Those of you who have seen me in recent months know that all I want for Christmas is that one front tooth. My unfortunate dental situation has led me to a friendly relationship with my periodontist, and more importantly, his staff. Faxing them a copy of the gazpacho recipe that I came up with when they had me on cold foods for two days didn't hurt. As I pulled into the parking lot outside their office, I realized that I needed something to read in the waiting room. The staff has befriended me, but they still have too much work to do to spend all day chatting. Fortunately, I had a copy of Ubuntu Hacks sitting in my backpack, so I brought it in with me.

I have recently been reading a book called Ubuntu Hacks by Jonathan Oxer, Kyle Rankin & Bill Childers, published by O'Reilly and Associates. If you don't know by now, Ubuntu is my Linux distribution of choice, but I'm not completely up to speed on getting the most out of it. It's certainly much easier to use than Windows ever was for me, but that doesn't mean it's not without its faults and pitfalls. I didn't expect to become a Grand Ubuntu Master by reading a single book, but I was hoping to pick up a few tips and tricks. As much as I love O'Reilly, I felt that if I didn't provide a completely objective review, I would be performing a disservice to the publisher, the authors, and anyone that read my review.