blog @ little drops @ thiyagaraaj.com: 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/