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Ubuntu (pronounced /uːˈbuːntuː/[1] oo-BOON-too),[2] is a computer operating system based on Debian GNU/Linux. It is distributed as free software. Ubuntu's goals include providing an up-to-date, stable operating system for the average user, with a strong focus on usability and ease-of-installation. Ubuntu has been selected by readers of desktoplinux.com as the most popular Linux distribution for the desktop, claiming approximately 30% of their desktop installations in both 2006 and 2007. Ubuntu is composed of multiple software packages distributed under either a free software or an open source license. The main license used is the GNU General Public License (GNU GPL) which explicitly declares that users are free to run, copy, distribute, study, change, develop and improve the software. Ubuntu is sponsored by the UK based company Canonical Ltd., owned by South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth. Instead of selling Ubuntu for profit, Canonical creates revenue by selling technical support and from creating several services tied to Ubuntu including Ubuntu One, Landscape and Launchpad. Canonical is yet to turn profitable, however. By keeping Ubuntu distribution itself free software and open source, Canonical is able to take advantage of the talents of outside developers in Ubuntu's constituent components without developing the entire operating system itself (which is based primarily on current Linux kernels). Canonical endorses and provides support for four additional Ubuntu-like operating systems: Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Edubuntu (a subproject and add-on for Ubuntu, designed for school environments and home users), and Ubuntu JeOS (pronounced "Juice", a stripped-down version of Ubuntu optimized for virtual appliances). Canonical releases new versions of Ubuntu every six months and supports Ubuntu for eighteen months by providing security fixes, patches to critical bugs and minor updates to programs. LTS (Long Term Support) versions, which are released every two years, are supported for three years on the desktop and five years for servers. The current version of Ubuntu, 9.04, was released on April 23, 2009, and the upcoming version, Karmic Koala, is planned to be released on October 29, 2009. History and development process Ubuntu was initially forked from the Debian project's code base.[9] The aim was to release a new version of Ubuntu every six months, resulting in a more frequently updated system. Ubuntu's first release was on October 20, 2004. The name Ubuntu comes from the Zulu word "ubuntu" ([ùɓúntú]), translated as "humanity to others", describing the ubuntu philosophy: "I am what I am because of who we all are", a positive aspect of community. Orange Phone company also use a variation of the "Ubuntu" philosophy in their motto, "i am who i am because of everyone". New releases of Ubuntu coincide a month after GNOME releases.In contrast to previous general-purpose forks of Debian — such as MEPIS, Xandros, Linspire, Progeny and Libranet, many of which relied on proprietary and closed source add-ons as part of their business model — Ubuntu has stayed closer to Debian's philosophy and uses free (libre) software, making an exception only for some proprietary hardware drivers. 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 Synaptic, although Debian and Ubuntu packages are not necessarily binary compatible with each other, and may need to be rebuilt from source. Ubuntu cooperates with Debian — to some extent pushing changes back to Debian, although there has been criticism that this doesn't happen often enough. Many Ubuntu developers are also maintainers of key packages within Debian. However, Ian Murdock, the founder of Debian, expressed concern about Ubuntu packages diverging too far from Debian Sarge 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 soon after a feature freeze is instated, which allows for packagers to work on ensuring that the current software works well, rather than supporting the moving target that is Unstable. Ubuntu is currently funded by Canonical Ltd. On July 8, 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. The Ubuntu logo and typography has remained the same since that first release. The hand-drawn,lowercase OpenType font used is called Ubuntu-Title and was created by Andy Fitzsimon. The font is distributed under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) and use with logos derived from the Ubuntu logo is encouraged. The font is available as a package for Ubuntu. Ubuntu 8.04, released on April 24, 2008, is the current Long Term Support (LTS) release. Canonical has released previous LTS versions every two years, and has committed to releasing the next LTS version in 2010, two years after 8.04.[19][20][21] Meanwhile, the current standard-support period release, Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope), was released on April 23, 2009. On March 12, 2009, Ubuntu announced full developer support on 3rd party cloud management platforms to deploy and manage cloud applications on cloud infrastructures such as Amazon EC2.

Features Installing and removing software in Ubuntu Ubuntu focuses on usability, including the widespread use of the sudo tool for administrative tasks. The Ubiquity installer allows installing Ubuntu 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. The default appearance of the user interface in the current version is called Human and is characterized by shades of brown and orange. The most recent version of Ubuntu comes installed with a wide range of software including OpenOffice, Firefox, Pidgin, Transmission, and GIMP. Several lightweight card, puzzle, and board games are pre-installed, such as Sudoku and chess. Ubuntu has all networking ports closed by default for added security; its firewall offers fine-grained control of incoming and outgoing connections. GNOME 2.22—the default desktop environment of Ubuntu 8.04—offers support for 46 languages. There are several ways to install Ubuntu, outlined below.[28] Ubuntu may also run several programs designed for Microsoft Windows, through Wine (or a Virtual Machine like VMware Workstation or VirtualBox), such as Microsoft Office.