Frequently Asked Questions

See here for an interview with Benjamin Humphrey that explains a lot of things.

How can I contribute?

• We are always looking for new people to help out with our project. Please see the section on the main page: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-manual#Contributions

What's the point in this Project, isn't there already enough documentation around?

• Have a look at the justification section on the main page: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-manual#Justification

Is this official?

• No. It is not officially supported by Canonical at the moment. But we are working on making it "official."

This looks awfully similar to the "Official Ubuntu Book"

• It may bear some similarities to the Official Ubuntu Book, but these are purely by coincidence. We are creating this manual as a separate entity to the Official Ubuntu Book for a variety of reasons, one of these is cost. If you are an every day user and one of the reasons you are switching operating systems from Windows to Ubuntu because it is free, then would you go out and pay $35.99USD for a book on how to use it? Not to mention that for people who live outside the US, if you take in the currency conversion and shipping, it would cost a lot more than that. We're not trying to put down the Official Ubuntu Book - I'm sure it's an excellent book, and our manual will probably not have as much detail. Our manual is targeted at a different audience than the book.

Does this manual cover Kubuntu (KDE) and Xubuntu (XFCE)?

• No. Well, not in depth. It's called the Ubuntu Manual and it's for Ubuntu as a starting point. All the instructions and screenshots will be relevant to GNOME and Ubuntu. That's not saying the team could tackle a Kubuntu Manual and a Xubuntu Manual in the future.

What infrastructure have you got in place for this Project?

• We use:
• Launchpad for Branches, Bugs, Answers and Blueprints
• Bazaar (bzr) for branch management
• LaTeX for writing our content
• po4a to handle translations in LaTeX

• Ubuntu Wiki (MoinMoin)

• A dedicated manual IRC channel for meetings and communication
• And a mailing list for our team to communicate too.

Is there Translation support?

• Yes, of course! We have translation support built in and using LaTeX and bzr. We have managed to get the LP rosetta system working with LaTeX by using a project called po4a. Check out the translations section in Technical Help for some more info. Here's the current list of supported languages with more being added every day.
• Albanian
• Arabic
• Asturian
• Bengali
• Brazilian Portuguese
• Bulgarian
• Catalan
• Chinese (Simplified)
• Chinese (Traditional)
• Czech
• Danish
• Dutch
• English (United Kingdom)
• French
• Galician
• German
• Hindi
• Indonesian
• Interlingua
• Italian
• Japanese
• Korean
• Latin
• Lithuanian
• Norwegian Bokmal
• Occitan (post 1500)
• Persian
• Polish
• Portuguese
• Romanian
• Russian
• Serbian
• Slovenian
• Spanish
• Telugu
• Thai
• Vietnamese

Didn't this go by the name of the "Ubuntu Beginners Guide" for a while?

• Yes it sure did - when I first started working on it I had that as a title. But I changed it to Ubuntu Manual for simplicity, and as a working title until we decide on the permanent title. It may just remain as "The Ubuntu Manual."

When will the first release be available?

• The alpha release is scheduled to be ready on the 10th February, 2010.

Who is the Project Driver?

• Benjamin Humphrey started this Project at the end of 2009. He has written several chapters as well as most of the wiki. He also maintains the Launchpad blueprints, bugs and branches, mailing list and IRC room, and organizes meetings. You are welcome to contact him directly, although it is best if you email the mailing list instead and address the email to Benjamin - unless it is confidential of course.

I want to write a blog post on this, can I?

• Yes you sure can. You're welcome to use our images from the Screenshots/Artwork page. But there are two things you need to make clear: 1) That this manual is NOT official at the moment, and is NOT guaranteed to be included on the Ubuntu CD. 2) The screenshots and title page etc are from the development release, and do not represent the final product.

Can I interview Benjamin Humphrey?

• Sure, if you really want to. Send him an email and he'll try to make some time.

How can I contact someone in the Project?

• There are multiple ways to contact us. The easiest is to email the mailing list, or join our IRC channel. All of these details can be found on the home page.

Where is the manual style defined?

• Currently, the manual style is not defined in text, per se. It is available as a visual guide on the Project page downloads section in PDF format, for reference only.

Where is the writing style defined?

• https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-manual/StyleGuide

Who are your target audience, and for what reason do you expect them to read this manual? What is their level of technical ability?

• The target audience is complete newcomers to both Ubuntu and Linux. People who have heard about it, and are interested in switching from Windows/Mac. Therefore the manual will give them a brief background of Linux and Ubuntu, and explain that it is not comparable to Windows or Mac - It's completely different. I know that when I started using Ubuntu, I knew nothing about man pages, or the Ubuntu Community Docs. Finding a specific Doc page was difficult, and in all honesty, many of the doc pages are written in a style that presumes you already know your way around. The system documentation, while easier to understand, is not as in-depth as it should be. This manual/book will be easy to understand, have everything in one place so its easy to find, it will be well advertised to new Ubuntu users and it will have everything in correct order, so that users learn how to do one thing before doing the next which relies on the former. Their level of technical ability ranges from complete computer newbie to someone who is familiar with Windows but never used Linux.

Who will be responsible for maintaining the document, and what sort of infrastructure will they be using to do that (i.e. translations, bug reports, version control)?

• The Ubuntu Manual Team is in charge of maintaining the document, headed by Benjamin Humphrey. See above for infastructure.

How is the document licensed?

• The document is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution Share Alike.

Why did you choose the topics that you did?

• The topics are based off several other Ubuntu manuals, the Community Docs, my own experience with Ubuntu, this thread and my blog post. Have a look at the Research page to see more information.

Did you carry out any research on the needs of your target audience? e.g. interviews, observation sessions, questionnaires.

• Yes, see the above question.

Not so Frequently Asked Questions

How many keys are there on a keyboard?

• Most keyboards have around 120 keys.

Who is Oleg Leonidovich Kryzhanovsky?

• Oleg Leonidovich Kryzhanovsky was a Russian entomologist who specialised in Coleoptera; especially Carabidae and Histeridae.

When can I catch "Big Mama and the Wild Bunch" on WXKB?

• From 6AM to 10AM every day.

What color are Benjamin's curtains?

• In Dunedin, they're purple - they came with the flat where he lives while studying. In Christchurch, they are green.

Did Jesus have a middle name?

• To be honest, I don't know.

2B or not 2B?

• I think that's a grade of pencil.

If Barbie is so popular, why do you have to buy her friends?

• Perhaps she has expensive tastes.

Who is General Failure and why is he reading my hard disk?

• ..