Ubuntu Linux

From ArticleWorld


Ubuntu Linux is a Linux distribution designed for accessibility and complete functionality out of the box. It is a desktop distribution aimed at Linux beginners, but fully customizable and equally usable by advanced users.

Ubuntu Linux addheres fervently to the open source principles. Although it is sponsored by a corporation, Canonical Ltd., it is intended to remain free software and its developers are strongly committed to making Ubuntu stay so.

Ubuntu got its name from an African word (Ubuntu), roughly meaning "humanity towards others".

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Features

Ubuntu is specially made to fit one CD, allowing it to be distributed both as an installable, full-fledged distribution, and also as a Live-CD.

Out of the box, Ubuntu Linux includes the Gnome desktop environment with a complete set of features for desktop. It comes bundled with OpenOffice.org, Mozilla Firefox and a number of other desktop-oriented applications. Ubuntu is strongly tied to the Gnome desktop, synchronizing all their releases with the Gnome Desktop Environment releases.

It is intended to be as accessible as possible. Therefore, Ubuntu Linux has complete support for internationalization and special accessibility features, as well as full UTF-8 support.

Ubuntu is based upon Debian's APT package management system. Ubuntu is strongly related to the Debian project in fact, many of the packages being based on Debian's unstable branch. The Ubuntu Linux developers commit all changes to the Debian system immediately.

There are some distinctive features of Ubuntu in the way it approaches the idea of a Linux/Unix desktop environment. It emphasizes usability, testing desktop themes and tools extensively. It uses the sudo utility more frequently than other distributions, comparable to the way it is used in Mac OS X.

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Proprietary software

Since it aims to provide a complete open-source desktop environment, Ubuntu has a standardized certification system regarding proprietary software. Many non-free packages are not available, one thing for which Ubuntu has received some criticism. For example, Sun's JRE is not distributed, and neither are the libraries required to encode or decode proprietary media formats.

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