42 reviews

Ubuntu

Released October, 2008

The Pros:Regular releases every 6 months. Its FREE ! Significant online community offering news, advice, software & support.

The Cons:Often ignored by hardware vendors when writing drivers. Color management / monitor profile is difficult to establish (probably applies to all versions of Linux) -- this is essential for photographers. I have problem with openVPN client, it just need a little workaround which is not that easy for regular user.

Ubuntu is an open-source, freely distributed operating system based on Linux developed by Canonical Ltd. Ubuntu's first release was on October 20th, 2004 as a fork of the Debian GNU/Linux project. Ubuntu differs from its Linux roots because of 1) its emphasis on usability, 2) regular releases every 6 months, 3) ease of installation, 4) rarely requires command-line instructions of any kind.

These four factors make the Ubuntu operating system far more appealing to mainstream users over most other Linux distributions. Ubuntu can be installed on desktop PCs, laptops, servers, 64-bit systems, and Mac computers. The most recent release is, version 9.10, is nicknamed "Karmic Koala," and was released Oct, 2009. The next release is due in April of 2010.

The Ubuntu Promise

Ubuntu will always be free of charge, including enterprise releases and security updates.
Ubuntu comes with full commercial support from Canonical and hundreds of companies around the world.
Ubuntu includes the very best translations and accessibility infrastructure that the free software community has to offer.
Ubuntu CDs contain only free software applications; we encourage you to use free and open source software, improve it and pass it on.

Ubuntu Variants

Ubuntu has two main variants: the Desktop or Server edition. The Desktop edition is used general computing, and comes preloaded with software to surf the web, read email, create and edit documents and spreadsheets, and to play music. The server edition is used to run services such as, but not limited to, the Apache webserver, OpenSSH, Samba/NFS for a file fileserver, or CUPS for a print server.

Canonical Ltd, the complany that develops Ubuntu, is currently working a version of Ubuntu for MID's. It aims to support flash, media playback, Web 2.0 services, and productivity software. It will be customizable and integrate well with Internet services such as Facebook, Google, and Youtube.

Additionally, there are versions off Ubuntu specifically designed for different groups of applications:

Edubuntu, a distribution designed for classrooms using GNOME
Gobuntu, a free software distribution
Kubuntu, a desktop distribution using KDE rather than GNOME
Xubuntu, a "lightweight" distribution based on the Xfce desktop environment instead of GNOME
Ubuntu JeOS, "an efficient variant [...] configured specifically for virtual appliances"
Ubuntu Studio, a desktop distribution explicitly geared towards multimedia creation.

* source Wikipedia

Availability

Ubuntu is free, and will remain free. The desktop and server version can be downloaded from the Ubuntu website. All of the Ubuntu variants are free and can be downloaded as well from their respective websites. Ubuntu gives you the option to have a Ubuntu installation CD for either Ubuntu Desktop/Server, Kubuntu, or Edubuntu mailed to you, but delivery may take as long as 10 weeks, so downloading is strongly encouraged. The installation of the desktop operating system will take approximately 25 minutes. The current release is version 8.04 as of April 24th, 2008.

User Reviews (43)

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ProScore

Pros

31

Regular releases every 6 months
26

Its FREE !
21

Significant online community offering news, advice, software & support
21

'One-Click' Software install and Removal
21

One of the most beginner/user friendly Linux distributions.
19

Largely immune to Spyware / Malware / Viruses
19

ALL installation CD/DVDs contain a 'Live' image which lets you use and test ubuntu fully, without making any changes to your PC!
18

Infinitely customisable
18

Comes with FULL office suite as standard (Open Office).
12

Ubuntu OS incorporates an effective firewall - No need for 3rd party security applications.
11

online community can fix anything with linux and ubuntu and solves problems alot of people cannot figure out eg. driver issues
6

easier to fix than windows eg. full reinstall takes under half hour, XP/Vista At least an hour
3

Default GNOME GUI with optional KDE
3

Bugs in software that affect many users and critical security issues with OS and popular applications are addressed quickly and fixes available as soon as they developed
3

Usable and consistent interface that is constantly being improved
2

network configuration is fantastic, it's easy to switch from one network to another network without having to set up all back from square one
1

Huge repository of commercial-quality software available for free download & install.
0

Netbook remix version is fantastic, and makes other OSs seem bloated and hard to use.

Cons

14

Often ignored by hardware vendors when writing drivers.
3

Color management / monitor profile is difficult to establish (probably applies to all versions of Linux) -- this is essential for photographers
-2

I have problem with openVPN client, it just need a little workaround which is not that easy for regular user
-2

Connecting through webdav with MS Windows is more stable than through Ubuntu, eventhough I did it through ubuntu, but not that easy for regular user
-5

Broke support for a major group of Samsung Monitors in 8.04(+) and no fix is readily available or has been implemented to date
-5

If the kernel doesn't have a driver for your hardware, very little can be done to get it working

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What's on your mind? See more ProductWiki Talk

Erik: #ubuntu ProductWiki now runs on an Ubuntu-based MySQL and file server on the Amazon cloud. Dec 15, 11

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Erik: #ubuntu I've just installed 11.10 to work in Eclipse IDE for some Java programming after being away from Ubuntu for quite sometime. I have to say I am very impressed with what they've done in the last few years with the interface. Very easy to install in addition to Windows 7. Bravo! Nov 13, 11

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Fuse: #ubuntu Ubuntu's 6-month release cycle makes it sometimes come out not ready. In addition, not only does it force you to wait for the next release to get up-to-date software, but that doesn't even make the distribution stable. Nov 20, 10

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Michael R Ireland: #ubuntu NCIX has had Ubuntu discs available for sale for quite some time. When they are "on sale", the price is often as low as 50 cents. I do know that in the EULA (and other documentation), you are full allowed to resell the discs. I read something on a forum elsewhere some time ago that it has something to do with the sheer number of discs you want. More importanly, (according to what I have read elsewhere) when a company like NCIX acquires the discs from Canonical, they pay for them (at a seriously low price, I suspect), and then they are free to mark them up in order to profit. This is partly to allow the company to pre-install the OS on the computers they sell, and they will have commercial support from Canonical in the event they encounter problems. In any event, because it is such a phenominal (OPEN SOURCE) software suite, I fully support a little bit of financial gain; both for the source (canonical), and for the distributor (amazon, ncix, etc). It all works toward the benefit of Ubuntu as a whole! Mar 17, 10

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kdm: #ubuntu Not sure, but I know that there was talk of the 'sold' versions coming with canonical support. Dec 13, 08

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Manzabar: #ubuntu In a somewhat odd turn of events, you can now also buy a copy of Ubuntu from Best Buy or Amazon.com. Given that one can download it for free or even have a physical copy shipped to you at no cost, I'm not sure why anybody would buy a copy from but now you can. Jul 10, 08

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