tat my blog Linux Screw.
Good luck!
Hi Carthik
I am an entrant to Ubuntu, having been introduced to it in May 2007. I find this page interesting and would like to be returning to it often.
Can you help me in finding users who use Ubuntu for programming in Python, GTK, PyGtk available along with the Official Ubuntu book.
Here I may mention that I am a retired person seeking to keep myself engaged in learning about this operating system and writing programs in Python and PyGame.
Thanks.
Ramani.
Hi Carthik, very nice wordpress blog. I am trying to build my own wordpress blog using the free wordpress services, and I think this is a great example site to get ideas. Very nice site!
i want a laptop please donate me.i have nomoney to buy that.
Great blog. Keep up the good work!
nice man! love your blog!
I still need to try out Ubuntu once