Upgrade timing demotes KDE variant of Ubuntu Linux

Fri, 28 Dec 2007 10:35:09 -0800

Xandros

Fri, 22 Jul 2005 20:13:12 -0700

Xandros Desktop is a Linux desktop linux distro that provides an easy to use operating GeekTime Linux, Xandros Business 3.0 A great new distro!

mepis

Thu, 07 Jul 2005 12:06:19 -0700

MEPIS Linux is a desktop Linux distro based on Debian that is also easy to configure as a dedicated server.

Ubuntu

Wed, 25 May 2005 12:15:46 -0700

Ubuntu is a Linux distribution growing in popularity and based on Debian that focuses on desktop Linux. It is included in Sourcelabs’ Self-Support Offering for Linux

Ubuntu has one of the largest, if not the largest and most active user communities of any Linux distribution. Ubuntu is also one of if not the most popular Linux distributions for desktop Linux use.

Notable included packages

Ubuntu packages the GNOME project as its window manager, however side projects Kubuntu and Xubuntu also package the KDE and XFCE desktop environments as well. Ubuntu releases are timed to follow GNOME releases by roughly 1 month, and Ubunut shoots for 2 releases a year.

Like its source distribution Debian, Ubuntu uses Apt for package management, and deb packages—however Ubuntu is not always compatible with Debian deb packages. Synaptic serves as a graphical front end to the Apt package manager.

Other notable projects Ubuntu includes in the distribution are Firefox and OpenOffice.

General design

Ubuntu focuses on being usable and being up-to-date, both with new Linux kernels and new versions of GNOME. Ubuntu follows in the sudo security model used by OSX and others, users are strongly discouraged from running as root.

Ubuntu features a very smooth upgrade process from release to release that is built on the apt package management. All that is required to maintain a current version of Ubuntu is to stay up to date on packages via Apt/Synaptic. Ubuntu can be switched to Kubuntu as well through package management as well.

Ubuntu’s design theme is centered around ‘people’ – flesh tones or dark orange and iconographic pictures of humans characterize the style of the distribution.

Derivatives of Ubuntu

The Ubuntu project encourages changes and customizations of Ubuntu, such as:

Ebuntu – Enlightenment window manager
Edubuntu – aimed at education
Fluxbuntu – Fluxbox window manager
gNewSense – Fully Free Libre FSF GNU Open version of Ubuntu
Kubuntu KDE (instead of GNOME) window manager
nUbuntu – network and security
Xubuntu – XFCE (instead of GNOME) window manager

Bug Database: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/ is on Launchpad.

IRC Support: #ubuntu on irc.freenode.net

Web Support forums: http://www.ubuntu.com/support/community/webforums

Additional web forums: http://ubuntuforums.org/

Mailing Lists: https://lists.ubuntu.com/