Ubuntu Tutorials

Another exciting calendar item just arrived in my Inbox that I am sure many of you will be interested in. A new team has recently been formed to address the Ubuntu users that want to learn more, but aren’t quite ready for something as big as Ubuntu Developer week. These events are aimed at teaching the beginner and intermediate user how to improve their Ubuntu experience. From “Command Line Basics” to “Partitioning 101″, this event will teach you the skills you need to become a more proficient and more knowledgeable Ubuntu user!

From the announcement:

The Ubuntu User Days Team would like to announce the first Ubuntu User Day, on January 23, 2010. This will be a very informative one day session geared towards beginner and intermediate Ubuntu users, as well as people who are interested in using Ubuntu. We have 14 classes covering topics ranging from installing Ubuntu, finding help, equivalent programs, using IRC, getting involved in the Ubuntu Community and more. We have enlisted the help of many talented people to lead these classes throughout the day.

These classes will be taught in #ubuntu-classroom with questions being asked in #ubuntu-classroom-chat on irc.freenode.net. Please visit http://wiki.ubuntu.com/UserDays for a complete class list and schedule of classes.

There is also a Spanish version of Ubuntu User Days being offered on January, 23, 2010. Please visit Día Del Usuario Ubuntu at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DiaDelUsuarioUbuntu for more information on the Spanish Ubuntu User Day!

I would invite anyone interested in improving their overall Ubuntu skill set to attend this event. Find out more by visiting the Ubuntu Wiki : UserDays. See you there!

I’ve been hearing about the Irssi IRC client for some time and I finally took some time over the weekend to seriously look into it. After the initial learning curve that often comes with a new application (and a terminal based application at that!) I’m hooked on Irssi. I’m using it as my main IRC client and I also use it to access my other IM networks (ie; Jabber) that you read about in my previous post.

Before I get into some steps that I used to cut down my learning curve I wanted to link into the Irssi writeup on the community documentation page. Props go to my good friend Aaron for putting that writeup together and for telling me about Irssi.

First of all you’ll want to install the irssi client.

sudo aptitude install irssi

Second you’ll simply start up the program using the command

irssi

Now you’ll be presented with a very basic, terminal-looking interface. You’ll want to connect to your favorite IRC network using a command similar to that below.

/connect irc.freenode.net

Irssi will then connect to that freenode network. Of course you can replace that command with any network of your choice and you can connect to multiple networks by repeating that command for each. note: there is also a /server command that acts in a similar fashion however it limits you to a single server connection.

A few quick tips on setting up Irssi for auto-login, auto-connect and auto-identify.

To set your IRC nick use

/nick MyIRCNick

To auto-connect to freenode or another network and identify yourself.

/SERVER ADD -auto -network freenode irc.freenode.net 6667 password

Another method of auto-identifying is seen below. The above is generally preferred.

/NETWORK ADD -autosendcmd "/^msg NickServ IDENTIFY password;wait 2000" freenode

Lastly, to auto-join a channel at connection use

/CHANNEL ADD -auto #ubuntu freenode

There are many other commands you can use and Irssi is *very* flexible. I’m a big fan now as it offers me a lot of control and flexibility. If you haven’t yet I do suggest you go back and read the community writeup at the docs irssi page.

If you enjoy irssi you can stop by to say thanks in the #irssi channel or give a quick hello to me and my team in #ubuntu-utah. Enjoy!