OS GUI

Ubuntu (pronunciation: u'buntu) is a widely used Linux distribution predominantly targeted at personal computers. Based on Debian GNU/Linux, Ubuntu concentrates on usability, regular releases, ease of installation, and freedom from legal restrictions. Ubuntu is sponsored by Canonical Ltd., a private company founded by South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth.

The name of the distribution comes from the Zulu and Xhosa concept of ubuntu, and can be roughly defined as, "the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity." Ubuntu’s slogan – “Linux for Human Beings”, encapsulates one of its main goals – making Linux more available and easy to use.

The most recent version, Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn), was released on April 19, 2007. Version 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) is scheduled for release on October 18, 2007.

History and development

Originally referred to as no-name-yet.com, Ubuntu's first release on October 20, 2004 began as a temporary fork of Debian GNU/Linux, with the aim of drawing from Debian's code regularly in order to allow for a new version of Ubuntu to be released every six months, in step with the six month GNOME release cycle. In contrast to other general-purpose forks of Debian such as Xandros, Linspire and Libranet, Canonical remains close to Debian's philosophy with Ubuntu and uses predominantly free software rather than making the inclusion of proprietary applications part of their business model.

Ubuntu uses Debian's Advanced Packaging Tool to manage installed packages. Ubuntu packages are generally based on packages from Debian's unstable repository; however, they are not always compatible with each other. Several Ubuntu developers are also maintainers of packages within Debian's repositories, and Ubuntu changes are contributed back to Debian as they are made, rather than being announced only at release time. Ian Murdock, the founder of Debian, criticised Ubuntu in April 2005 for incompatibilities between its packages and those of Debian sarge, saying that Ubuntu had diverged too far to remain compatible.

Bugs in Ubuntu are tracked through the Launchpad web interface, which integrates with the Bazaar version control system in a similar way to SourceForge's integration with CVS.

Ubuntu is currently funded by Mark Shuttleworth through Canonical Ltd. On July 8, 2005, Canonical 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, but as of 2006, the foundation remains dormant. Shuttleworth describes the foundation as an emergency fund should Canonical's involvement end.

On May 1, 2007 Dell announced it would sell desktops and laptops with Ubuntu pre-installed. It also stated that customers would be able to buy support for Ubuntu through Dell, the support coming from Canonical.

Features

Usability

Ubuntu uses GNOME as its desktop environment, which is intended to provide a free, simple and intuitive interface while offering a full range of modern desktop applications. While Ubuntu includes common productivity software including OpenOffice.org, the Mozilla Firefox web browser and the GIMP image editor, it aims to avoid overlap in its default feature set rather than providing many different choices of similar packages.

After the initial Ubuntu installation, the user is greeted with an orange-brown desktop which contains no desktop icons by default. General desktop applications are located under the Applications menu, a desktop launcher menu in the top-left corner. Open windows can be viewed on the taskbar along the bottom of the screen. The default user interface in Ubuntu is characterized by shades of orange and brown, which is unusual in an operating system as nearly all others use blue as their default color. A blue theme is available in the System Preferences. Ubuntu is available in over 40 languages. It also allows users to submit additional translations by using the Rosetta Translation tool.

Ubuntu's focus on usability includes the widespread use of the sudo tool, which allows users to carry out administrative tasks without initiating a potentially unsafe superuser session.

Distribution

Ubuntu ships as an ISO image that fits on a single CD or alternatively, in the case of the older version, Dapper Drake 6.06 LTS, and just released Feisty Fawn 7.04, mailed free to anyone requesting them via Canonical's ShipIt service. This is intended to reduce the amount of time it takes to download Ubuntu and the possibility of losing part of the installation software and/or to aid those users who are not comfortable/able to burn an ISO image to CD. Many Linux distributions necessitate the downloading of multiple ISO images and hours of installation process, while Ubuntu is one of the few distributions that can be installed quickly, and from a single CD. Additionally, all Ubuntu versions since 4.10 can be downloaded for free.

Since version 6.06 LTS, Ubuntu's disc has served both as a live CD and an install disc. This disc boots into a fully featured desktop, allowing the user to see whether his hardware is compatible and experiment with the applications available. The CD also allows the user to install Ubuntu to the hard disk using the Ubiquity application, and preserves documents created on the live desktop. An alternate install disc using the text-mode debian-installer is also available, aimed towards those with lower system specifications, towards administrators installing Ubuntu on many systems, and for complex disk partitioning.

The live CD also contains a collection of open source Windows applications including Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Thunderbird, AbiWord, Blender and ClamWin, prepared in collaboration with the OpenCD project, which can be installed if Windows is running while the CD is in the drive.

There are two types of releases: one for desktop and laptop computers and one for servers. The desktop and laptop version is available for x86 and x86-64 computers. The server edition is available for both platforms in addition to SPARC and does not ship as a Live CD (using the text-mode installer exclusively).

Accessibility

Ubuntu emphasizes accessibility and internationalisation, to reach as many people as possible. Since version 5.04, UTF-8 has been the default character encoding. High-visibility themes, screen-reading software, and an on-screen keyboard all come with Ubuntu.

Canonical's Rosetta tool is a part of the Launchpad web-based application which allows Ubuntu users to contribute translations of Ubuntu software in a straightforward way.

Ease of installation

Ubuntu is installed using a live CD (or LiveDistro). Users boot their computer from the CD instead of the hard disk. When they are ready to install, they launch an installer which guides them through the process.

Details of the installation process can be found on the main Ubuntu site and at Easy Ubuntu Linux.

After installation, Ubuntu also offers an automatic updating feature. With user permission, the system will find, retrieve, install, and configure software updates.

Community

Ubuntu places particular emphasis on community involvement with the development process.

Ubuntu has a number of official web forums where discussion of the operating system is encouraged. Canonical hosts a number of mailing listsdeveloper conferences remain open to users. Ubuntu's regular development conferences are open to the general public. for the project and the developer mailing lists and Ubuntu's

Users are encouraged to make use of The Fridge, a community weblog intended to keep users informed with Ubuntu-related news.

The Human user interface theme in Ubuntu is characterised by shades of brown and orange, with art intended to mimic African tribal imagery. Illustrations of human beings in global communities feature prominently in Ubuntu promotional artwork.

Package classification and support

Ubuntu divides all software into four sections, called components, to reflect differences in licensing and level of support available. The components are Main, Restricted, Universe and Multiverse.

Main and Universe contain software which meets the Ubuntu license requirements, which correspond roughly to the Debian Free Software Guidelines. Main may also contain binary firmware and selected fonts used in supported software that cannot be modified without permission. In all cases, redistribution is unencumbered.

Non-free device drivers remain in the Restricted component, where support is present because of their importance, but limited due to lack of, or limited, access to the source code.

It is intended that Main and Restricted contain all software needed for a general-use desktop operating system. Other, unsupported programs are placed in Universe (free) and Multiverse (Non-free). Multiverse contains software packages which may infringe on U.S. and international patent or copyright law. Examples of these include software that enables the playback of patented media formats. Due to the questionable legal status of unofficial DVD-decoding in some parts of the world, Libdvdcss was removed from Ubuntu's official repository, but can still be downloaded at the VideoLAN Project's website. Encoding and decoding libraries for many proprietary media formats such as Windows Media are also unavailable by default.

Ubuntu Backports is an officially recognized project to backport newer versions of certain software that are available only in unstable versions of Ubuntu. The repository is not comprehensive; it mostly consists of user-requested packages, which are approved if they meet quality guidelines.

Unofficial utilities such as EasyUbuntu and Automatix aim to automate the installation and configuration of software which is not officially packaged for Ubuntu for legal or philosophical reasons. They are not recommended by the Ubuntu development team and have been accused of breaking updates.

Ubuntu has a certification system for third-party proprietary software, and Canonical manage a special repository for certified proprietary packages named Commercial, which includes software that Canonical have obtained special permission to distribute. As of this writing, the repository includes the Opera web browser and the RealPlayer media player.

Releases

Each Ubuntu release has an alliterative code name and a version number based on the year and month of release (Example: April, 2007 saw the release of 7.04 Feisty Fawn). Canonical provides support and security updates for most Ubuntu versions for 18 months after release. There are three current versions of Ubuntu: 6.06 Dapper LTS (Long term support), 6.10 Edgy Eft and 7.04 Feisty Fawn.

List of releases

Changes in releases

The first release, 4.10, introduced an update manager and improved laptop capabilities. 5.04 was the first release to allow bugs to be reported via Launchpad. It also intoduced a graphical progress bar during boot-up. Third release, 6.06 LTS, was the first to include the Live CD and installer on the same disc. Four months later, 6.10 introduced automatic problem reports and a new startup manager called Upstart. The latest release, 7.04, includes wireless WPA support, easier installation of restricted codecs and optional desktop effects such as a wobble on moving a window. During the installation, wizard can detect Windows XP accounts and transfer data from them. There is also a KVM virtualisation support. The planned 7.10 release will include more graphical desktop effects, an unattended installation and more Click'N'Run options.

Comments

Add New Search

Write comment
Name:
Email:	do not notifynotify
Website:
Title:
UBBCode:	-color-aquablackbluefuchsiagraygreenlimemaroonnavyolivepurpleredsilvertealwhiteyellow -size-tinysmallmediumlargehuge
	Please input the anti-spam code that you can read in the image.

Powered by !JoomlaComment 3.20

3.20 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."