Ubuntu

Communication Consultants

Paul Colmer & Associates

· Ubuntu is a computer operating system originally based on the Debian GNU/Linux distribution and distributed as free and open source software with additional proprietary software available.

· It is named after the Southern African philosophy of Ubuntu ("humanity towards others"). Ubuntu provides an up-to-date, stable operating system for the average user, with a strong focus on usability and ease of installation. Web statistics suggest that Bunt's share of Linux desktop usage is about 50 percent and upward trending usage as a web server.

· Ubuntu is composed of many software packages, of which the vast majority are distributed under a free software license (also known as Open Source). The main license used is the GNU General Public License (GNU GPL) which, along with the GNU Lesser General Public License (GNU LGPL), explicitly declares that users are free to run, copy, distribute, study, change, develop and improve the software. Ubuntu is sponsored by the UK-based company Canonical Ltd., owned by South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth. By keeping Ubuntu free and open source, Canonical is able to utilize the talents of community developers in Ubuntu's constituent components. Instead of selling Ubuntu for profit, Canonical creates revenue by selling technical support and from creating several services tied to Ubuntu.

· Canonical endorses and provides support for three additional Ubuntu-derived operating systems: Kubuntu, Edubuntu, also known as Ubuntu Education Edition, and Ubuntu Server Edition. There are several other derivative operating systems including local language and hardware-specific versions.

· Canonical releases new versions of Ubuntu every six months and supports Ubuntu for eighteen months by providing security fixes, patches to critical bugs and minor updates to programs. LTS (Long Term Support) versions, which are released every two years, are supported for three years on the desktop and five years for servers. The latest version of Ubuntu, 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat), was released on October 10, 2010.

· History and development process

· Ubuntu is a fork of the Debian project's code base. The original 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.

· Ubuntu releases are timed about one month after GNOME releases. In contrast to other forks of Debian, which extensively use proprietary and closed source add-ons, Ubuntu uses primarily 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). Debian and Ubuntu packages are not necessarily binary compatible with each other, however, and sometimes .deb packages may need to be rebuilt from source to be used in Ubuntu. Many Ubuntu developers are also maintainers of although there has been criticism that this does not happen often enough. In the past, Ian Murdock, the founder of Debian, has expressed concern about Ubuntu packages potentially 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 packagers then work to ensure that the frozen features interoperate well together.

· 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].

· Ubuntu 10.04, which was released on April 29, 2010, is the current Long Term Support (LTS) release. Canonical releases LTS versions every two years, with Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat as the latest normal version released on October 10, 2010.

· Features

· Ubuntu focuses on usability, security and stability. The Ubiquity installer allows Ubuntu to be installed to the hard disk from within the Live CD environment, without the need for restarting the computer prior to installation. Ubuntu also emphasizes accessibility and internationalization to reach as many people as possible. Beginning with 5.04, UTF-8 became the default character encoding, which allows for support of a variety of non-Roman scripts. As a security feature, the sudo tool is used to assign temporary privileges for performing administrative tasks, allowing the root account to remain locked, and preventing inexperienced users from inadvertently making catastrophic system changes or opening security holes. PolicyKit is also being widely implemented into the desktop to further harden the system through the principle of least privilege.

· Ubuntu comes installed with a wide range of software that includes OpenOffice.org, Firefox, Empathy (Pidgin in versions before 9.10), Transmission, GIMP (in versions prior to 10.04), and several lightweight games (such as Sudoku and chess). Additional software that is not installed by default can be downloaded and installed using the Ubuntu Software Centre or the package manager Synaptic, which come pre-installed. Ubuntu allows networking ports to be closed using its firewall, with customized port selection available. End-users can install Gufw (GUI for Uncomplicated Firewall) and keep it enabled. GNOME (the current default desktop) offers support for more than 46 languages. Ubuntu can also run many programs designed for Microsoft Windows (such as Microsoft Office), through Wine or using a Virtual Machine (such as VMware Workstation or VirtualBox).

· Free software Non-free software

· Package classification and support

· Ubuntu divides all software into four domains to reflect differences in licensing and the degree of support available. Some unsupported applications receive updates from community members, but not from Canonical Ltd.

· Free software includes only software that has met the Ubuntu licensing requirements, which roughly correspond to the Debian Free Software Guidelines. Exceptions, however, include firmware and fonts, in the Main category, because although they are not allowed to be modified, their distribution is otherwise unencumbered.

· Non-free software is usually unsupported (Multiverse), but some exceptions (Restricted) are made for important non-free software. Supported non-free software includes device drivers that can be used to run Ubuntu on some current hardware, such as binary-only graphics card drivers. The level of support in the Restricted category is more limited than that of Main, because the developers may not have access to the source code. It is intended that Main and Restricted should contain all software needed for a general-use GNU/Linux system.Alternative programs for the same tasks and programs for specialized applications are placed in the Universe and Multiverse categories.

· In addition to the above, in which the software does not receive new features after an initial release, Ubuntu Backports is an officially recognized repository for back porting newer software from later versions of Ubuntu. The repository is not comprehensive; it consists primarily of user-requested packages, which are approved if they meet quality guidelines. Backports receives no support at all from Canonical, and is entirely community-maintained.

· The -updates repository provides updates to stable releases of Ubuntu and are generally installed through update-manager. Each release is given its own -updates repository (e.g. intrepid-updates). The repository is supported by Canonical Ltd. for packages in main and restricted, and by the community for packages in universe and multiverse. All updates to the repository must meet certain requirements and go through the -proposed repository before being made available to the public. Updates will continue to be available until the end of life for the release.

· In addition to the -updates repository, the unstable -proposed repository contains uploads which must be confirmed before being copied into -updates. All updates must go through this process to ensure that the patch does truly fix the bug and there is no risk of regression. Updates in -proposed are confirmed by either Canonical or members of the community.

· Canonical's partner repository lets vendors of proprietary software deliver their products to Ubuntu users at no cost through the same familiar tools for installing and upgrading software. The software in the partner repository is officially supported with security and other important updates by its respective vendors. Canonical supports the packaging of the software for Ubuntu and provides guidance to vendors. The partner repository is disabled by default and can be enabled by the user. Some popular products distributed via the partner repository as of August 2010 are Adobe Flash Player, Adobe Reader, Skype and Sun Java.

· Availability of third-party software

· Ubuntu has a certification system for third party software. Some third-party software that does not limit distribution is included in Ubuntu's multiverse component. The package ubuntu-restricted-extras additionally contains software that may be legally restricted, including support for MP3 and DVD playback, Microsoft TrueType core fonts, Sun's Java runtime environment, Adobe's Flash Player plug-in, many common audio/video codec's, and unrar, an unarchiver for files compressed in the RAR file format.

· Additionally, several third party application suites are available for purchase through the Canonical web-based store, including software for DVD playback and media codec's.

· There are two Ubuntu releases per year, using the year and month of the release as the version number. The first Ubuntu release, for example, was Ubuntu 4.10 and was released on October 20, 2004.Version numbers for future versions are provisional; if the release is delayed the version number changes accordingly.

· There are two Ubuntu releases per year, using the year and month of the release as the version number. The first Ubuntu release, for example, was Ubuntu 4.10 and was released on October 20, 2004. Version numbers for future versions are provisional; if the release is delayed the version number changes accordingly

· Ubuntu releases are also given alliterative code names, using an adjective and an animal (e.g., "Dapper Drake" and "Intrepid Ibex"). With the exception of the first three releases, code names are in alphabetical order, allowing a quick determination of which release is newer. Commonly, Ubuntu releases are referred to using only the adjective portion of the code name.

· Releases are timed to be approximately one month after GNOME releases (which in turn are about one month after releases of X.org). Consequently, every Ubuntu release comes with an updated version of both GNOME and X. Selected releases (such as 6.06 Dapper Drake, 8.04 Hardy Heron and 10.04 Lucid Lynx) have been labelled as Long Term Support (LTS) versions, indicating that they are supported (with updates) for three years on the desktop and five years on the server, as compared to the 18-month support period for non-LTS releases.

· The current release is 10.10 Maverick Meerkat, released on October 10, 2010 (10/10/10). This is a departure from the traditional schedule releasing at the end of October to get "the perfect 10", and a playful reference to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, since, in binary, 101010 is equal to the number 42, the "Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life the Universe and Everything" within the series.

· Ubuntu 11.04 planned for April 28, 2011 will be code named "Natty Narwhal".

· Version Code name Release date

· 4.10 Warty Warthog 2004-10-20

· 5.04 Hoary Hedgehog 2005-04-08

· 5.10 Breezy Badger 2005-10-13

· 6.06 LTS Dapper Drake 2006-06-01

· 6.10 Edgy Eft 2006-10-26

· 7.04 Feisty Fawn 2007-04-19

· 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon 2007-10-18

· 8.04 LTS Hardy Heron 2008-04-24

· 8.10 Intrepid Ibex 2008-10-30

· 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope 2009-04-23

· 9.10 Karmic Koala 2009-10-29

· 10.04 LTS Lucid Lynx 2010-04-29

· 10.10 Maverick Meerkat 2010-10-10

· 11.04 Natty Narwhal 2011-04-28

· Reception

· Ubuntu was awarded the Reader Award for best Linux distribution at the 2005 LinuxWorld Conference and Expo in London, has been favourably reviewed in online and print publications and has won InfoWorld's 2007 Bossie Award for Best Open Source Client OS.

· In an August 2007 survey of 38,500 visitors on DesktopLinux.com, Ubuntu was the most popular distribution with 30.3% of respondents claiming to use it.

· The Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Macedonia deployed more than 180,000 Ubuntu GNU/Linux based classroom desktops, and has encouraged every student in the country to use Ubuntu-powered computer workstations.

· Ubuntu has also received negative assessments. In early 2008 PC World criticized the lack of an integrated desktop effects manager, although this did not prevent them from naming Ubuntu the "best all-around Linux distribution available today".

· In January 2009, the New York Times reported that Ubuntu had over ten million users and in June 2009 ZDNet reported, "Worldwide, there are 13 million active Ubuntu users with use growing faster than any other distribution."

· The French police are in the process of installing Ubuntu on 90,000 workstations, demonstrating a 70% saving on the IT budget without having to reduce its capabilities.

· In April 2010, Chris Kenyon, vice president for OEM at Canonical Ltd. estimated that there were 12 million Ubuntu users.