Ubuntu

Ubuntu is a   based on. Ubuntu is officially released in three editions: ', ', and Core (for devices and s). All the editions can run on the computer alone, or e.g. in. Ubuntu is a popular for, with support for.

Ubuntu is released every six months, with  releases every two years. The latest release is ("Disco Dingo"), and the most recent long-term support release is  ("Bionic Beaver"), which is supported until 2023 under public support and until 2028 as a paid option.

Ubuntu is by  and the community under a  governance model. Canonical provides security updates and support for each Ubuntu release, starting from the release date and until the release reaches its designated (EOL) date. Canonical generates revenue through the sale of premium services related to Ubuntu.

Ubuntu is named after the African philosophy of , which Canonical translates as "humanity to others" or "I am what I am because of who we all are".

History
Ubuntu is built on '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 (LTS) releases are supported for five years, and are released every two years. 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. Both distributions use Debian's  format and  tools (e.g.  and ). Debian and Ubuntu packages are not necessarily with each other, however, so packages may need to be rebuilt from  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. , 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 continuously and merged with Ubuntu-specific modifications. One month before release, imports are, and packagers then work to ensure that the frozen features interoperate well together.

Ubuntu is currently funded by On 8 July 2005,  and Canonical announced the creation of the Ubuntu Foundation and provided an initial funding of US$10 million. The purpose of the foundation is to ensure the support and 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 management platforms, such as those used at.

has been the default GUI for Ubuntu Desktop since Ubuntu 17.10, while is still the default in older versions, including all current LTS versions except 18.04 LTS. However, a community-driven fork of Unity 8, called Yunit, has been created to continue the development of Unity. Shuttleworth wrote on 8 April 2017, "We will invest in Ubuntu GNOME with the intent of delivering a fantastic all-GNOME desktop. We're helping the Ubuntu GNOME team, not creating something different or competitive with that effort. While I am passionate about the design ideas in Unity, and hope GNOME may be more open to them now, I think we should respect the GNOME design leadership by delivering GNOME the way GNOME wants it delivered. Our role in that, as usual, will be to make sure that upgrades, integration, security, performance and the full experience are fantastic." Shuttleworth also mentioned that Canonical will cease development for Ubuntu Phone, Tablet, and convergence.

processors have been supported up to Ubuntu 18.04, but users "will not be allowed to upgrade to Ubuntu 18.10 as dropping support for that architecture is being evaluated".

Features
A installation of Ubuntu contains a wide range of software that includes, , , , and several lightweight games such as  and. Many additional software packages are accessible from the built in (previously ) as well as any other -based  tools. Many additional software packages that are no longer installed by default, such as, , , and , are still accessible in the repositories still installable by the main tool or by any other -based tool. Cross-distribution and s 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). The default file manager is, formerly called Nautilus.

Ubuntu operates under the (GPL) and all of the application software installed by default is free software. In addition, Ubuntu installs 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. User programs run with and cannot corrupt the operating system or other users' files. For increased security, the tool is used to assign temporary privileges for performing administrative tasks, which allows the  to remain locked and helps prevent inexperienced users from inadvertently making catastrophic system changes or opening security holes. is also being widely implemented into the desktop.

Most network ports are closed by default to prevent hacking. A built-in firewall allows end-users who install network servers to control access. A  is available to configure it. Ubuntu compiles its packages using features such as  and  to  its software. These extra features greatly increase security at the performance expense of 1% in and 0.01% in.

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 16.04 LTS, a PC with at least 2 GHz processor, 2  of  and 25  of free disk space is recommended. For less powerful computers, there are other Ubuntu distributions such as and. Ubuntu supports the. It is also available on, while older architecture was at one point unofficially supported, and now newer  CPUs  are supported.

s are the typical way for users to assess and subsequently install Ubuntu. These can be downloaded as a disk image and subsequently burnt to a DVD and booted, or run via  directly from a USB drive (making, respectively, a  or  medium). Running Ubuntu in this way is slower than running it from a, 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 to install Ubuntu once booted into the live environment. s of all current and past versions are available for download at the Ubuntu web site. Various third-party programs such as and  are available to create customized copies of the Ubuntu Live DVDs (or CDs). "Minimal CDs" are available (for server use) that fit on a CD.

Additionally, installations can be used to boot Ubuntu and  in a way that allows permanent saving of user settings and portability of the USB-installed system between physical machines (however, the computers'  must support booting from USB). In newer versions of Ubuntu, the can be used to install Ubuntu on a USB drive (with or without a live CD or DVD). Creating a bootable USB drive with is as simple as dragging a slider to determine how much space to reserve for persistence; for this, Ubuntu employs.

The desktop edition can also be installed using the (a.k.a. netboot tarball) which uses the  and allows certain specialist installations of Ubuntu: setting up automated deployments, upgrading from older installations without network access,  or  partitioning, installs on systems with less than about 256 MB of RAM (although low-memory systems may not be able to run a full desktop environment reasonably).

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. Exceptions, however, include, in the Main category, because although , their 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. The level of support in the Restricted category is more limited than that of Main, because the developers may not have access to the. 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 after an initial release, Ubuntu Backports is an officially recognized repository for ing 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 which 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. 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, , Skype and Wine are also able to be installed to run Windows software if the user desires.

Package Archives
A Personal Package Archive (PPA) is a for uploading  to be built and published as an  (APT) repository by. While the term is used exclusively within Ubuntu, Launchpad's host,, envisions adoption beyond the Ubuntu community.

Third-party software
Ubuntu has a certification system for third-party software. Some third-party software that does not limit distribution is included in Ubuntu's multiverse component. The package  additionally contains software that may be legally restricted, including support for and  playback,,  ,   plugin, many common audio/video s, and , an unarchiver for files  in the.

Additionally, third-party application suites are available for purchase through Ubuntu Software, including many games such as and, software for DVD playback and media codecs.

Releases
Each Ubuntu release has a 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. Version numbers for future versions are provisional; if the release is delayed the version number changes accordingly.

Ubuntu releases are also given s, using an adjective and an animal (e.g. "Xenial "). 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 (which in turn are about one month after releases of ). As a result, every Ubuntu release was introduced with an updated version of both GNOME and X. After major releases, the Ubuntu Developer Summit (UDS) is held, at which the Ubuntu community sets the development direction for the next cycle. The latest such event, was held 5–7 May 2015, after Ubuntu 15.04 and planning 15.10.

Upgrades from one release to the next LTS release (e.g. Ubuntu 14.04 LTS to Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and then to Ubuntu 18.04 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).

Some versions have optional extended security maintenance (ESM) support available, including 14.04 "Trusty" (and 18.04) that are otherwise out of public support, adding support for that version up to 2021.

, 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  books, since, in, 101010 equals , 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
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. From Ubuntu 17.10, is the default desktop environment. From Ubuntu 11.04 to Ubuntu 17.04, the Unity desktop interface was default, and before Ubuntu 11.04 the desktop interface was. A number of other variants are distinguished simply by each featuring a different desktop environment. and are often recommended for use with older PCs that may have less memory and processing power available.

Official distributions
These Ubuntu variants simply install a set of packages different from the original Ubuntu, but since they draw additional packages and updates from the same repositories as Ubuntu, all of the same software is available for each of them.

Cloud computing
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, , and. Ubuntu is also prevalent on platforms such as.

added support for OpenStack, with Eucalyptus to OpenStack migration tools added by Canonical in Ubuntu Server 11.10. added focus on OpenStack as the Ubuntu's preferred offering though Eucalyptus is also supported. Another major focus is for provisioning, deploying, hosting, managing, and orchestrating enterprise data center infrastructure services, by, with, and for the Ubuntu Server.

Installed base
As Ubuntu is distributed freely and there is no registration process, 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 September 2016 that:
 * Ubuntu is the most popular for running s, used by 34% of "all the websites" they analyze. Linux distributions are used a little more than  for websites based on W3Techs numbers, and only Ubuntu and Debian (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  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.
 * Ubuntu is used by 12.4% of all websites analyzed, growing from less than 7% in October 2012.

W3Techs analyzes the top 10 million websites only. It considers Linux a subcategory of and estimated in the same month that 66.7% of the analyzed websites use Unix, under that broad definition.

According to TheCloudMarket.com, Ubuntu is on at least 57% of the images it scanned on Amazon EC2 (and Windows at 7.8%).

data (based on ) for September 2013 shows that Ubuntu generated the most page requests to Wikimedia sites, including Wikipedia, among recognizable Linux distributions.

Large-scale deployments
The public sector has also adopted Ubuntu. , the Ministry of Education and Science of the 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 in 2005 by replacing  with, decided to transition to Ubuntu from  after the release of  in 2006. By March 2009, the 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. 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. The Government of Kerala adopted Ubuntu for the legislators in Kerala and the government schools of Kerala began to use customized Ubuntu 10.04 which contains specially created software for students. Previously, Windows was used in the schools. Textbooks were also remade with an Ubuntu syllabus and are currently used in schools.

The city of, Germany, forked Kubuntu 10.04 LTS and created 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 cited lack of compatibility with systems outside of the administrative sector, such as requiring a governmental  to send e-mails to his personal, as reasons for the return, but has been criticised for evaluating administrative IT based on private and business standards.

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. 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 's successful for re-election in 2012 used Ubuntu in its IT department. In August 2014, the city of, Italy, announced its migration from to Ubuntu for the 8,300 desktop computers used by the municipality, becoming the first city in Italy to adopt Ubuntu.

Critical reception
Ubuntu was awarded the Reader Award for best Linux distribution at the 2005 in London, received favorable reviews in online and print publications, and has won 's 2007 Bossie Award for Best Open Source Client OS. In early 2008,  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, a slightly modified version of Ubuntu. In 2012,  reported that Ubuntu was still Google's desktop of choice. In March 2016, Matt Hartley picked a list of best Linux distributions for ; he chose Ubuntu as number one.

In 2008,, co-host of the American television series , advocated Linux (giving the example of Ubuntu) as a solution to. Other celebrity users of Ubuntu include science fiction writer and actor.

In January 2014, the UK's authority for computer security,, reported that was "the only operating system that passes as many as 9 out of 12 requirements without any significant risks".

Ubuntu 14.04 improved battery life, but still lagged other operating systems in the battery life metric.

Amazon controversy
One of the new features of Unity in was the shopping lens—Amazon search results displayed in the Unity dash. It was alternately described as the "Amazon controversy", "privacy fiasco" and "spyware".

From October 2012, it sent the user's queries through a secure HTTPS connection from the home lens to productsearch.ubuntu.com, which then polled to find relevant products; Amazon then sent product images directly to the user's computer through HTTP. If the user clicked on one of these results and then bought something, Canonical received a small commission on the sale.

In 2012, many reviewers criticized it: as the home lens is the normal means to search for content on the local machine, reviewers were concerned about the disclosure of queries that were intended to be local, creating a privacy problem. As the feature is active by default instead of opt-in, many users could be unaware of it.

Some users chose to turn it off or to remove the feature using a patch. An April 2014 article by Scott Gilbertson stated that the online search components of Ubuntu could be turned off with a couple of clicks in version 14.04.

For the move, it was awarded the 2013 Austria.

Since Ubuntu 16.04, the setting has been off by default.

The Unity desktop environment was discontinued in Ubuntu 17.10, in favour of GNOME, which has no support for Unity lenses. An Amazon shopping icon still appears in the Ubuntu Dock by default, but merely opens the default web browser with Canonical's referral link.

32-bit controversy
In June 2019, Canonical announced that they would be purging support for 32-bit applications and libraries in Ubuntu 19.10. Because Linux client depends on these 32-bit libraries,  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.

Conformity with European data privacy law
Soon after being introduced, doubts emerged on the conformance of the shopping lens with the European. A petition was later signed by over 50 Ubuntu users 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 (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. 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.

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, , , and Cirrus7. Specifically, 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 PCs 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 / Video Graphics, Dell Wireless,, , , playback (using ), and //. is also selling some with Ubuntu pre-installed and announced "many more" models running Ubuntu for 2011. 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 in IBM's mainframe system, IBM in collaboration with Canonical (and ; " will form a new Open Mainframe Project") announced Ubuntu support for their (IBM claims their latest system, , version z13 is the most powerful computer in the world; it is the largest computer by transistor count) for the first time, at the time of their "biggest code drop" ("LinuxOne") in Linux history.

In early 2015, Intel launched the small form factor computer available preloaded with Ubuntu or Windows operating systems.

Windows subsystem
In March 2016, announced that it would support the Ubuntu  on top of the   by implementing the Linux s as  (and in 2019 Microsoft announced the new WSL 2 subsystem that includes a, that Canonical announced will have "full support for Ubuntu"). It focuses on s like and is therefore aimed at s. As of the Fall Creators Update, this feature is fully available to the public. As of 2019, other Linux variants are also supported.