This Wikishelf - definition has a number of article regarding Ubuntu. For a broader range of articles on Free software, one can consult the Free software wikishelf.

• Sharing data on the network with other computers. This article support exchange of data on the network with Windows, Mac OS X and of course Linux, *BSD, etc. computers.
• Cleaning the repositories after an upgrade.

• LCD back-light for Dell laptop: This article discuss how to activate on Ubuntu 7.04 the LCD backlight feature of your Dell laptop. This requires fiddling with the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) and with the libsmbios packages. The result can greatly improved your laptop battery life.
• Power Management of you laptop under Ubuntu. How to extend your battery life, what is power management, how does it work, etc.

• Automatically getting notification of new updates. This article does only notify a user by e-mail that new updates are available. It does not perform the update. To perform automatic updates you can refer to AutomaticSecurityUpdates or AutoWeeklyUpdateHowTo.

At home, I have a small server, actually the latest Ubuntu Server Edition. It is nice and is rich in functionalities. Never-the-less, it is not exactly what I am expecting from a server for a home desktop usage.

In the hand of an expert or company, Ubuntu Server Edition is a perfect tool. In the end of a family, who just wishes things work out-of-the-box, this edition is not adapted at all.

What is a home server then?

Something that is easy, simple, discrete, quiet, transparent to the user and which does not require maintenance. What does it provide for functionalities out-of-the-box? Here is a simplistic answer with a list of the main functions:

• Offers a shared storage area (NAS),
• Offers a back-up area,
• Can be used for streaming multimedia content,
• Can share printers,
• Access your data anytime, anywhere,
• Offers transparent chatting capabilities with people on your network,
• Advanced power management,
• Graphical interface local and/or remote,
• Automatic advertisement of its capabilities using a Zeroconf (Zero configuration network) implementation,
• 100% free (libre), transparent to the user and interoperable with Linux, FreeBSD, Windows, Mac OS, etc. systems.

And many more

Interested? Check the dedicated page on a home server for Ubuntu.

I want to dedicate this section to using Amazon Elastic Computing (EC2) cloud with Ubuntu Server Edition (currently version 8.10 Intrepid Ibex).

• Getting started with Amazon EC2.
• …

• Here be Dragons!