Free Introductory Lessons in Ubuntu

Did you know that Ubuntu offers online training through Canonical?  Something I thought would be extremely helpful to users of this site was their Introduction to the Ubuntu Desktop course.  They offer the first two lessons for free here.

Celebrate Ada Lovelace Day!

Today, March 24, 2009, is the first annual Ada Lovelace day. Ada Lovelace was the first-ever computer programmer (take note – not just the first female computer programmer, the first ever), and in her honor, today has been declared a day to celebrate women in technology.

Ada Lovelace

Run Ubuntu Without Installing

This post will walk you through running Ubuntu from a boot CD without installing it on your computer.  You will need an Ubuntu CD, which you can create (see this post), or order (from here).  You will probably want to read through the whole post before you begin, since you won’t be able to open a browser while you are restarting your computer.

Download & Create an Ubuntu boot CD (from Windows)

Step-by-step instructions on downloading Ubuntu and burning it to CD:

Before you begin, make sure you have a blank CD, and a computer with the ability to burn information to a CD (like a CD-RW drive).  If you don’t have those, you can request a free CD here: https://shipit.ubuntu.com/ (click “Request a CD of Ubuntu Desktop Edition” and follow the instructions from there – you will have to create a Launchpad account).

Dual Boot Ubuntu and Windows

Walkthrough coming soon!

A Tour of an Ubuntu Desktop – Part 1

For those people who are curious about how Ubuntu works in terms of day-to-day use, here is a visual tour of my Ubuntu desktop workspace. Because there are so many features to go over, I will be dividing them up into a series of posts. Part 1 will cover the top panel. Click the pictures to enlarge them in a new window.