User:Jamison Lofthouse/Audio-Scripts/Ubuntu (operating system)

This is a script meant to aid the user in creating quality recordings. Please Do NOT Edit. The article that this script was created out of is here. Script Below This Line --- ''This sound file contains the spoken version of a Wikipedia article on Ubuntu (operating system) recorded by User:Jamison Lofthouse. The material recorded is current as on the 14th of June 2012.''

''The sound recording of this article has been made in two parts. You are listening to the first part which contains the introduction, contents, section 1 - History and development process, section 2 - Features, section 3 - Package classification and support, section 4 - Availability of third-party software, and section 5 - Releases. The second part contains section 5 - Variants, section 6 - Development, section 7 - Adoption and reception, section 8 - Local Communities (LoCos), and section 9 - Vendor support.

''The first part begins now. Ubuntu (operating system), from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, at E N dot wikipedia dot org.''

Ubuntu is a computer operating system based on the Debian Linux distribution and distributed as free and open source software, using its own desktop environment. It is named after the Southern African philosophy of ubuntu ("humanity towards others"). Ubuntu is designed primarily for use on personal computers, although a server edition also exists. Ubuntu is sponsored by the UK-based company Canonical Ltd., owned by South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth. Canonical generates revenue by selling technical support and services related to Ubuntu, while the operating system itself is entirely free of charge. The Ubuntu project is committed to the principles of free software development; people are encouraged to use free software, improve it, and distribute it.

Contents

Section 1 History and development process

Section 2 Features


 * Section 2.1 System requirements


 * Section 2.2 Installation

Section 3 Package classification and support


 * Section 3.1 Availability of third-party software

Section 4 Releases

Section 5 Variants


 * Section 5.1 Ubuntu Server Edition


 * Section 5.2 Cloud computing

Section 6 Development

Section 7 Adoption and reception


 * Section 7.1 Installed base


 * Section 7.1.1 Known large scale deployments


 * Section 7.2 Critical reception

Section 8 Local Communities (LoCos)

Section 9 Vendor support

Section 1 History and development process

Ubuntu is a fork of the Debian project's codebase. The original aim of the Ubuntu developers was to create an easy-to-use Linux desktop with new releases scheduled on a predictable six-month basis, resulting in a frequently updated system. Ubuntu's first release was on 20 October 2004. Since then, Canonical has released new versions of Ubuntu every six months with commitment to support each release for eighteen months by providing security fixes, patches to critical bugs and minor updates to programs. It was decided that every fourth release, issued on a two-year basis, would receive long-term support (LTS). LTS releases were traditionally supported for three years on the desktop and five years on the server. However with the release of Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, desktop support for LTS releases is to be extended to a period of five years (for example, Ubuntu 12.04 LTS will be supported until April 2017). Support was extended to better accommodate business and corporate IT users of Ubuntu who operate on longer release cycles and are more conscious of the costs associated with frequent software upgrades. Ubuntu packages are based on packages from Debian's unstable branch: both distributions use Debian's deb package format and package management tools (APT and Ubuntu Software Center). Debian and Ubuntu packages are not necessarily binary compatible with each other, however, and sometimes .deb 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. In the past, Ian Murdock, the founder of Debian, has 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. A month before release, imports are frozen, 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 and Canonical Ltd. 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 development for all future versions of Ubuntu. Mark Shuttleworth describes the foundation as an "emergency fund" (in case Canonical's involvement ends). On 12 March 2009, Ubuntu announced developer support for 3rd party cloud management platforms, such as for those used at Amazon EC2. The latest release is Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin), released on 26 April 2012. Mark Shuttleworth announced on 31 October 2011 that by Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu will support smartphones, tablets, TVs and smart screens. On 9 January 2012, Canonical announced Ubuntu TV at the Consumer Electronics Show.

Section 2 Features

Ubuntu is composed of many software packages, the vast majority of which are distributed under a free software license. The only exceptions are some proprietary hardware drivers. The main license used is the GNU General Public License (GNU GPL) which, along with the GNU Lesser General Public License (GNU LGPL), explicitly declares that users are free to run, copy, distribute, study, change, develop and improve the software. On the other hand, there is also proprietary software available that can run on Ubuntu. Ubuntu focuses on usability, security and stability. The Ubiquity installer allows Ubuntu to be installed to the hard disk from within the Live CD environment, without the need for restarting the computer prior to installation. Ubuntu also emphasizes accessibility and internationalization to reach as many people as possible. Beginning with 5.04, UTF-8 became the default character encoding, which allows for support of a variety of non-Roman scripts. As a security feature, the sudo tool is used to assign temporary privileges for performing administrative tasks, allowing the root account to remain locked, and preventing inexperienced users from inadvertently making catastrophic system changes or opening security holes. PolicyKit is also being widely implemented into the desktop to further harden the system through the principle of least privilege. Ubuntu Desktop includes a graphical desktop environment. In versions prior to 11.04 the default GUI was GNOME Panel but it was dropped in favor of Unity, a graphical interface Canonical first developed for the Ubuntu Netbook Edition. Ubuntu comes installed with a wide range of software that includes LibreOffice, Firefox, Thunderbird, Empathy, Transmission, and several lightweight games (such as Sudoku and chess). Additional software that is not installed by default (including software that used to be in the default installation such as Evolution, GIMP, Pidgin, and Synaptic) can be downloaded and installed using the Ubuntu Software Center or other apt based package management tools. Programs in the Software Center are mostly free, but there are a small number of paid for games and applications. Ubuntu allows networking ports to be closed using its firewall, with customized port selection available. End-users can install Gufw (GUI for Uncomplicated Firewall) and keep it enabled. GNOME (the former default desktop) offers support for more than 46 languages. Ubuntu can also run many programs designed for Microsoft Windows (such as Microsoft Office), through Wine or using a Virtual Machine (such as VMware Workstation or VirtualBox). Ubuntu compiles their packages using gcc features such as PIE and Buffer overflow protection to harden their software. These extra features greatly increase security at the performance expense of 1% in 32 bit and 0.01% in 64 bit.

Section 2.1 System requirements The desktop version of Ubuntu currently supports the x86 32 bit and 64 bit architectures. Unofficial support is available for the PowerPC, IA-64 (Itanium) and PlayStation 3 architectures (note however that Sony officially removed support for OtherOS on the PS3 with firmware 3.21, released on 1 April 2010), as well as ARM mobile processors (see HTC HD2). A supported GPU is required to enable desktop visual effects, including the Unity shell. In case such a GPU is not available the GUI falls back to a 2D version of Unity. Current Minimum Requirements Desktop	Server Processor (x86) with the i686 instruction set	300 MHz	700 MHz Memory (RAM)	128 MiB (128 × 10242 bytes)	384 MiB (384 × 10242 bytes) Hard Drive (free space)	1 GB (1 × 10003 bytes)	5 GB (5 × 10003 bytes) Monitor Resolution	640×480	1024×768 Tests reveal that among the four major desktop environments, a default installation of Ubuntu has the lowest possible memory utilization when used with LXDE 0.5, with Xfce 4.6 ranking second and GNOME 2.29 third, while the desktop with the highest RAM usage is KDE 4.4.

Section 2.2 Installation

Ubuntu running on the Nexus S, an Android smartphone Installation of Ubuntu is generally performed with the Live CD or can be installed via a Live USB drive. The Ubuntu OS can run directly from the CD (although this is usually slower than running Ubuntu from an HDD), allowing a user to "test-drive" the OS for hardware compatibility and driver support. The CD also contains the Ubiquity installer, which can then guide the user through the permanent installation process. CD images of all current and past versions are available for download at the Ubuntu web site. Installing from the CD requires a minimum of 256 MiB of RAM. Users can download a disk image (.iso) of the CD, which can then either be written to a physical medium (CD or DVD), or optionally run directly from a hard drive (via UNetbootin or GRUB). Ubuntu is also available on ARM, PowerPC, SPARC, and IA-64 platforms, although none are officially supported. Canonical offered Ubuntu and Kubuntu Live installation CDs of the latest distribution of the operating system at no cost (though they now charge £5.00 for 5), including paid postage for destinations in most countries around the world (via a service called ShipIt). Various third-party programs such as remastersys and Reconstructor are available to create customised copies of the Ubuntu Live CDs. A Microsoft Windows migration tool, called Migration Assistant (introduced in April 2007), can be used to import bookmarks, desktop background (wallpaper), and various settings from an existing Windows installation into a new Ubuntu installation. Ubuntu and Kubuntu can be booted and run from a USB Flash drive (as long as the BIOS supports booting from USB), with the option of saving settings to the flashdrive. This allows a portable installation that can be run on any PC which is capable of booting from a USB drive. In newer versions of Ubuntu, the USB creator program is available to install Ubuntu on a USB drive (with or without a LiveCD disc). Wubi, which is included as an option on the Live CD, allows Ubuntu to be installed and run from within a virtual Windows loop device (as a large image file that is managed like any other Windows program via the Windows Control Panel). This method requires no partitioning of a Windows user's hard drive. Wubi also makes use of the Migration Assistant to import users' settings. It also incurs a slight performance loss. Hibernation is not supported and the filesystem is more vulnerable to hard reboots.

Section 3 Package classification and support

Ubuntu divides all 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	Non-free software Supported	Main	Restricted Unsupported	Universe	Multiverse Free software includes only software that has met the Ubuntu licensing requirements, which roughly correspond to the Debian Free Software Guidelines. Exceptions, however, include firmware and fonts, in the Main category, because although they are not allowed to be modified, their distribution is otherwise unencumbered. 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 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. 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 will continue 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 regression. 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 as of November 2011 are Adobe Flash Player, Adobe Reader, Braid and Oil Rush.

Section 3.1 Availability of 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 ubuntu-restricted-extras additionally contains software that may be legally restricted, including support for MP3 and DVD playback, Microsoft TrueType core fonts, 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 purchase through the Canonical web-based store, including software for DVD playback and media codecs.

Section 4 Releases

''In the text article there is a table that has the version code name, the release date, and how long it will be supported for all the current releases. Please consult the text article for the table.''

Each Ubuntu release has a version number 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 alliterative code names, using an adjective and an animal (e.g., "Dapper Drake" and "Intrepid Ibex"). With the exception of the first three releases, code names are in consecutive alphabetical order, allowing a quick determination of which release is newer. "We might skip a few letters, and we'll have to wrap eventually." says Mark Shuttleworth while describing the naming scheme. Commonly, Ubuntu releases are referred to using only the adjective portion of the code name. Releases are timed to be approximately one month after GNOME releases (which in turn are about one month after releases of X.org). Consequently, every Ubuntu release comes with an updated version of both GNOME and X. Upgrades between releases have to be done from one release to the next release (e.g. Ubuntu 10.04 to Ubuntu 10.10) or from one LTS release to the next LTS release (e.g. Ubuntu 8.04 LTS to Ubuntu 10.04 LTS). Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat), was released on 10 October 2010 (10/10/10). This is a departure from the traditional schedule of releasing at the end of October to get "the perfect 10", and a playful reference to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, since, in binary, 101010 is equal to the number 42, the "Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything" within the series. Ubuntu 11.04 was released on 28 April 2011, and is code named "Natty Narwhal". The desktop interface of this release significantly differs from the previous releases because Unity was introduced as the default GUI. It is easy to switch into "classic" GUI (GNOME Panel). The new GUI has received strong criticism from some users as too different from and less capable than the previous Gnome Panel, while other users have found they prefer the new approach and the minimalism compared to the older desktop paradigm.

''We now come to the end of the spoken article 'Ubuntu (operating system)' part one. The next part contains section 5 - Variants, section 6 - Development, section 7 - Adoption and reception, section 8 - Local Communities (LoCos), and section 9 - Vendor support.

This sound file and all text in the article are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0. --- Script Above This Line