Manga about running Ubuntu

Ubunchu, a manga-style comic for kids about the joys of running the Ubuntu Linux operating system (this post is being composed on an Ubuntu laptop -- the only OS I've used for a couple years now*). It's a free, CC-licensed PDF, and it's been translated into a very large number of languages, and there are more editions to come.

Ubunchu! The Ubuntu Manga is now in English (via Geekdad)

*Yes, I know I haven't written up my notes on switching to Ubuntu yet. I will, someday.

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: Book • Comics • Copyfight • Happy Mutants • Kids

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Over two years ago the prospect of loading Mr. Spaghetti’s Vista was more than I could handle. By then it was obvious it had come into the world broken.
I bought an Ubuntu CD that would let me boot Ubuntu and get the look and feel. Then I used the utility on the CD to make my laptop dual boot.
I can boot in XP or Ubuntu. Ubuntu is up and running in less than a minute vs 3+ minutes for XP. Web pages come up right now. I also loaded Open Office leaving Word a dim memory. I downloaded the KEXI database software.
The only thing I wish I had is an accounting program similar to Quicken only better.
Anonymous

This is exactly the sort of thing that reminds me why I still use Fedora, and will continue to do so in the foreseeable future.
Anonymous

I had to bail on Ubuntu after I went from 6.04 to 8.*

Why? There’s a bug that won’t let it take input from PS/2 keyboards and mice when the GUI is running. GRUB, fine. Command line, sure. Installation utility, fine. Even the LiveCD version, just fine. But installed version? Nope. I don’t think it’s unreasonable for the LiveCD version to accurately reflect the hardware detection of the installed version, do you?

There is a BIOS hack that fixes it…that doesn’t work for my hardware. (Disabling legacy USB) Alternatively, if you know what you are doing, you can build an installable version that doesn’t have this problem, but sorry, I don’t have that level of knowhow.

It’s a documented bug, which takes the unhandy form of:
Q:PS/2 keyboard doesn’t work
A:Did you try the new build?
Q:Still doesn’t work
A:Ah, too bad. How about this latest build?
Q:No worky
A:Some time has passed. Have you tried this build?
Q:Yes, doesn’t work.
A:Bug closed, we’ve moved on to the next kernel/major version, and to a new bugtracker.

New bugtracker:
Q:Hey, I noticed that the PS/2 keyboard doesn’t work with 8.10
A:Did you try the new build…

Also, for anonymous above, if you screw up your boot sector when uninstalling linux, boot from the windows xp install CD, go to repair, and select “fix MBR” or “fix Master Boot Record.”
Rodney

By the time you document your transition to Ubuntu no one will care. They’ll all have switched by then. ;)
EyeSpy Guy

#13,

For about two weeks after the release of Hardy Heron, there were some major bugs with aptget and some of the packages.

I admit that it was not easy to fix for me, but I did learn a lot.

The community squashed the bugs pretty fast and there were work-around right away. Sounds like you got hit by a couple nasty bugs at the same time.

It is a shame that you won’t give Ubuntu another shot, however your experience is far from universal. If I spat the dummy every time Windows shat itself, I’d have had many more reasons and occasions to rant.
rasz

great upskirt action on the poster
Anonymous

This is exactly the sort of thing that reminds me why i still use Slackware.
CVR

Speaking of Ubuntu, I just stumbled on this rather amusing version (skins/desktops?…whatever, it’s funny): Ubuntu SE (Satanic Edition).

http://ubuntusatanic.org/screenshots.php

Can’t wait for Jaunty Jackalope!
coaxial

I really don’t get the fascination with non-Japanese and manga. Yes, yes, let’s all take serious topics and gloss over them in cartoon form that with identical stock characters wearing sailor suits and place them in a high school, with a vaguely pedophiliac “fan service”, and culture I don’t really understand, but pretend I do because I watched Nausicaa 38 times, 29 of which in subtitled Japanese (which I don’t speak). Oh did I say that I made laid my comic book (oh I’m sorry “MANGA”) out backwards because that’s the way how it’s done in oh so cool Japan, even though I wrote it all in English and so it’s just backwards instead of actually being in order?

Someday I’m going to go to save my money and go to Tokyo and hang out in akihabara and then meet some girl at Gas Panic and then she’ll be so impressed because I’ll be wearing my homemade Vash The Stampede bright red trenchcoat and saying things in Japanese like “GO MAGIC MOON PRINCESS SAPPHIRE TIARRA!” and “SUPER BEAM PARTICLE CANNON GO!” Me and Megumi-chan will be so kawaiiiiiiii~~~~~~~~ ^_____^ (I now exactly how to impress the Japanese ladies, I’ve been Crossâ€ Channel and Nanacaâ€ Crash everyday for months now.)

Oh it’s all so fucking sugoi, gaijinsan. Oh I’m sorry gaijinbaka wa sugoi!
Anonymous

#9
One quick moment of googling later, it seems there are a few Quicken alternatives for Linux!
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=137148
-Liddell, Xubuntu user.
Anonymous

God, even with a cute manga you couldn’t get me to install that shit again. Hell you couldn’t even pay me to do it. I thought Hardy Heron would be the one to try, so I cleared a partition on my laptop and loaded it on. Nothing else made it onto my machine. Firefox took 4 days install properly because Firefox 3 that came with it was a bug ridden beta, reinstalls did nothing, and I couldn’t find the program files to delete for a clean install. EVERYTHING I ever typed in Terminal turned out errors and did absolutely nothing, so I never got to install anything else (tarballs are ridiculous roundabout bullshit compared to .exes). And like VISTA, it bitched at me every time I wanted to access something I ‘wasn’t supposed to’. When I uninstalled it, it erased the boot sector and its own little retarded boot program so my entire laptop was bricked. ALL of my other past forays into Linux have ended up exactly the same. That’s why people stick with Windows and Mac. ‘Nix zealots don’t seem to get this and blame the user for not being a CS PhD with 25 years of experience. :/
Anonymous

Reminds me of The Mange Guide to Databases.

Far more instruction books and manuals should be in comic form. It’d be far easier to read through than pages and pages of just writing.
Anonymous

#9
I came across this link a few days ago myself. Seems there are 4 suggested linux alternatives to quicken
http://www.linuxalt.com/
ansel

@ #6 – that’s rather idiotic. Kiki’s Delivery Service was not about pantie shots. You’ll notice that there are no panties to be seen on the cover of this manga. Not all anime/manga are all about ‘fanservice’ – it’s unfortunate that the whole genre has been tarred with that stereotype.
Spike the Dingo

figured it would have been posted if it was Apple Manga…but no, here it is… Is boing boing finally going Ubuntu? I say, its about bloody time!
toolbag

#2

Wow, those desktops are way better than the default I’m using on ubuntu now (which looks a lot like a coffee stain on a paper grocery bag).
jonesp12

Cory,

you should write up your notes. we all want to hear about it. i have been assuming that the xnet in Little Brother was always referring to ubuntu or some other flavor of linux.
Anonymous

@13 – The only thing I can say is that my experience with Ubuntu is completely different; the community is helpful, everything worked out of the box in my desktop, and I only needed to download and install one file to get everything running in my netbook.
Bloodboiler

Feels like only moths ago Linux was all about adorable cartoon penguins. But he is in his late teens now and I suppose it is normal to make the transition to panty-shots and hentai. I just fear that this is a slippery slope to becoming a penguin furry.
Anonymous

#15
I had the exact same experience. with Ubuntu, everything just worked. When I had Xp I had to hunt down drivers all over the danged place!
denkbert

#23: …. what?

While I do get your point, I don’t see anything wrong with trying another approach of teaching Chemistry, Statistics, Physics or Electric Engineering, in this case via Manga, as long as the content is factually correct and gets the point across.
Anonymous

Come now, there is no manga without panty shots. Check out Miyazaki’s classic “Kiki’s Delivery Service” – essentially an unending series of panty shots, written for kids.

The Japanese are almost as strange as Americans, you know.
SomeGuy

Cory,

This is a little OT but you’re a fairly new dad so I think you’ll appreciate this.

I recently got my hands on a trash-bound Compaq notebook running windows xp sp1 and so much spyware it took over 4 minutes to boot. I wiped the drive and installed the Edubuntu mod on top of Ubuntu 8.10. I then installed every game and educational app I could find on synaptic for preschool kids and gave it to my not quite 3 year old grandson to have as his “own, very own compootie”. I had to add an old mouse from the back of my desk drawer because he couldn’t make his stubby fingers work the touchpad properly. It took him about 20 seconds to master click and drag and he was off and running with Tux Paint and Mr. Potato Man.

Best zero bucks I ever spent.
thagrasshoppa

Yes, please put your notes up!!

I especially would be very, very appreciative of your insight into how you use flashbake on ubuntu…

I have it working, but still am looking for a way to look back in time to some of the first commits…

Please?!?