Ubuntu Overview

Ubuntu Overview:

Current Rea lease

Ubuntu 9.04 ( Desktop )

Ubuntu pronounced

 "oo-boon-too"

Available Interface

GNome
KDE
Xfe

Website

www.ubuntu.com

Debian-derived computer operating system based on GNU/Linux

What does Ubuntu mean?

Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'Humanity to others', or 'I am what I am because of who we all are'. The Ubuntu distribution brings the spirit of Ubuntu to the software world.

History Deveolpment

Ubuntu was initially forked from the Debian project's code base. The aim was to release a new version of Ubuntu every six months, resulting in a more frequently updated system. Ubuntu's first release was on October 20, 2004. The name Ubuntu, pronounced IPA: [uːˈbuːntuː] in English, comes from the Zulu word "ubuntu" ([ùɓúntú]), translated as "humanity to others", describing the ubuntu philosophy: "I am what I am because of who we all are", a positive aspect of community.

New releases of Ubuntu coincide a month after GNOME releases. In contrast to previous general-purpose forks of Debian — such as MEPIS, Xandros, Linspire, Progeny and Libranet, many of which relied on proprietary and closed source add-ons as part of their business model — Ubuntu has stayed closer to Debian's philosophy and uses free (libre) software, making an exception only for some proprietary hardware drivers.

Ubuntu packages are based on packages from Debian's unstable branch: both distributions use Debian's deb package format and package management tools, APT and Synaptic, although Debian and Ubuntu packages are not necessarily binary compatible with each other, and may need to be rebuilt from source. Ubuntu cooperates with Debian — to some extent pushing changes back to Debian, although there has been criticism that this doesn't happen often enough. Many Ubuntu developers are also maintainers of key packages within Debian. However, Ian Murdock, the founder of Debian, expressed concern about Ubuntu packages diverging too far from Debian Sarge to remain compatible.

Before release, packages are imported from Debian Unstable continuously and merged with Ubuntu-specific modifications. A month before release, imports are frozen, and soon after a feature freeze is instated, which allows for packagers to work on ensuring that the current software works well, rather than supporting the moving target that is Unstable.

Ubuntu is currently funded by Canonical Ltd. On July 8, 2005, Mark Shuttleworth and Canonical Ltd announced the creation of the Ubuntu Foundation and provided an initial funding of US$10 million. The purpose of the foundation is to ensure the support and development for all future versions of Ubuntu. Mark Shuttleworth describes the foundation as an emergency fund in case Canonical's involvement ends.

The Ubuntu logo and typography has remained the same since that first release. The hand-drawn, lowercase OpenType font used is called Ubuntu-Title and was created by Andy Fitzsimon.[18] The font is distributed under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) and use with logos derived from the Ubuntu logo is encouraged. The font is available as a package for Ubuntu.

Ubuntu 8.04, released on April 24, 2008, is the current Long Term Support (LTS) release. Canonical has released previous LTS versions every two years, and has committed to releasing the next LTS version in 2010, two years after 8.04.Meanwhile, the current standard-support period release, Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope), was released on April 23, 2009.

On March 12, 2009, Ubuntu announced full developer support on 3rd party cloud management platforms to deploy and manage cloud applications on cloud infrastructures such as Amazon EC2.

Ubuntu 9.04, released on April 24, 2009.

Ubuntu Desktop Edition

With Ubuntu Desktop Edition you can surf the web, read email, create documents and spreadsheets, edit images and much more. Ubuntu has a fast and easy graphical installer right on the Desktop CD. On a typical computer the installation should take you less than 25 minutes.

System Requirements

Ubuntu is available for PC, 64-Bit PC and Intel based Mac architectures. At least 256 MB of RAM is required to run the alternate install CD (384MB of RAM is required to use the live CD based installer). Install requires at least 4 GB of disk space.

Ubuntu Server Edition

The Ubuntu Server Edition - built on the solid foundation of Debian which is known for its robust server installations — has a strong heritage for reliable performance and predictable evolution.
The Ubuntu Server Edition is changing the server market for businesses by delivering the best of free software on a stable, fully supported and secure platform. In the two years since initial launch Ubuntu can now be found in hundreds of organisations across the world delivering key services reliably, predictably and economically. Ubuntu Server Edition is an energy efficient, low memory and disk footprint operating system that helps build server functions that respect our environment with no compromise on agility and versatility.
The Ubuntu Server Edition can become the backbone of many of the services that a typical business needs to run to be successful. With no license fees, an expanding ecosystem, minimal maintenance, a growing community of peers and references, Ubuntu Server Edition is making many organisations reconsider how they use Linux for their information technology needs.
Through the use of Ubuntu, we believe that our users will enjoy the unprecedented performance and security that Linux can provide. Because we care about your business we have ensured that the Ubuntu Server Edition:

• easily integrates in your existing networks.
• provides a low total cost of ownership.
• offers multiple life cycle scenarios for you to choose from.
• delivers free life maintenance.
• and is backed by Canonical's world class support.

Ubuntu Variants

Several official and unofficial Ubuntu variants exist. These Ubuntu variants install a set of packages different from the original Ubuntu. Since they draw additional packages and updates from the same repositories as Ubuntu, however, the same software is available for each of them. Unofficial variants and derivatives are not controlled or guided by Canonical and are generally forks with customizations for specific goals. The "fully supported" Ubuntu derivatives include:

    * Kubuntu, a desktop distribution using KDE rather than GNOME
    * Edubuntu, a distribution designed for classrooms using GNOME
    * Ubuntu Server Edition
    * Xubuntu, a "lightweight" distribution based on the Xfce desktop environment instead of GNOME, designed to run better on low-specification computers.

Download Ubuntu

Server Edition : Download

Desktop Edition : You can download Ubuntu, or request a free CD from Canonical.

Requesting an Ubuntu CD

Ubuntu is available free of charge and we can send you a CD of the latest version (9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope)) with no extra cost, but the delivery may take up to ten weeks, so you should consider downloading the CD image if you have a fast Internet connection.
https://shipit.ubuntu.com/

Ubuntu Feature

• Productivity tools
• Web browsing
• Photos
• Music and video
• Office tools
• Accessibility

For More Information

www.ubuntu-bit.blogspot.com
www.ubuntu.com

Ubuntu Logo

Screenshots

Related Knols
Debian
Linux Overview
Linux File System
What Is Linux?

Linux Filesystem

Linux filesystem

Windows has a directory tree for each drive. Each tree begins with a drive letter.

Linux has only one tree called the filesystem. It starts with the symbol for the root directory: '/'. (There is a special user also called root. User root's home directory is '/root'. Be careful not to confuse the two.) The root directory has some subdirectories:

• bin - Essential command binaries
• boot - Static files of the boot loader
• dev - Device files
• etc - Host-specific system configuration
• home - User home directories
• lib - Essential shared libraries and kernel modules
• media - Mountpoint for removeable media
• mnt - Mountpoint for mounting a filesystem temporarily
• opt - Add-on application software packages
• root - Home directory for the root user
• sbin - Essential system binaries
• tmp - Temporary files
• usr - Secondary hierarchy (for user-installed applications)
• var - Variable data

In Linux, the user never needs to know which physical drive contains particular data. This is unlike Windows where you need to know which drive (C:, D:, etc) to use. Instead, in Linux you mount a drive to a particular mountpoint in the directory tree. For instance, the first CD drive in Windows might be D: or E: or some other drive letter and might change if other drives are added to or removed from the system. In Linux, the mountpoint for the first CD drive is /media/cdrom0. The mountpoint does not change if you add or remove devices, although you can add a convenient symlink (shortcut) to the filesystem such as /cdrom.

If you install an application in Windows, the executable and related files are normally installed to C:\Program Files. In Linux,

• application executable files (binaries) are installed in /usr/bin,
• manuals in /usr/share/man,
• other documentation in /usr/share/doc,
• etc.

Linux does not have a registry. Configuration data is normally in the form of text files installed in /etc.

Disc devices and partitions

In Windows, the active primary partition on the primary master IDE disc is called C:. Other partitions (and CDROM drives) are called D:, E: etc. In Windows 98 and earlier, the allocation of drive letters to partitions is automatic and fixed. From Windows NT onwards it is possible to reassign some drive letters.

In Linux, it is often said that "everything is a file". In the case of discs, the whole primary IDE master disc is the device /dev/hda, the primary slave is /dev/hdb, the secondary master is /dev/hdc and the secondary slave is /dev/hdd.

The first SCSI hard disc is /dev/sda, the second is /dev/sdb etc. SCSI CD or DVD devices are /dev/scd0 etc.

PATA drives (connected with flat cables) are treated as IDE ATA drives (/dev/hda etc). SATA drives (not connected with flat cables) are treated as SCSI drives (/dev/sda, /dev/sdb etc).

It is possible to have up to 4 primary partitions on a hard disc. One of them can be an extended partition containing up to 63 other logical partitions. The logical partitions must be contiguous. Windows uses only one primary partition and one extended partition containing logical partitions. Linux can use all the partitions, but manual configuration is needed to use more than 20 partitions per disc in Debian.

If /dev/hda is formatted with two primary partitions, the partitions would be /dev/hda1 and /dev/hda2. In a typical dual-boot (Windows/Linux) system, primary partition 1 will be Window's drive C:, so this can be accessed as /dev/hda1. Partition 2 (/dev/hda2) will be Window's extended partition, though this never needs to be accessed directly. Partitions 3 and 4 will be unused, and 5 upwards are the partitions within the extended partition. Partition 5 will be D: or /dev/hda5.

CD or DVD drives cannot be partitioned. A typical CD drive would be /dev/hdc (IDE) or /dev/scd0 (SCSI).

In Windows, there may be two floppy drives, A: and B:. In Linux, the floppy drives are /dev/fd0, /dev/fd1 etc.

Mounting and unmounting devices

Everything in Linux is a file - including devices such as disc drives. In order to use a drive, you must mount the device to a mountpoint in the filesystem. You can then access the drive from the mountpoint. For example, you may wish to use another hard drive to store backups of your system. To add manually an EXT3 formatted partition /dev/hdb1 you might create a new directory /mnt/backup as the mountpoint. You can then mount the partition with the mount command

$ mount -t ext3 /dev/hdb1 /mnt/backup

and unmount it with the umount command (NB only one n)

$ umount /mnt/backup

or

$ umount /dev/hdb1

The configuration file /etc/fstab contains the details of devices which are mounted automatically at boot time.

Removable media can be automatically mounted if you install an automounter. The X-window desktop Gnome includes automounting as standard. The media will not unmount or eject until all processes involving it are finished. In Gnome, right-click on the CD icon and choose eject.

Filesystem formats

The most common Linux format is EXT2 (the Second Extended file system format). Recent distributions use EXT3 which is EXT2 with a journaling system. The journal protects against corruption of filesystem data which might cause lost files etc. As well as being robust, EXT2/3 partitions are efficient and do not need to be defragmented. They can be checked and repaired with the filesystem checker fsck which is similar to scandisk in Windows.

Windows cannot access native Linux formatted drives, but Linux can read from and write to other formats such as FAT, FAT32, etc. However, writing to NTFS is not recommended (see http://linux-ntfs.sourceforge.net/info/ntfs.html#3.2).

More Information :

http://newbiedoc.berlios.de/wiki/Debian_basic_features

What Is Linx?

What is Linux?

Linux is a free Unix-type operating system for computer devices. The operating system is what makes the hardware work together with the software. The OS is the interface that allows you to do the things you want with your computer. Linux is freely available to everyone. OS X and Windows are other widely used OS.

Linux gives you a graphical interface that makes it easy to use your computer, yet it still allows those with know-how to change settings by adjusting 0 to 1. It is only the kernel that is named Linux, the rest of the OS are GNU tools. A package with the kernel and the needed tools make up a Linux distribution. Mandrake , Suse,Gentoo and Redhat are some of the many variants. Linux OS can be used on a large number of boxes, including i386+ , Alpha, PowerPC and Sparc.

For More Information

Web Browsing Features In Ubuntu

Web Browsing

Ubuntu comes by default, with the latest browser from Mozilla; Firefox 3 Beta 5. Firefox has quickly become one of the most popular browsers being used on millions of desktops throughout the world.
The version on Ubuntu has been specifically themed for the operating system and uses familiar looking icons so browsing is the smooth experience that users should expect. And as we get more of our applications and other content through the web this is more important than ever.

New features in Firefox 3

Enhanced bookmarking, tagging and history. Bookmarking a page simply means clicking on the empty star in the location bar. Clicking again allows you to file the the bookmark in the correct folder for better organisation.

Safer than ever. Firefox has gained a terrific reputation for protecting users from malware, viruses, phishing sites and other deliverers of malicious content.
Firefox 2 already gave strong protection by blocking sites it believed would steal your personal information. In Firefox 3 this is being extended (in combination with Google) to sites that are likely to install malware on your computer.
Linux and Ubuntu are already considerably safer environments to operate in than proprietary operating systems. These additions mean you can lead your digital life without fear of catastrophic damage to your network, computer or finances!
Wonderful world of add-ons. Firefox has hundreds of add-ons available to extend or customise your browsing. Users often have specific requirements depending on how they use their browser. Chances are someone has built a tool to help.

Improved address prompting in location bar. The autocomplete list that appears when you start entering letters in the location bar is no longer restricted to web addresses but also looks into bookmark and history page titles and tags which make it more comprehensive.
Mozilla has also added adaptive learning to this function so that the more you use it the better it will become at learning what you are looking for and displaying the relevant information more quickly

No more pop-ups, forced add-ons and other irritations. If you are moving to Firefox for the first time with Ubuntu 8.04 you will notice the easy-to set preferences block or warn about annoying pop-ups, cookie additions or any sites that try to place an add-on to your machine with your permission. Surf in peace.