OMG! reader Sebastian stopped by the OMG! Mailbox to drop off a link to this immensely impressive Dell/Ubuntu promotional video that, curiously, I - nor anyone I showed this to prior to posting - had ever come across previously.

I've had this book for almost a month, but have waited to write this review until I could give it the attention it deserves. I'm a fan of The Official Ubuntu Book (now in it's 4th edition), so I eagerly approached Rankin and Hill's production, anticipating the same quality product the desktop Ubuntu book has consistently provided (and no, I didn't think the desktop book was "perfect").

If you haven't used Linux before, are new to Ubuntu, or would like a quick update on the latest in open source advancements for the desktop, then The Official Ubuntu Book is a great place to start.

In a official post on the Ubuntu Forums, user Matthew (a official Canonical employee?) asks users to complete a survey with the applications they would like to see in the upcoming versions of Ubuntu.

The Official Ubuntu Book has done well since it was first published. There have been some author changes between the 3rd and 4th editions. Jonathan Jesse and Jono Bacon have apparently dropped off the radar, while Matthew Helmke has joined the team.

The official website for E-Lead Electronic's Noahpad UMPC has just gone live: www.noahpad.com. Along with the announcement emailed to me this morning came a full press release (below) containing several references to the Eee PC and some clarification about the "dual large touch pads" and backwards typing mentioned in the previous promotional material.

The Ubuntu Technical Board has decided to remove SPARC from its list of official releases. In an email to the Ubuntu developer list today, Matt Zimmerman said the board had decided that “offically released architectures for Ubuntu 8.04 will be i386 and amd64. The SPARC port will continue to be provided with build infrastructure, and Ubuntu 6.06 LTS, 7.04 and 7.10 will continue to enable SPARC deployments well into the future, but there will not be an official Ubuntu 8.04 release for SPARC.”

The Official Ubuntu Server Book from Prentice Hall comes in several versions, including a Barnes & Noble Special Edition with extra content and a bonus DVD. Paul Ferrill reviews this new book that covers the important basic tasks every admin needs to master.

I love the Ubuntu Wiki, and I think the Official Ubuntu Documentation is great! These are two important reasons why Ubuntu has been such a successful Linux distribution.