Translations by SiraNokyoongtong

ubuntu-doc@lists.ubuntu.com (Ubuntu Documentation Project)

An introduction to the background and philosophy of the Ubuntu operating system.

Ubuntu - Linux for Human Beings!

Credits and License

This document is maintained by the Ubuntu documentation team (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DocumentationTeam). For a list of contributors, see the <ulink url="../../libs/C/contributors.xml">contributors page</ulink>

This document is made available under the Creative Commons ShareAlike 2.5 License (CC-BY-SA).

You are free to modify, extend, and improve the Ubuntu documentation source code under the terms of this license. All derivative works must be released under this license.

This documentation is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AS DESCRIBED IN THE DISCLAIMER.

A copy of the license is available here: <ulink url="/usr/share/ubuntu-docs/libs/C/ccbysa.xml">Creative Commons ShareAlike License</ulink>.

Ubuntu Documentation Project

The Ubuntu Documentation Project

This section is an introduction to Ubuntu. It explains the Ubuntu philosophy and roots, gives information about how to contribute to Ubuntu, and shows how to get help with Ubuntu.

Ubuntu Logo

Ubuntu will always be free of charge, and there is no extra fee for the "enterprise edition"; we make our very best work available to everyone on the same Free terms.

Ubuntu includes the very best in translations and accessibility infrastructure that the free software community has to offer, to make Ubuntu usable for as many people as possible.

Ubuntu is released regularly and predictably; a new release is made every six months. You can use the current stable release or the current development release. Each release is supported for at least 18 months.

Ubuntu is entirely committed to the principles of open source software development; we encourage people to use open source software, improve it and pass it on.

Ubuntu is an entirely open source operating system built around the <emphasis>Linux</emphasis> kernel. The Ubuntu community is built around the ideals enshrined in the <ulink url="http://www.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/philosophy">Ubuntu Philosophy</ulink>: that software should be available free of charge, that software tools should be usable by people in their local language and despite any disabilities, and that people should have the freedom to customize and alter their software in whatever way they see fit. For those reasons: <placeholder-1/>

Find out more at <ulink url="http://www.ubuntu.com">the Ubuntu website</ulink>.

About the Name

Ubuntu is a South African ethical ideology focusing on people's allegiances and relations with each other. The word comes from the Zulu and Xhosa languages. Ubuntu is seen as a traditional African concept, is regarded as one of the founding principles of the new republic of South Africa and is connected to the idea of an African Renaissance.

A rough translation of the principle of Ubuntu is "humanity towards others". Another translation could be: "the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity".

"A person with ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed."

As a platform based on Free software, the Ubuntu operating system brings the spirit of ubuntu to the software world.

The Ubuntu project is entirely committed to the principles of free software development; people are encouraged to use free software, improve it, and pass it on.

"Free software" doesn't mean that you shouldn't have to pay for it (although Ubuntu is committed to being free of charge as well). It means that you should be able to use the software in any way you wish: the code that makes up free software is available for anyone to download, change, fix, and use in any way. Alongside ideological benefits, this freedom also has technical advantages: when programs are developed, the hard work of others can be used and built upon. With non-free software, this cannot happen and when programs are developed, they have to start from scratch. For this reason the development of free software is fast, efficient and exciting!

You can find out more about free software and the ideological and technical philosophy behind it at the <ulink url="http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/">GNU website</ulink>.

The Difference

There are many different operating systems based on Linux: Debian, SuSE, Gentoo, Red Hat, and Mandriva are examples. Ubuntu is yet another contender in what is already a highly competitive world. So what makes Ubuntu different?

By focusing on quality, Ubuntu produces a robust and feature-rich computing environment that is suitable for use in both home and commercial environments. The project takes the time required to focus on finer details and is able to release a version featuring the latest and greatest of today's software once every 6 months. Ubuntu is available in 32-bit and 64-bit flavors, and will run on most modern computers. It is also available for the Sun UltraSPARC and Amazon EC2 architectures.

The desktop is what you see after you log in to your computer and what you use to manage and run applications. The default desktop environment for Ubuntu is <ulink url="http://www.gnome.org/">GNOME</ulink>, a leading UNIX and Linux desktop suite and development platform.

You can optionally install the <ulink url="http://www.kde.org/">KDE</ulink> and <ulink url="http://www.xfce.org/">Xfce</ulink> desktop environments, which have their own distinctive look and feel. KDE and Xfce are made available in Ubuntu by the <ulink url="http://www.kubuntu.org">Kubuntu</ulink> and <ulink url="http://www.xubuntu.org">Xubuntu</ulink> projects respectively. You can even install a KDE-only or Xfce-only version of Ubuntu if you wish.