Ubuntu ( )
is a
Linux distribution
A Linux distribution (often abbreviated as distro) is an operating system made from a software collection that includes the Linux kernel and, often, a package management system. Linux users usually obtain their operating system by downloading one ...
based on
Debian
Debian (), also known as Debian GNU/Linux, is a Linux distribution composed of free and open-source software, developed by the community-supported Debian Project, which was established by Ian Murdock on August 16, 1993. The first version of D ...
and composed mostly of
free and open-source software
Free and open-source software (FOSS) is a term used to refer to groups of software consisting of both free software and open-source software where anyone is freely licensed to use, copy, study, and change the software in any way, and the source ...
. Ubuntu is officially released in three editions: ''
Desktop'', ''
Server
Server may refer to:
Computing
*Server (computing), a computer program or a device that provides functionality for other programs or devices, called clients
Role
* Waiting staff, those who work at a restaurant or a bar attending customers and su ...
'', and ''Core'' for
Internet of things
The Internet of things (IoT) describes physical objects (or groups of such objects) with sensors, processing ability, software and other technologies that connect and exchange data with other devices and systems over the Internet or other comm ...
devices and
robot
A robot is a machine—especially one programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the control may be embedded within. Robots may be c ...
s. All the editions can run on the computer alone, or in a
virtual machine
In computing, a virtual machine (VM) is the virtualization/emulation of a computer system. Virtual machines are based on computer architectures and provide functionality of a physical computer. Their implementations may involve specialized hardw ...
.
Ubuntu is a popular
operating system
An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs.
Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also in ...
for
cloud computing
Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage ( cloud storage) and computing power, without direct active management by the user. Large clouds often have functions distributed over mul ...
, with support for
OpenStack. Ubuntu's default desktop changed back from the in-house
Unity
Unity may refer to:
Buildings
* Unity Building, Oregon, Illinois, US; a historic building
* Unity Building (Chicago), Illinois, US; a skyscraper
* Unity Buildings, Liverpool, UK; two buildings in England
* Unity Chapel, Wyoming, Wisconsin, US; a h ...
to
GNOME
A gnome is a mythological creature and diminutive spirit in Renaissance magic and alchemy, first introduced by Paracelsus in the 16th century and later adopted by more recent authors including those of modern fantasy literature. Its characte ...
after nearly 6.5 years in 2017 upon the release of version
17.10.
Ubuntu is released every six months, with
long-term support (LTS) releases every two years.
, the most-recent release is
22.10 ("Kinetic Kudu"), and the current long-term support release is
22.04 ("Jammy Jellyfish").
Ubuntu is
developed by British company
Canonical, and a community of other developers, under a
meritocratic
Meritocracy (''merit'', from Latin , and ''-cracy'', from Ancient Greek 'strength, power') is the notion of a political system in which economic goods and/or political power are vested in individual people based on talent, effort, and achieve ...
governance model.
Canonical provides security updates and support for each Ubuntu release, starting from the release date and until the release reaches its designated
end-of-life (EOL) date.
Canonical generates revenue through the sale of premium services related to Ubuntu and donations from those who download the Ubuntu software.
Ubuntu is named after the
Nguni philosophy of ', which Canonical indicates means "humanity to others" with a connotation of "I am what I am because of who we all are".
Background
Ubuntu is built on
Debian
Debian (), also known as Debian GNU/Linux, is a Linux distribution composed of free and open-source software, developed by the community-supported Debian Project, which was established by Ian Murdock on August 16, 1993. The first version of D ...
's architecture and infrastructure, and comprises Linux server, desktop and discontinued phone and tablet operating system versions.
Ubuntu releases updated versions predictably every six months,
and each release receives free support for nine months (eighteen months prior to 13.04)
with security fixes, high-impact bug fixes and conservative, substantially beneficial low-risk bug fixes.
The first release was in October 2004.
Current
long-term support (LTS) releases are supported for five years, and are released every two years. Since the release of Ubuntu 6.06, every fourth release receives long-term support.
Long-term support includes updates for new hardware, security patches and updates to the 'Ubuntu stack' (cloud computing infrastructure).
The first LTS releases were supported for three years on the desktop and five years on the server; since Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, desktop support for LTS releases was increased to five years as well.
LTS releases get regular point releases with support for new hardware and integration of all the updates published in that series to date.
Ubuntu packages are based on packages from Debian's unstable branch, which are synchronised every six months. Both distributions use Debian's
deb package format and
package management
A package manager or package-management system is a collection of software tools that automates the process of installing, upgrading, configuring, and removing computer programs for a computer in a consistent manner.
A package manager deals wi ...
tools (e.g.
APT and
Ubuntu Software). Debian and Ubuntu packages are not necessarily
binary compatible with each other, however, so packages may need to be rebuilt from
source to be used in Ubuntu. Many Ubuntu developers are also maintainers of key packages within Debian. Ubuntu cooperates with Debian by pushing changes back to Debian,
although there has been criticism that this does not happen often enough.
Ian Murdock
Ian Ashley Murdock (April28, 1973 – December 28, 2015) was an American software engineer, known for being the founder of the Debian project and Progeny Linux Systems, a commercial Linux company.
Life and career
Although Murdock's parents were ...
, the founder of Debian, had expressed concern about Ubuntu packages potentially diverging too far from Debian to remain compatible.
Before release, packages are imported from
Debian unstable continuously and merged with Ubuntu-specific modifications. One month before release, imports are
frozen
Frozen may refer to:
* the result of freezing
* a paralysis response in extreme cases of fear
Films
* ''Frozen'' (1997 film), a film by Wang Xiaoshuai
* ''Frozen'' (2005 film), a film by Juliet McKoen
* ''Frozen'' (2007 film), a film by Sh ...
, and packagers then work to ensure that the frozen features interoperate well together.
Ubuntu is currently funded by
Canonical Ltd. On 8 July 2005,
Mark Shuttleworth
Mark Richard Shuttleworth (born 18 September 1973) is a South African and British entrepreneur who is the founder and CEO of Canonical, the company behind the development of the Linux-based Ubuntu operating system. In 2002, Shuttleworth became ...
and Canonical announced the creation of the Ubuntu Foundation and provided initial funding of US$10 million. The purpose of the foundation is to ensure the support and
development for all future versions of Ubuntu. Mark Shuttleworth describes the foundation goal as to ensure the continuity of the Ubuntu project.
On 12 March 2009, Ubuntu announced developer support for third-party
cloud
In meteorology, a cloud is an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of miniature liquid droplets, frozen crystals, or other particles suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body or similar space. Water or various other chemicals may co ...
management platforms, such as those used at
Amazon EC2
Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) is a part of Amazon.com's cloud-computing platform, Amazon Web Services (AWS), that allows users to rent virtual computers on which to run their own computer applications. EC2 encourages scalable deployment of ...
.
32-bit
In computer architecture, 32-bit computing refers to computer systems with a processor, memory, and other major system components that operate on data in 32-bit units. Compared to smaller bit widths, 32-bit computers can perform large calculation ...
x86
x86 (also known as 80x86 or the 8086 family) is a family of complex instruction set computer (CISC) instruction set architectures initially developed by Intel based on the Intel 8086 microprocessor and its 8088 variant. The 8086 was introd ...
processors were supported up to Ubuntu 18.04. It was decided to support "
legacy software
In computing, a legacy system is an old method, technology, computer system, or application program, "of, relating to, or being a previous or outdated computer system", yet still in use. Often referencing a system as "legacy" means that it paved ...
", i.e. select 32-bit i386 packages for Ubuntu 19.10 and 20.04 LTS.
Features
A
default
Default may refer to:
Law
* Default (law), the failure to do something required by law
** Default (finance), failure to satisfy the terms of a loan obligation or failure to pay back a loan
** Default judgment, a binding judgment in favor of ei ...
installation of Ubuntu contains a wide range of software that includes
LibreOffice,
Firefox,
Thunderbird,
Transmission
Transmission may refer to:
Medicine, science and technology
* Power transmission
** Electric power transmission
** Propulsion transmission, technology allowing controlled application of power
*** Automatic transmission
*** Manual transmission
*** ...
, and several lightweight games such as
Sudoku and
Mines. Many additional software packages are accessible from the built in
Ubuntu Software (previously
Ubuntu Software Center) as well as any other APT-based
package management
A package manager or package-management system is a collection of software tools that automates the process of installing, upgrading, configuring, and removing computer programs for a computer in a consistent manner.
A package manager deals wi ...
tools. Many additional software packages that are no longer installed by default, such as
Evolution
Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...
,
GIMP
GIMP ( ; GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a free and open-source raster graphics editor used for image manipulation (retouching) and image editing, free-form drawing, transcoding between different image file formats, and more specialized task ...
,
Pidgin
A pidgin , or pidgin language, is a grammatically simplified means of communication that develops between two or more groups of people that do not have a language in common: typically, its vocabulary and grammar are limited and often drawn from s ...
, and
Synaptic, are still accessible in the repositories and installable by the main tool or by any other APT-based package management tool. Cross-distribution
snap packages and
flatpaks are also available,
that both allow installing software, such as some of Microsoft's software, in most of the major Linux operating systems (such as any currently supported Ubuntu version and in
Fedora
A fedora () is a hat with a soft brim and indented crown.Kilgour, Ruth Edwards (1958). ''A Pageant of Hats Ancient and Modern''. R. M. McBride Company. It is typically creased lengthwise down the crown and "pinched" near the front on both sides ...
). The default file manager is
GNOME Files
GNOME Files, formerly and internally known as Nautilus, is the official file manager for the GNOME desktop. Nautilus was originally developed by Eazel with many luminaries from the tech world including Andy Hertzfeld (Apple), chief architect for ...
, formerly called Nautilus.
All of the application software installed by default is free software. In addition, Ubuntu redistributes some hardware drivers that are available only in binary format, but such packages are clearly marked in the restricted component.
Security
Ubuntu aims to be
secure by default. User programs run with
low privileges and cannot corrupt the operating system or other users' files. For increased security, the
sudo
sudo ( or ) is a program for Unix-like computer operating systems that enables users to run programs with the security privileges of another user, by default the superuser. It originally stood for "superuser do", as that was all it did, and it i ...
tool is used to assign temporary privileges for performing administrative tasks, which allows the
root account to remain locked and helps prevent inexperienced users from inadvertently making catastrophic system changes or opening security holes.
Polkit
Polkit (formerly PolicyKit) is a component for controlling system-wide privileges in Unix-like operating systems. It provides an organized way for non-privileged processes to communicate with privileged ones. Polkit allows a level of control ...
is also being widely implemented into the desktop.
Most network ports are closed by default to prevent hacking. A built-in
firewall
Firewall may refer to:
* Firewall (computing), a technological barrier designed to prevent unauthorized or unwanted communications between computer networks or hosts
* Firewall (construction), a barrier inside a building, designed to limit the spre ...
allows end-users who install network servers to control access. A
GUI
The GUI ( "UI" by itself is still usually pronounced . or ), graphical user interface, is a form of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices through graphical icons and audio indicator such as primary notation, inste ...
(
GUI for Uncomplicated Firewall) is available to configure it. Ubuntu compiles its packages using
GCC features such as
PIE
A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough casing that contains a filling of various sweet or savoury ingredients. Sweet pies may be filled with fruit (as in an apple pie), nuts ( pecan pie), brown sugar ( sugar pie), swe ...
and
buffer overflow protection Buffer overflow protection is any of various techniques used during software development to enhance the security of executable programs by detecting buffer overflows on stack-allocated variables, and preventing them from causing program misbehavior ...
to
harden its software. These extra features greatly increase security at the performance expense of 0.01% in
64-bit
In computer architecture, 64-bit Integer (computer science), integers, memory addresses, or other Data (computing), data units are those that are 64 bits wide. Also, 64-bit central processing unit, CPUs and arithmetic logic unit, ALUs are those ...
.
Ubuntu also supports full disk encryption as well as encryption of the home and private directories.
Installation
The system requirements vary among Ubuntu products. For the Ubuntu desktop release 22.04 LTS, a PC with at least 2 GHz
dual-core
A multi-core processor is a microprocessor on a single integrated circuit with two or more separate processing units, called cores, each of which reads and executes program instructions. The instructions are ordinary CPU instructions (such a ...
processor, 4
GB of
RAM and 25
GB of free disk space is recommended. For less powerful computers, there are other Ubuntu distributions such as
Lubuntu
Lubuntu ( ) is a lightweight Linux distribution based on Ubuntu and uses the LXQt desktop environment in place of Ubuntu's GNOME desktop. Lubuntu was originally touted as being "lighter, less resource hungry and more energy-efficient", but now ...
and
Xubuntu
Xubuntu () is a Canonical Ltd.–recognized, community-maintained derivative of the Ubuntu operating system. The name ''Xubuntu'' is a portmanteau of ''Xfce'' and ''Ubuntu'', as it uses the Xfce desktop environment, instead of Ubuntu's Unity a ...
. Ubuntu also supports the
ARM architecture
ARM (stylised in lowercase as arm, formerly an acronym for Advanced RISC Machines and originally Acorn RISC Machine) is a family of reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architectures for computer processors, configured ...
.
It is also available on
Power ISA
Power ISA is a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture (ISA) currently developed by the OpenPOWER Foundation, led by IBM. It was originally developed by IBM and the now-defunct Power.org industry group. Power IS ...
,
while older
PowerPC
PowerPC (with the backronym Performance Optimization With Enhanced RISC – Performance Computing, sometimes abbreviated as PPC) is a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture (ISA) created by the 1991 Apple Inc., App ...
architecture was at one point unofficially supported, and now newer
Power ISA
Power ISA is a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture (ISA) currently developed by the OpenPOWER Foundation, led by IBM. It was originally developed by IBM and the now-defunct Power.org industry group. Power IS ...
CPUs (
POWER8) are supported. The
x86-64
x86-64 (also known as x64, x86_64, AMD64, and Intel 64) is a 64-bit version of the x86 instruction set, first released in 1999. It introduced two new modes of operation, 64-bit mode and compatibility mode, along with a new 4-level paging mod ...
("AMD64") architecture is also officially supported.
Live image
A live USB is a portable USB-attached external data storage device containing a full operating system that can be booted from. The term is reminiscent of USB flash drives but may encompass an external hard disk drive or solid-state drive, tho ...
s are the typical way for users to assess and subsequently install Ubuntu. These can be downloaded as a disk image (
.iso
An optical disc image (or ISO image, from the ISO 9660 file system used with CD-ROM media) is a disk image that contains everything that would be written to an optical disc, disk sector by disc sector, including the optical disc file system. I ...
) and subsequently burnt to a DVD or USB flash drive and then booted. Other methods include running the live version via
UNetbootin
UNetbootin (Universal Netboot Installer) is a cross-platform utility that can create live USB systems and can load a variety of system utilities or install various Linux distributions and other operating systems without a CD.
Modes USB instal ...
, or Startup Disk Creator (a pre-installed tool on Ubuntu, available on machines already running the OS) directly from a USB drive (making, respectively, a
live DVD or
live USB
A live USB is a portable USB-attached external data storage device containing a full operating system that can be booted from. The term is reminiscent of USB flash drives but may encompass an external hard disk drive or solid-state drive, thou ...
medium). Running Ubuntu in this way is slower than running it from a
hard drive
A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magnet ...
, but does not alter the computer unless specifically instructed by the user. If the user chooses to boot the live image rather than execute an installer at boot time, there is still the option to then use an installer called
Ubiquity
Ubiquity is a synonym for omnipresence, the property of being present everywhere.
Ubiquity may also refer to:
* Ubiquity (software), a simple graphical installer made for the Ubuntu operating system
* Ubiquity (Firefox), an experimental extensi ...
to install Ubuntu once booted into the live environment.
Disk image
A disk image, in computing, is a computer file containing the contents and structure of a disk volume or of an entire data storage device, such as a hard disk drive, tape drive, floppy disk, optical disc, or USB flash drive. A disk image is us ...
s of all current and past versions are available for download at the Ubuntu web site.
Additionally,
USB flash drive
A USB flash drive (also called a thumb drive) is a data storage device that includes flash memory with an integrated USB interface. It is typically removable, rewritable and much smaller than an optical disc. Most weigh less than . Since firs ...
installations can be used to boot Ubuntu and
Kubuntu
Kubuntu ( ) is an official flavor of the Ubuntu operating system that uses the KDE Plasma Desktop instead of the GNOME desktop environment. As part of the Ubuntu project, Kubuntu uses the same underlying systems. Kubuntu shares the same repositor ...
in a way that allows permanent saving of user settings and portability of the USB-installed system between physical machines (however, the computers'
BIOS
In computing, BIOS (, ; Basic Input/Output System, also known as the System BIOS, ROM BIOS, BIOS ROM or PC BIOS) is firmware used to provide runtime services for operating systems and programs and to perform hardware initialization during the ...
must support booting from USB).
In newer versions of Ubuntu, the
Ubuntu Live USB creator
Startup Disk Creator (USB-creator) is an official tool to create Live USBs of Ubuntu from the Live CD or from an ISO image. The tool is included by default in all releases after Ubuntu 8.04, and can be installed on Ubuntu 8.04. A KDE frontend was ...
can be used to install Ubuntu on a USB drive (with or without a live CD or DVD). Creating a bootable USB drive with
persistence is as simple as dragging a slider to determine how much space to reserve for persistence; for this, Ubuntu employs
casper
Casper may refer to:
People
* Casper (given name)
* Casper (surname)
* Casper (Maya ruler) (422–487?), ruler of the Mayan city of Palenque
* Tok Casper, first known king of Maya city-state Quiriguá in Guatemala, ruling beginning in 426
* David ...
.
Package classification and support
Ubuntu divides most software into four domains to reflect differences in licensing and the degree of support available.
Some unsupported applications receive updates from community members, but not from Canonical Ltd.
Free software includes software that has met the Ubuntu licensing requirements,
which roughly correspond to the
Debian Free Software Guidelines. Exceptions, however, include
firmware
In computing, firmware is a specific class of computer software that provides the low-level control for a device's specific hardware. Firmware, such as the BIOS of a personal computer, may contain basic functions of a device, and may provide h ...
, in the Main category, because although
some firmware is not allowed to be modified, its distribution is still permitted.
Non-free software is usually unsupported (Multiverse), but some exceptions (Restricted) are made for important non-free software. Supported non-free software includes device drivers that can be used to run Ubuntu on some current hardware, such as binary-only
graphics card
A graphics card (also called a video card, display card, graphics adapter, VGA card/VGA, video adapter, display adapter, or mistakenly GPU) is an expansion card which generates a feed of output images to a display device, such as a computer moni ...
drivers. The level of support in the Restricted category is more limited than that of Main, because the developers may not have access to the
source code
In computing, source code, or simply code, is any collection of code, with or without comments, written using a human-readable programming language, usually as plain text. The source code of a program is specially designed to facilitate the wo ...
. It is intended that Main and Restricted should contain all software needed for a complete desktop environment.
Alternative programs for the same tasks and programs for specialized applications are placed in the Universe and Multiverse categories.
In addition to the above, in which the software
does not receive new features after an initial release, ''Ubuntu Backports'' is an officially recognized repository for
backporting newer software from later versions of Ubuntu. The repository is not comprehensive; it consists primarily of user-requested packages, which are approved if they meet quality guidelines. Backports receives no support at all from Canonical, and is entirely community-maintained.
The ''-updates'' repository provides stable release updates (SRU) of Ubuntu and are generally installed through update-manager. Each release is given its own -updates repository (e.g. intrepid-updates). The repository is supported by Canonical Ltd. for packages in main and restricted, and by the community for packages in universe and multiverse. All updates to the repository must meet certain requirements and go through the ''-proposed'' repository before being made available to the public. Updates are scheduled to be available until the end of life for the release.
In addition to the -updates repository, the unstable ''-proposed'' repository contains uploads that must be confirmed before being copied into -updates. All updates must go through this process to ensure that the patch does truly fix the bug and there is no risk of
regression
Regression or regressions may refer to:
Science
* Marine regression, coastal advance due to falling sea level, the opposite of marine transgression
* Regression (medicine), a characteristic of diseases to express lighter symptoms or less extent ( ...
. Updates in -proposed are confirmed by either Canonical or members of the community.
Canonical's partner repository lets vendors of proprietary software deliver their products to Ubuntu users at no cost through the same familiar tools for installing and upgrading software.
The software in the partner repository is officially supported with security and other important updates by its respective vendors. Canonical supports the packaging of the software for Ubuntu
and provides guidance to vendors.
The partner repository is disabled by default and can be enabled by the user. Some popular products distributed via the partner repository are
Adobe Flash Player
Adobe Flash Player (known in Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Google Chrome as Shockwave Flash) is Software, computer software for viewing multimedia contents, executing rich Internet applications, and streaming media, streaming audio and vide ...
,
Adobe Reader and
Skype
Skype () is a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for VoIP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also has instant messaging, file transfer, deb ...
. The free software
Wine
Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...
compatibility layer can be installed to allow users to run Windows software.
Package Archives
A Personal Package Archive (PPA) is a
software repository for uploading source packages to be built and published as an
Advanced Packaging Tool
Advanced package tool, or APT, is a free-software user interface that works with core libraries to handle the installation and removal of software on Debian, and Debian-based Linux distributions. APT simplifies the process of managing software ...
(APT) repository by
Launchpad
A launch pad is an above-ground platform from which rocket- missiles or space launch vehicles take off vertically.
Launch pad may also refer to:
Computing
* Launchpad (macOS), an application launcher introduced in Mac OS X Lion
* Launch Pad (s ...
. While the term is used exclusively within Ubuntu, Launchpad's host,
Canonical, envisions adoption beyond the Ubuntu community.
Third-party software
Some third-party software that does not limit distribution is included in Ubuntu's multiverse component. The package ''
ubuntu-restricted-extras
Ubuntu Restricted Extras is a software package for the computer operating system Ubuntu that allows the user to install essential software which is not already included due to legal or copyright reasons.
It is a meta-package that installs:
*Supp ...
'' additionally contains software that may be legally restricted, including support for
MP3 and
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...
playback,
Microsoft TrueType core fonts
Core fonts for the Web was a project started by Microsoft in 1996 to create a standard pack of fonts for the World Wide Web. It included the proprietary fonts Andalé Mono, Arial, Arial Black, Comic Sans MS, Courier New, Georgia, Impact, Times Ne ...
,
Sun's Java runtime environment,
Adobe's Flash Player plugin, many common audio/video
codecs, and unrar, an unarchiver for files compressed in the
RAR file format.
Additionally, third-party application suites are available for download via Ubuntu Software and the
Snap store, including many games such as
Braid
A braid (also referred to as a plait) is a complex structure or pattern formed by interlacing two or more strands of flexible material such as textile yarns, wire, or hair.
The simplest and most common version is a flat, solid, three-strande ...
,
Minecraft
''Minecraft'' is a sandbox game developed by Mojang Studios. The game was created by Markus "Notch" Persson in the Java programming language. Following several early private testing versions, it was first made public in May 2009 before being ...
and
Oil Rush
''Oil Rush'' is a tower defense real-time strategy game developed by UNIGINE Holding S.à r.l. using their Unigine engine technology. Set in a flooded, post-apocalyptic world, the game consists of players fighting over control of the world's las ...
, software for DVD playback and media codecs.
Releases
Each Ubuntu release has a
version number
Software versioning is the process of assigning either unique ''version names'' or unique ''version numbers'' to unique states of computer software. Within a given version number category (e.g., major or minor), these numbers are generally assig ...
that consists of the year and month number of the release. For example, the first release was Ubuntu 4.10 as it was released on 20 October 2004.
Ubuntu releases are also given
alliterative code name
A code name, call sign or cryptonym is a code word or name used, sometimes clandestinely, to refer to another name, word, project, or person. Code names are often used for military purposes, or in espionage. They may also be used in industrial c ...
s, using an adjective and an animal (e.g. "Xenial
Xerus"). With the exception of the first two releases, code names are in alphabetical order, allowing a quick determination of which release is newer, at least until restarting the cycle with the release of ''Artful Aardvark'' in October 2017.
Commonly, Ubuntu releases are referred to using only the adjective portion of the code name; for example, the 18.04 LTS release is commonly known as "Bionic". Releases are timed to be approximately one month after GNOME releases.
Upgrades from one
LTS release to the next LTS release (e.g. Ubuntu 16.04 LTS to Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and then to Ubuntu 20.04 LTS) are supported, while upgrades from non-LTS have only supported upgrade to the next release, regardless of its LTS status (e.g. Ubuntu 15.10 to Ubuntu 16.04 LTS). However, it is possible to skip an LTS upgrade, going straight from 16.04 LTS to 18.04.5 LTS, by waiting for a point release that supports such updating.
LTS releases have optional extended security maintenance (ESM) support available, including 14.04 "Trusty" that is otherwise out of public support, adding support for that version up to 2022,
later extended to a total of 10 years alongside 16.04 LTS.
Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat), was released on 10 October 2010 (10–10–10). This departed from the traditional schedule of releasing at the end of October in order to get "the perfect 10", and makes a playful reference to ''
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' books, since, in
binary
Binary may refer to:
Science and technology Mathematics
* Binary number, a representation of numbers using only two digits (0 and 1)
* Binary function, a function that takes two arguments
* Binary operation, a mathematical operation that t ...
, 101010 equals
decimal 42, the "Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything" within the series.
Ubuntu (16.04.5 and later) requires a 2 GB or larger installation medium. However, there is an option to install it with a Minimal CD.
Variants
![UbuntuFamilyTree1210](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/UbuntuFamilyTree1210.svg)
Ubuntu Desktop (formally named as Ubuntu Desktop Edition, and simply called Ubuntu) is the variant officially recommended for most users. It is designed for desktop and laptop PCs and officially supported by Canonical. A number of variants are distinguished simply by each featuring a different desktop environment, or, in the case of Ubuntu Server, no desktop.
LXQt and
Xfce are often recommended for use with older PCs that may have less memory and processing power available.
Official distributions
Most Ubuntu editions and flavours simply install a different set of default packages compared to the standard Ubuntu Desktop. Since they share the same package repositories, all of the same software is available for each of them. Ubuntu Core is the sole exception as it only has access to packages in the
Snap
Snap or SNAP may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Snap'', the original release title for the 2013 film ''Enter the Dangerous Mind''
*''Snap'' (TV series), a CITV programme
* ''The Stanly News and Press'', a newspaper in Albemarle, North Carol ...
Store.
Ubuntu had some official distributions that have been discontinued, such as
Edubuntu
Edubuntu, previously known as Ubuntu Education Edition, was an official derivative of the Ubuntu (operating system), Ubuntu operating system designed for use in classrooms inside schools, homes and communities.
Edubuntu was developed in collabor ...
; including some previously supported by Canonical, like
Ubuntu Touch, that is now maintained by volunteers (UBports Community).
Unofficial distributions
Alongside the official flavours are those that are unofficial. These are still in the process of becoming recognized as official flavours by Canonical.
Cloud computing
![Ubuntu Orange Box-Fossetcon 12](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/Ubuntu_Orange_Box-Fossetcon_12.09.2014.jpg)
Ubuntu offers Ubuntu Cloud Images which are pre-installed disk images that have been customized by Ubuntu engineering to run on cloud-platforms such as
Amazon EC2
Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) is a part of Amazon.com's cloud-computing platform, Amazon Web Services (AWS), that allows users to rent virtual computers on which to run their own computer applications. EC2 encourages scalable deployment of ...
,
OpenStack,
Microsoft Azure
Microsoft Azure, often referred to as Azure ( , ), is a cloud computing platform operated by Microsoft for application management via around the world-distributed data centers. Microsoft Azure has multiple capabilities such as software as a ...
and
LXC
Linux Containers (LXC) is an operating-system-level virtualization method for running multiple isolated Linux systems (containers) on a control host using a single Linux kernel.
The Linux kernel provides the cgroups functionality that allows l ...
. Ubuntu is also prevalent on
VPS platforms such as
DigitalOcean
DigitalOcean Holdings, Inc. () is an American multinational technology company and cloud service provider. The company is headquartered in New York City, New York, USA, with 15 globally distributed data centers worldwide. DigitalOcean provides ...
.
![Eucalyptus full](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3b/Eucalyptus_full.jpg)
Ubuntu has support for OpenStack, with Eucalyptus to OpenStack migration tools added by Canonical.
Ubuntu 11.10 added focus on OpenStack as the Ubuntu's preferred
IaaS
The first major provider of infrastructure as a service (IaaS) was Amazon in 2008. IaaS is a cloud computing service model by means of which computing resources are supplied by a cloud services provider. The IaaS vendor provides the storage, net ...
offering though Eucalyptus is also supported. Another major focus is
Canonical Juju for provisioning, deploying, hosting, managing, and orchestrating enterprise data center infrastructure services, by, with, and for the Ubuntu Server.
Adoption and reception
Installed base
As Ubuntu is distributed freely and historically there was no registration process (still optional), Ubuntu usage can only be roughly estimated.
In 2015, Canonical's Ubuntu Insights page stated "Ubuntu now has over 40 million desktop users and counting".
W3Techs Web Technology Surveys estimated in November 2020 that:
* Ubuntu is by far the most popular
Linux distribution
A Linux distribution (often abbreviated as distro) is an operating system made from a software collection that includes the Linux kernel and, often, a package management system. Linux users usually obtain their operating system by downloading one ...
for running
web server
A web server is computer software and underlying hardware that accepts requests via HTTP (the network protocol created to distribute web content) or its secure variant HTTPS. A user agent, commonly a web browser or web crawler, initiate ...
s; of the websites they analyze it's "used by 47.3% of all the websites who use Linux",
and Ubuntu alone powers more websites than
Microsoft Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...
, which powers 28.2% of all websites, or 39% of the share Unix has (which includes Linux and thus Ubuntu). All Linux/Unix distributions in total power well over twice the number of hosts as Windows for websites based on W3Techs numbers. Ubuntu and Debian only (which Ubuntu is based on, with the same package manager and thus administered the same way) make up 65% of all Linux distributions for web serving use; the usage of Ubuntu surpassed Debian (for such
server
Server may refer to:
Computing
*Server (computing), a computer program or a device that provides functionality for other programs or devices, called clients
Role
* Waiting staff, those who work at a restaurant or a bar attending customers and su ...
use) in May 2016.
* Ubuntu is the most popular Linux distribution among the top 1000 sites and gains around 500 of the top 10 million websites per day.
W3Techs analyses the top 10 million websites only.
Wikimedia Foundation
The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., or Wikimedia for short and abbreviated as WMF, is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in San Francisco, California and registered as a charitable foundation under local laws. Best kno ...
data (based on
user agent
In computing, a user agent is any software, acting on behalf of a user, which "retrieves, renders and facilitates end-user interaction with Web content". A user agent is therefore a special kind of software agent.
Some prominent examples of us ...
) for September 2013 shows that Ubuntu generated the most page requests to Wikimedia sites, including Wikipedia, among recognizable Linux distributions.
, Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS is used in a
supercomputer
A supercomputer is a computer with a high level of performance as compared to a general-purpose computer. The performance of a supercomputer is commonly measured in floating-point operations per second ( FLOPS) instead of million instructions ...
on the
TOP500
The TOP500 project ranks and details the 500 most powerful non-distributed computing, distributed computer systems in the world. The project was started in 1993 and publishes an updated list of the supercomputers twice a year. The first of these ...
list, currently the fifth fastest one in the world after an upgrade from 7th place, where it entered the list in June. Another Nvidia supercomputer tops the
Green500 list (and it and the next one are also Ubuntu-based), a list which is a reordering of former list, ordered by power-efficiency. On the TOP500 list, that supercomputer is ranked 172nd.
Large-scale deployments
The public sector has also adopted Ubuntu. , the Ministry of Education and Science of
North Macedonia
North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Socialist Feder ...
deployed more than 180,000
Ubuntu-based classroom desktops, and has encouraged every student in the country to use Ubuntu-powered computer workstations; the Spanish school system has 195,000 Ubuntu desktops.
The French police, having already started using
open-source software
Open-source software (OSS) is computer software that is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and distribute the software and its source code to anyone and for any purpose. Op ...
in 2005 by replacing
Microsoft Office
Microsoft Office, or simply Office, is the former name of a family of client software, server software, and services developed by Microsoft. It was first announced by Bill Gates on August 1, 1988, at COMDEX in Las Vegas. Initially a marketin ...
with
OpenOffice.org, decided to transition to Ubuntu from
Windows XP
Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct upgrade to its predecessors, Windows 2000 for high-end and ...
after the release of
Windows Vista
Windows Vista is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was the direct successor to Windows XP, which was released five years before, at the time being the longest time span between successive releases of ...
in 2006.
By March 2009, the
Gendarmerie Nationale Gendarmerie Nationale most commonly refers to:
* Gendarmerie Nationale (France)
* Gendarmerie Nationale (Belgium), merged with Belgian police in 2001
Gendarmerie Nationale may also refer to:
*Gendarmerie Nationale (Algeria)
* Gendarmerie National ...
had already switched 5000 workstations to Ubuntu.
Based on the success of that transition, it planned to switch 15,000 more over by the end of 2009 and to have switched all 90,000 workstations over by 2015
(GendBuntu project).
Lt. Colonel Guimard announced that the move was very easy and allowed for a 70% saving on the IT budget without having to reduce its capabilities.
In 2011, Ubuntu 10.04 was adopted by the Indian justice system.
In 2004, the city of
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
, Germany, started the
LiMux
LiMux was a project launched by the city of Munich in 2004 in order to replace the software on its desktop computers, migrating from Microsoft Windows to free software based on Linux. By 2012, the city had migrated 12,600 of its 15,500 deskto ...
project, and later forked Kubuntu 10.04 LTS for use on the city's computers. After originally planning to migrate 12,000 desktop computers to LiMux, it was announced in December 2013 that the project had completed successfully with the migration of 14,800 out of 15,500 desktop computers, but still keeping about 5000 Windows clients for unported applications. In February 2017 the majority coalition decided, against heavy protest from the opposition, to evaluate the migration back to Windows, after Microsoft had decided to move its company headquarters to Munich. Governing Mayor
Dieter Reiter
Dieter Reiter (born 19 May 1958) is a German politician and the mayor of Munich, the capital of the state of Bavaria. He is a member of the Social Democratic Party.
Career
Reiter was born in Rain, Swabia. He studied at the Fachhochschule für ö ...
cited lack of compatibility with systems outside of the administrative sector, such as requiring a governmental
mail server
Within the Internet email system, a message transfer agent (MTA), or mail transfer agent, or mail relay is software that transfers electronic mail messages from one computer to another using SMTP. The terms mail server, mail exchanger, and MX host ...
to send e-mails to his personal
smartphone
A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whic ...
, as reasons for the return, but has been criticised for evaluating administrative IT based on private and business standards. In May 2020, the recently-elected
Alliance 90/The Greens
Alliance 90/The Greens (german: Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, ), often simply referred to as the Greens ( ), is a Green politics, green List of political parties in Germany, political party in Germany. It was formed in 1993 as the merger of The Greens ...
party and the
Social Democrat party negotiated a new coalition agreement, stating: "Where it is technologically and financially possible, the city will put emphasis on open standards and free open-source licensed software".
In March 2012, the government of Iceland launched a project to get all public institutions using free and open-source software. Already, several government agencies and schools have adopted Ubuntu. The government cited cost savings as a big factor for the decision, and also stated that open-source software avoids
vendor lock-in
In economics, vendor lock-in, also known as proprietary lock-in or customer lock-in, makes a customer dependent on a vendor for products, unable to use another vendor without substantial switching costs.
The use of open standards and alternative ...
. A 12-month project was launched to migrate the biggest public institutions in Iceland to using open-source software, and help ease the migration for others. US president
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...
's successful
campaign for re-election in 2012 used Ubuntu in its IT department. In August 2014, the city of
Turin
Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...
, Italy, announced its migration from
Windows XP
Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct upgrade to its predecessors, Windows 2000 for high-end and ...
to Ubuntu for the 8,300 desktop computers used by the municipality, becoming the first city in Italy to adopt Ubuntu.
Starting in 2008, the
Wikimedia Foundation
The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., or Wikimedia for short and abbreviated as WMF, is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in San Francisco, California and registered as a charitable foundation under local laws. Best kno ...
, the non-profit organization behind
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a multilingual free online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and using a wiki-based editing system. Wikipedia is the largest and most-read refer ...
, switched from multiple different Linux operating systems to Ubuntu.
Reception
Ubuntu was awarded the Reader Award for best Linux distribution at the 2005
LinuxWorld Conference and Expo in London, received favorable reviews in online and print publications, and has won
InfoWorld
''InfoWorld'' (abbreviated IW) is an information technology media business. Founded in 1978, it began as a monthly magazine. In 2007, it transitioned to a web-only publication. Its parent company today is International Data Group, and its siste ...
's 2007 Bossie Award for ''Best Open Source Client OS''. In early 2008, ''
PC World'' named Ubuntu the "best all-around Linux distribution available today", though it criticized the lack of an integrated desktop effects manager. Chris DiBona, the program manager for open-source software at Google, said "I think Ubuntu has captured people's imaginations around the Linux desktop," and "If there is a hope for the Linux desktop, it would be them". , almost half of Google's 20,000 employees used
Goobuntu
Goobuntu was a Linux distribution based on Ubuntu LTS (long-term support). It was used by almost 10,000 Google employees. It added a number of packages for in-house use, including security features and disabled the installation of some applicatio ...
, a slightly modified version of Ubuntu.
In 2012, ''
ZDNet
ZDNET is a business technology news website owned and operated by Red Ventures.
The brand was founded on April 1, 1991, as a general interest technology portal from Ziff Davis and evolved into an enterprise IT-focused online publication.
Hist ...
'' reported that Ubuntu was still Google's desktop of choice. In March 2016, Matt Hartley picked a list of best Linux distributions for
Datamation
''Datamation'' is a computer magazine that was published in print form in the United States between 1957 and 1998, ; he chose Ubuntu as number one.
In 2008,
Jamie Hyneman, co-host of the American television series ''
MythBusters
''MythBusters'' is a science entertainment television program, developed by Peter Rees and produced by Australia's Beyond Television Productions. The series premiered on the Discovery Channel on January 23, 2003. It was broadcast internatio ...
'', advocated Linux (giving the example of Ubuntu) as a solution to
software bloat
Software bloat is a process whereby successive versions of a computer program become perceptibly slower, use more memory, disk space or processing power, or have higher hardware requirements than the previous version, while making only dubious use ...
. Other celebrity users of Ubuntu include science fiction writer
Cory Doctorow and actor
Stephen Fry.
In January 2014, the UK's authority for computer security,
CESG, reported that
Ubuntu 12.04 LTS was "the only operating system that passes as many as 9 out of 12 requirements without any significant risks", though it was unclear if any other Linux distributions were tested.
32-bit "deprecation" controversy
In June 2019, Canonical announced that they would be deprecating support for 32-bit applications and libraries in Ubuntu 19.10.
Because
Steam's Linux client depends on these 32-bit libraries,
Valve
A valve is a device or natural object that regulates, directs or controls the flow of a fluid (gases, liquids, fluidized solids, or slurries) by opening, closing, or partially obstructing various passageways. Valves are technically fittings ...
announced that they would no longer be supporting Ubuntu. After uproar from the Linux gaming community, Canonical backtracked on this decision and decided to support select 32-bit libraries. As a result, Valve will support Ubuntu 19.10 again.
Wine
Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...
needs most of the same 32-bit library packages that the Steam package depends on, and more, to enable its version of
WoW64
In computing on Microsoft platforms, WoW64 (Windows 32-bit on Windows 64-bit) is a subsystem of the Windows operating system capable of running 32-bit applications on 64-bit Windows. It is included in all 64-bit versions of Windows—including ...
to run 32-bit Windows applications. The parts of Wine that would continue to function without 32-bit libraries would be limited to the subset of Windows applications that have a 64-bit version, removing decades of Windows compatibility. In Canonical's statement on bringing back the libraries, they mentioned using "container technology" in the future to make sure that Wine continues to function.
Conformity with European data privacy law
Soon after being introduced in 2012, doubts emerged on the conformance of the ''shopping lens'' (a feature that displays Amazon suggestions in the searching tool
Unity Dash
Unity is a graphical shell for the GNOME desktop environment originally developed by Canonical Ltd. for its Ubuntu operating system. It debuted in 2010 in the netbook edition of Ubuntu 10.10. Since 2017, its development was taken over by th ...
) with the European
Data Protection Directive.
A petition was later signed and delivered to Canonical demanding various modifications to the feature in order to clearly frame it within European law. Canonical did not reply.
In 2013, a formal complaint on the shopping lens was filed with the
Information Commissioner's Office
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) is a non-departmental public body which reports directly to the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). It is the independe ...
(ICO), the UK data privacy office. Almost one year later the ICO ruled in favour of Canonical, considering the various improvements introduced to the feature in the meantime to render it conformable with the
Data Protection Directive.
According to European rules, this ruling is automatically effective in the entirety of the European Union. However, the ruling also made clear that at the time of introduction the feature was not legal, among other things, since it was missing a privacy policy statement.
System terminal advertising controversies
Ubuntu has integrated increasing quantities of advertising into the operating system's terminal, leading to multiple controversies with its userbase.
In 2017, Canonical placed a message regarding HBO's Silicon Valley in the MOTD file, causing the message to be shown whenever a terminal session started. Over the following years, more messages would be placed into the MOTD.
In 2022, ads for Ubuntu's premium service, Ubuntu Advantage, were introduced into the apt system update utility. This move caused controversy in the user community, with some users considering advertising a fair business model to support development, while other users found the inclusion inappropriate and annoying.
Local communities (LoCos)
In an effort to reach out to users who are less technical, and to foster a sense of community around the distribution, Local Communities, better known as "LoCos", have been established throughout the world. Originally, each country had one LoCo Team. However, in some areas, most notably the United States and Canada, each state or province may establish a team. A LoCo Council approves teams based upon their efforts to aid in either the development or the promotion of Ubuntu.
Hardware vendor support
Ubuntu works closely with OEMs to jointly make Ubuntu available on a wide range of devices.
A number of vendors offer computers with Ubuntu pre-installed, including
Dell
Dell is an American based technology company. It develops, sells, repairs, and supports computers and related products and services. Dell is owned by its parent company, Dell Technologies.
Dell sells personal computers (PCs), servers, data ...
,
Hasee :''Hasee is also a type of creature in the virtual pet game Neopets.''
Hasee Computer Company, Ltd. () is a Chinese personal computer manufacturer headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China. In 2008 it was the second largest Chinese computer make ...
,
Sharp Corporation
is a Japanese multinational corporation that designs and manufactures electronic products, headquartered in Sakai-ku, Sakai, Osaka Prefecture. Since 2016 it has been majority owned by the Taiwan-based Foxconn Group. Sharp employs more than 5 ...
, and Cirrus7. Specifically,
Dell
Dell is an American based technology company. It develops, sells, repairs, and supports computers and related products and services. Dell is owned by its parent company, Dell Technologies.
Dell sells personal computers (PCs), servers, data ...
offers the XPS 13 laptop, Developer Edition with Ubuntu pre-installed.
Together, Dell, Lenovo, HP, and Acer offer over 200 desktop and over 400 laptop PCs preloaded with Ubuntu.
System76
System76, Inc. is an American computer manufacturer based in Denver, Colorado, specializing in the sale of notebooks, desktops, and servers. The company utilizes free and open-source software, and offers a choice of Ubuntu or their own Ubuntu-b ...
computers are also sold with Ubuntu. Dell and System76 customers are able to choose between 30-day, three-month, and yearly Ubuntu support plans through Canonical. Dell computers (running Ubuntu 10.04) include extra support for
ATI
Ati or ATI may refer to:
* Ati people, a Negrito ethnic group in the Philippines
**Ati language (Philippines), the language spoken by this people group
** Ati-Atihan festival, an annual celebration held in the Philippines
*Ati language (China), a ...
/
AMD
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) is an American multinational semiconductor company based in Santa Clara, California, that develops computer processors and related technologies for business and consumer markets. While it initially manufactur ...
Video Graphics, Dell Wireless,
Fingerprint Readers
A fingerprint is an impression left by the friction ridges of a human finger. The recovery of partial fingerprints from a crime scene is an important method of forensic science. Moisture and grease on a finger result in fingerprints on surfac ...
,
HDMI
High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) is a proprietary audio/video interface for transmitting uncompressed video data and compressed or uncompressed digital audio data from an HDMI-compliant source device, such as a display controller, ...
,
Bluetooth
Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is limi ...
,
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...
playback (using
LinDVD
LinDVD from Corel was a commercial proprietary software for Linux for the playback of DVDs and other multimedia files. The latest version supported ultra-mobile PCs (UMPCs) and mobile internet devices (MIDs), as well as a streaming media and a wide ...
), and
MP3/
WMA/
WMV
Windows Media Video (WMV) is a series of video codecs and their corresponding video coding formats developed by Microsoft. It is part of the Windows Media framework. WMV consists of three distinct codecs: The original video compression technology ...
.
Asus also sold some
Eee PCs with Ubuntu pre-installed and announced "many more" models running Ubuntu for 2011.
Vodafone
Vodafone Group Public limited company, plc () is a British Multinational corporation, multinational Telephone company, telecommunications company. Its registered office and Headquarters, global headquarters are in Newbury, Berkshire, England. It ...
has made available a notebook for the South African market called "Webbook".
Dell sells computers (initially Inspiron 14R and 15R laptops) pre-loaded with Ubuntu in India and China, with 850 and 350 retail outlets respectively. Starting in 2013, Alienware began offering its X51 model gaming desktop pre-installed with Ubuntu at a lower price than if it were pre-installed with Windows.
While Linux already works on IBM's mainframe system (
Linux on IBM Z), IBM in collaboration with Canonical (and
SUSE
SUSE ( , ) is a German-based multinational open-source software company that develops and sells Linux products to business customers. Founded in 1992, it was the first company to market Linux for enterprise. It is the developer of SUSE Linux Ent ...
; "
Linux Foundation
The Linux Foundation (LF) is a non-profit technology consortium founded in 2000 as a merger between Open Source Development Labs and the Free Standards Group to standardize Linux, support its growth, and promote its commercial adoption. Additi ...
will form a new Open Mainframe Project") announced Ubuntu support for their
z/Architecture
z/Architecture, initially and briefly called ESA Modal Extensions (ESAME), is IBM's 64-bit complex instruction set computer (CISC) instruction set architecture, implemented by its mainframe computers. IBM introduced its first z/Architecture-b ...
for the first time (IBM claimed their system,
IBM zEnterprise System
IBM Z is a family name used by IBM for all of its z/Architecture mainframe computers.
In July 2017, with another generation of products, the official family was changed to IBM Z from IBM z Systems; the IBM Z family now includes the newest mod ...
, version z13, the most powerful computer in the world in 2015; it was then the largest computer by transistor count; again claimed fastest in 2017 with
IBM z14), at the time of their "biggest code drop" ("LinuxOne") in Linux history.
In early 2015, Intel launched the
Intel Compute Stick small form factor computer available preloaded with Ubuntu or Windows operating systems.
Windows interoperability
In March 2016,
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...
announced that it would support the Ubuntu
userland on top of the
Windows 10
Windows 10 is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It is the direct successor to Windows 8.1, which was released nearly two years earlier. It was released to manufacturing on July 15, 2015, and later to retail on J ...
kernel by implementing the Linux
system calls as
a subsystem. At the time, it was focused on
command-line tool
A command-line interpreter or command-line processor uses a command-line interface (CLI) to receive commands from a user in the form of lines of text. This provides a means of setting parameters for the environment, invoking executables and pro ...
s like
Bash
Bash or BASH may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Bash!'' (Rockapella album), 1992
* ''Bash!'' (Dave Bailey album), 1961
* '' Bash: Latter-Day Plays'', a dramatic triptych
* ''BASH!'' (role-playing game), a 2005 superhero game
* "Bash" ('' ...
and was aimed at
software developers.
WSL was made available with Windows 10, version 1709. As of 2019, other Linux distributions are also supported.
In 2019, Microsoft announced the new WSL 2 subsystem that includes a
Linux kernel
The Linux kernel is a free and open-source, monolithic, modular, multitasking, Unix-like operating system kernel. It was originally authored in 1991 by Linus Torvalds for his i386-based PC, and it was soon adopted as the kernel for the GNU ope ...
, that Canonical announced will have "full support for Ubuntu".
By this time, it was possible to run graphical Linux apps on Windows. In 2021, Microsoft went on to add out-of-the-box support for graphical Linux apps, through the project.
In May 2021, Microsoft extended its Threat and Vulnerability Management solution, which was a Windows-only solution thus far, to support Ubuntu, RHEL, and CentOS.
Besides, starting with version 6,
PowerShell runs on Ubuntu and can manage both Windows and Ubuntu computers remotely from either platforms.
See also
*
Comparison of Linux distributions
Notes
References
External links
*
*
{{Authority control
2004 software
ARM Linux distributions
Debian-based distributions
Enterprise Linux distributions
Free software operating systems
Operating system distributions bootable from read-only media
Power ISA Linux distributions
PowerPC Linux distributions
PowerPC operating systems
X86-64 Linux distributions
ARM operating systems
Linux distributions