Ubuntu is world’s most popular Linux

Having taken the world by storm during the past year, Ubuntu is now the top Linux distribution on the planet. Perhaps more importantly, it is this week’s Website of the Week. All right, so that’s probably not quite as important. But it’s almost as important, right?

According to their website, Ubuntu is “an ancient African word, meaning humanity to others.” If you read about South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings, you will probably come across the word Ubuntu. The Linux distro shares a similar philosophy. Here is the Ubuntu Philosophy:

Software should be available free of charge, that software tools should be usable by people in their local language and despite any disabilities, and that people should have the freedom to customise and alter their software in whatever way they see fit.

Ubuntu strives to release a new version every six months and all of them are named for animals found in Africa. Here’s the list so far:

The version number tells you when each one was released. The number before the decimal point is the last digit of the year and the numbers after the decimal point are the month. For example, Breezy Badger was released in October 2005 and Dapper Drake is due in June of this year. The next version after Dapper will be called Edgy Eft and is scheduled for October of this year.

I actually just started using Ubuntu this week though I’ve been reading about it ever since the project started. Having used other flavors of Linux, I was immediately impressed with how Ubuntu just worked without a lot of fiddling around. Updating all of the packages in Breezy took just a couple of mouse clicks. I’ll keep exploring and posting my thoughts as I get more familiar with it, but I’m already sold on its ease of use and its philosophy. Free software in everyone’s native language sounds like a worthwhile objective to me.

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April 29, 2006 | Filed Under Africa, Open source, Website of the Week 

Comments

2 Responses to “Ubuntu is world’s most popular Linux”

  1. General Baggz on August 3rd, 2006 1:07 am

    I still prefer Free BSD. Although I have never tried Ubuntu, sounds like a purdy nice OS. Looks like you’ve been getting into some happy stuff.

  2. Heather on September 8th, 2006 9:31 am

    Hi! I’m just starting to learn about Linux. I’m researching the compatibilty of my hardware right now. I heard Red Hat was good for beginners so I’m looking on their website. Just a couple questions..

    1. I’m not finding anything about HD’s. Are they all supported then?

    2. I did see some compatible motherboards.. Does that mean that certain motherboards aren’t going to work?

    3. What ways (short of writing my own drivers) are available to work around incompatibilites with a particular Linux distribution? In other words, can you download drivers etc or is it not that simple?

    4. I want to put it on its own excusive HD, and sometime after Christmas build a whole new computer for it from scratch. Am I going to have a lot of trouble with newer motherboards?(533MHz/Rambus/ATA 133)

    Thanx

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