Chapter 1. Introducing Ubuntu

• A Wild Ride

• Free Software, Open Source, and GNU/Linux

• A Brief History of Ubuntu

• What Is Ubuntu?

• Ubuntu Promises and Goals

• Canonical and the Ubuntu Foundation

• Ubuntu Subprojects, Derivatives, and Spin offs

• Summary

THIS CHAPTER INTRODUCES THE UBUNTU PROJECT, its distribution, its development processes, and some of the history that made it all possible. If you are looking to jump right in and get started with Ubuntu, turn right away to Chapter 2, Installing Ubuntu. If you are interested in first learning about where Ubuntu comes from and where it is going, this chapter will provide a good introduction.