Chris Webb

This morning I was pleased to find my copy of Hacking Ubuntu, Serious Hacks, Mods and Customizations, the latest from our ExtremeTech series. The book should be shipping from Amazon.com early next week. Congratulations to author Dr. Neal Krawetz for a great guide to Ubuntu hackery.

This is an incredible guide to Hacking Ubuntu, the world’s most popular Linux distribution. Unlike other books on the market, Hacking Ubuntu is not just a disjointed collection of a few tricks and tips. This is serious, down and dirty, under the hood operating system level hacking — blowing away the default system settings, unlocking hidden gems, and offering readers total control over their Ubuntu system like never before. Hacking Ubuntu concentrates on optimizing the appearance, speed, usability, and security of Ubuntu systems to squeeze every ounce of performance out of your machine. Roll up your sleeves, and dive into hundreds of hacks including:

• Running Ubuntu from a USB drive
• Installing on a Mac
• Enabling multiple CPUs
• Device hacks for wireless adapters, cameras, drawing pads, TV cards and more
• Putting Scripts in Menus and Panels
• Living without Synaptic
• Email hacks including working with Microsoft Exchange
• Hacks for video resolutions and enhancing audio and video
• Kernel tweaking

This book isn’t for beginners. If you’ve never heard of Linux, then you probably should not start here. This book is for power users — people who already know the basics and want to get more out of their system.