Chapter 1. Introducing Ubuntu


IN THIS CHAPTER

  • What Is Ubuntu?

  • Ubuntu for Business

  • Ubuntu in Your Home

  • 64-Bit Ubuntu

  • Ubuntu on the PPC Platform

  • Ubuntu on Dual-Core Machines

  • Getting the Most from Ubuntu and Linux Documentation

  • Ubuntu Developers and Documentation

  • Reference

Welcome to Ubuntu Unleashed! Ubuntu is the fastest-growing Linux distribution in the world today, being developed and maintained by the Ubuntu Foundation, with backing from multimillionaire Mark Shuttleworth and Canonical Software. Ubuntu is an African word that encompasses many different meanings, but can be interpreted as "through one, we are many," reflecting the collaboration that takes place to bring a Linux distribution such as Ubuntu through development and release.

Ubuntu is extremely popular, having occupied the top spot at Distrowatch.com for many months, but it is also built upon one of the most stable and secure distributions, Debian. Described as Ubuntu's rock on which it is founded, Debian offers a number of key benefits that the Ubuntu distribution can make use of. However, Ubuntu is also quite different from Debian, as you will find out in this book.

Ubuntu is a free distribution and is supported mainly by the lively and helpful community that occupies the forums and mailing lists. However, a number of business partners can provide commercial support for Ubuntu, and even some OEMs provide Ubuntu preinstalled on computers. Despite being a relative newcomer to the Linux distribution world, having launched their first version in October 2004, Ubuntu has made huge waves throughout the Linux community. Acclaimed for its ease of use and the way that things "just work," Ubuntu has won many awards across the continents of the world.

Initially released just by itself, Ubuntu now has a number of stable-mates that fall under the Ubuntu banner. Ubuntu itself ships with the GNOME window manager by default, but there is also Kubuntu, which uses the KDE window manager, Xubuntu, which uses the Xfce window manager, and even Edubuntu, a version of Ubuntu specifically designed for educational and academic institutions. All of them share a common code base, and each version comes on a single install CD, making it easy to redistribute copies of Ubuntu. In fact, Ubuntu actually ship CDs for free if you want extra copies. At the moment, you can only receive the Ubuntu distribution, but you can request either x86 or PPC versions, and each pack comes with an install CD and a live CD. Work is afoot to offer the Kubuntu distribution through the same CD distribution program.

About Debian

As mentioned earlier, Ubuntu is built upon and takes many features from Debian Linux. Debian itself is one of the oldest Linux distributions and can trace its development back to 1993. Ian Murdock established the Debian Manifesto, calling for the open and collaborative development of a Linux distribution and used his name and the name of his then-girlfriend and now wife, Debra, to come up with the name.

The Debian distribution is commonly regarded as the most stable and one of the most secure distributions currently available. It is also totally noncommercial, having strict guidelines in place to ensure that only true free software (as in speech) is available through Debian.

Having such a solid background, it is only natural that other distributions base themselves on Debian; and at the time of writing, some 52 distributions can trace their heritage back to Debian. Popular distros such as Linspire, Xandros, and the very useful Knoppix Live CD all use Debian at their core.


Linux is so successful for many reasons. Perhaps the most important one is that it fills a genuine need. Not only can people deploy the software as is, but if they need it to work in a specific way, they can work with the source code, the very building blocks of the software, to manipulate the programs themselves and change the way they work. This kind of openness is unheard of in the software world, but it is a key benefit of Linux. Early inroads were made for Linux in the server rooms, running applications such as web, email, and file servers. With the continued development of the various distributions and the applications and window managers, it is now becoming more and more common to find Linux on the desktop.

UNIX was also very popular when it came into the world during the 1970s. However, restrictive licensing and what has since become known as the UNIX wars managed to stifle significant development and standardization, leading to Microsoft getting through the back door with the vastly inferior Windows NT. Nowadays, Microsoft has a real battle on their hands to stop Linux from dominating the server market.

What it comes down to is this: You are holding in your hands software that if it were developed commercially is estimated at costing $1.9 billion. More than 55 million lines of source code are present in Linux, with the collective development work of thousands of open source developers across the world contributing directly to Linux.

Nowadays, it is fairly common to see reports of companies moving to Linux. In fact, it is more likely to be government authorities that are seeking to extricate themselves from the grip of Redmond. With more choice and significant cost savings to be had, more and more businesses are waking up to the fact that Linux makes sense. Nowadays, you will be hard-pressed to find many companies that do not use Linux in some shape or form, even if it is just on a machine acting as a router or firewall.

Note

The list of Linux projects, efforts, and partnerships reads like a Who's Who of the software industry: Amazon, Ameritrade, Borland, Computer Associates, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Oracle, and SAP are just some of the enterprise-level players using Linux. Linux is also a key ingredient and shares an ever-increasing portion of server hardware sales from all large vendors, such as IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and Dell. The cost savings are significant, especially considering Linux use in Blade server environments, where 1 chassis can hold 14 servers. The licensing money saved alone over Windows runs in to thousands of dollars.




Ubuntu Unleashed
Ubuntu Unleashed 2011 Edition: Covering 10.10 and 11.04 (6th Edition)
ISBN: 0672333449
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 318

flylib.com © 2008-2017.
If you may any questions please contact us: flylib@qtcs.net