Vlogcanic

With three years of age, Ubuntu is a very young asset in the Linux world and yet it’s turned it upside down.

Ubuntu is a Linux distro based on Debian with a very strong emphasis on usability and ease of installation. The goal is to put Linux into the hands of inexperienced users –desktop users, specifically. Linux for human beings is the distro’s lemma.

Ubuntu Flavors.

Ubuntu is sponsored by Canonical Ltd., a southafrican corporation owned by Mark Suttleworth.

Ubuntu’s official GUI is Gnome. Every new version features the latest Gnome available but there are other official Ubuntu proyects supporting other GUIs: Kubuntu is the very same OS with a KDE desktop, Xubuntu is meant to be a lighter OS with Xfce in the graphical front in order to make it suitable for older systems and Edubuntu is oriented towards the use of Linux in classrooms and educational enviroments. While they are all officially supported by Canonical, Xubuntu remains something of an outsider and gets a bit less attention.

Despite being Debian-based, Ubuntu releases new versions much more frequently –their stated goal is to come up with a new release every six months. The version number is made up from the last digit in the release’s year dot the month’s (Ubuntu 6.06, for instance got released in June 2006). The ever growing Ubuntu fan base, however, is much fonder of using the code names assigned to every version (Dapper Drake for Ubuntu 6.06, Edgy Eft for 6.10, Feisty Fawn for 7.04, Gutsy Gibbon for the upcoming 7.10).

LiveCD format.

One of the factors fueling the current Ubuntu hype is the way it’s been released, as LiveCDs so that users whose interest in Linux is not big enough to repartition their harddisks can try it out by booting from the CD-ROM drive and getting their feet wet in a Linux system ready to deliver a lot of the software that an average desktop user needs. The system requirements, while not as low as say, Slackware, are benign enough that it’s usable in systems as old as the Pentium III.

Moreover, the LiveCD can also install Ubuntu to a harddisk so once you tried it out, you are a mere click away from a full internal installation. The process is quick, direct, simple… painless.

Besides the desktop LiveCD, two other LiveCDs are made available with each new release: an alternate install (meant for such things as OEM-like customers) and the server edition for hosting applications which installs no GUI.

Features.

Ubuntu promises and delivers an easy to use Linux system.

The standard Ubuntu LiveCD includes OpenOffice, Evolution, Firefox, some games and all the basic stuff you need to get Linux running. The package manage system is based on .deb packages.

It includes a root user but its disabled by default and activating it is strongly discouraged. In order to carry out the root’s common chores and other tasks the common user must use the sudo tool and the password for the default user (if enabled for administrative tasks) or the password for the user regsitered during the installation, if its the only user in the system.

The Hype.

Ubuntu has taken off quickly since it first appeared in 2004. It enticed both newbies and experts and the fan base has been growing steadily ever since. According some estimations something like 30% of the Linux desktop crowd is now hooked on Ubuntu –eight million users, by the end of last year. Finding Ubuntu at the top of the Distrowatch top distros list has become quite common as well as awards, good reviews and all those things that come included in the definition of hype.

Dell, one of the world’s biggest computer retailers just started to offer Ubuntu as a Windows replacement.

I think it’s allways a good idea to keep an Ubuntu LiveCD handy and ready to use as is or to install it in a moderately old machine to breath a bit of new life into it. But Ubuntu is still a very young distro with a fair share of hard work ahead so the wise thing to do probably is to avoid getting caught up in all the fuzz and stick to one of the good old distros (SUSE, Slackware, Fedora, you name it) for the more serious line of work.

Still, this is THE distro to keep an eye on for the time being as it is excerting a huge influence in the Linux world. It seems that even SUSE will take a page from Ubuntu’s book and make it possible to install your GUI of choice from one single CD in the upcoming OpenSUSE 10.3.

Ubuntu as a base for other distros.

• Kiwi Linux. Is Ubuntu tweaked to better fit the needs of hungarian a romanian users with the added boon of natively supported multimedia codecs and a different selection for media players.
• Pioneer. A Kubuntu-based commercial LiveCD aimed to the bussiness market. A free version is available for download while the retail package includes technical support for seven years.
• Linspire. The controversial distro announce an agreement with Canonical to slowly switch ther base technology to Ubuntu.
• Linux Mint. An effort by Clement Lefebvre and other developers to add an extra bit of usability to Ubuntu.