INTRODUCTION

Ubuntu is a computer operating system based on the Debian GNU/Linux distribution. It is named after the Southern African ethical ideology Ubuntu ("humanity towards others")and is distributed as free and open source software with additional proprietary software available. Ubuntu provides an up-to-date, stable operating system for the average user, with a strong focus on usability and ease of installation. Web statistics from late 2009 suggest that Ubuntu's share of Linux desktop usage is between 40 and 50% Ubuntu is composed of multiple software packages, of which the vast majority are distributed under a free software license (also known as open source). 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. Ubuntu is sponsored by the UK-based company Canonical Ltd., owned by South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth. By keeping Ubuntu free and open source, Canonical is able to utilize the talents of community developers in Ubuntu's constituent components. Instead of selling Ubuntu for profit, Canonical creates revenue by selling technical support and from creating several services tied to Ubuntu. Canonical endorses and provides support for three additional Ubuntu-derived operating systems: Kubuntu, Edubuntu and Ubuntu Server Edition. There are several other derivative operating systems including local language and hardware-specific versions. 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

HISTORY:
Ubuntu is a fork of the Debian project's code base. The original 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. Ubuntu releases are timed about one month after GNOME releases. In contrast to other forks of Debian, which extensively use proprietary and closed source add-ons, Ubuntu uses primarily 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). 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 doesn't happen often enough. In the past, Ian Murdock, the founder of Debian, has expressed concern about Ubuntu packages potentially diverging too far from Debian Sarge to remain compatible. Before release, packages are imported from Debian Unstable continuously and merged with Ubuntuspecific 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 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). Ubuntu 8.04, released on April 24, 2008, is the current Long Term Support (LTS) release. Canonical releases LTS versions every two years, with Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx (release number subject to change) scheduled as the next LTS version in 2010. The current regular release, Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala), was released on October 29, 2009.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:

Desktop & Laptop Server

Required

Recommended

Processor

300 MHz (x86)

700 MHz (x86)

300 MHz (x86)

Memory

256 MB

384 MB*

64 MB

Hard drive capacity

4 GB

8 GB

500 MB

Video card

VGA @ 640480

VGA @ 1024768

VGA @ 640480

INSTALLATION:

Quick and straightforward installation is tremendously important to Ubuntu, as is the ability to build installation images with a minimum of human intervention. We support two basic installer designs:

The "alternate" installer was the only supported installation mechanism up to and including Ubuntu 5.10, and is still supported as a secondary mechanism for desktop installs and as the primary mechanism for server installs. It starts with a small selfhosting initial ram disk which is capable of using extra .udeb packages to build up its capabilities at run-time, like a miniature Linux distribution. It then builds a functional base system on the target system from individual .deb packages using debootstrap, and goes on from there to install extra packages appropriate for the installation profile (desktop, server, etc.).

The "desktop" installer was introduced in Ubuntu 6.06, and is now the primary mechanism promoted for use by desktop users. It runs from a live CD, and operates by copying the contents of the live filesystem to the target system and then making small configuration adjustments to it.

The live filesystem itself is produced by the livecd-rootfs package, using debootstrap to build a base system and then installing desktop packages on top of that; the casper package deals with booting the live filesystem and making the necessary small number of tweaks at run-time in order for it to function well as a live CD.Thus, all Ubuntu installations start out with an invocation of debootstrap, directly or indirectly. debootstrap itself installs all packages with Priority: required or Priority: important, either binaries from *-metasource which are set from the expansions etc.), of or the requiredand minimal seeds respectively. The remaining packages are typically installed using packages (ubuntu-meta, kubuntu-meta, using Task fields. Both of these are generated automatically or semi-automatically from the corresponding seeds. The upshot is that seed changes are typically propagated to installation images with at most an updated upload of *-meta.

APPLICATIONS IN UBUNTU:

Applications Guide Accessories Games Graphics Internet Office Other Productivity Programming Sound System Web Applications Add/Remove... & Video Tools

ACCESSORIES:
The Accessories menu contains general utility applications for your computer. There are lots of applications available which create items in this menu, but this page deals with the applications installed by default in Ubuntu 8.04. To install additional software

Calculator
"Perform arithmetic, scientific or financial calculations." "You can perform standard addition, subtraction, division, and multiplication functions in Basic mode...Advanced [mode] provides advanced calculator functions....Financial [mode] provides several complex financial functions....Scientific [mode] provides many additional mathematical functions." (Calculator Manual, Introduction, 2008)

Character Map
"Insert special characters into documents." "The Character Map application allows you to insert special characters into a document or a text field. Character Map provides accented characters, mathematical symbols, special symbols, and punctuation marks. Use Character Map to access characters that are not available on your keyboard." (Character Map Manual, Introduction, 2004)

Dictionary
"Check word definitions and spellings in an online dictionary" "The Dictionary application enables you to search words and terms on a dictionary source." (Dictionary Manual, Introduction, 2008) Disk Usage Analyzer "Check folder sizes and available disk space"

"Disk Usage Analyzer is is a graphical, menu-driven application to analyze disk usage in any Gnome environment. Disk Usage Analyzer can easily scan either the whole filesystem tree, or a specific user-requested directory branch (local or remote)." (Disk Usage Analyzer Manual, Introduction, 2008)

Manage Print Jobs

"Cancel, pause, resume or reprint jobs" "Manage Print Jobs lets you have full control over all printed files, giving an overview on all current and completed print jobs."

Passwords and Encryption Keys

"Manage your passwords and encryption keys" "You can use Passwords and Encryption Keys to create and manage PGP and SSH keys. Passwords and Encryption Keys provides a front end to many of the features of Gnu Privacy Guard (GPG) and integrates with multiple components of the GNOME desktop." (Passwords and Encryption Keys Manual, Introduction, 2008)

Take Screenshot
"Save images of your desktop or individual windows" "The Take Screenshot tool (gnome-screenshot) allows you to capture the current screen or window and save it as an image. You can set a delay, and even apply a border or drop shadow to a captured window."

Terminal
"Use the command line" "GNOME Terminal is a terminal emulation application that you can use to...access a UNIX shell in the GNOME environment...run any application that is designed to run on VT102, VT220, and xterm terminals

Text Editor
"Edit text files" "The gedit application enables you to create and edit text files. The aim of gedit is to be a simple and easy to use text editor. More powerful features can be enabled with different plug-in, allowing a variety of tasks related to text-editing."

Tomboy Notes "Simple and easy to use note-taking" "Tomboy is a desktop note-taking application for GNOME. It is simple and easy to use, and
allows you to organize the ideas and information you deal with every day. Tomboy has some very useful editing features to help you customize your notes, including: Highlighting Search Text, Inline Spell Checking, Auto-linking Web & Email Addresses,...Font Styling & Sizing, Bulleted Lists.

Tracker Search Tool

"Locate documents and folders on your computer by name or content" "tracker-search-tool is a graphical search front end...It uses trackerd to get instant search results."
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GRAPHICS:
Applications included in a default installation of Ubuntu

Evince - Document Viewer for PDF and PostScript files Eye of GNOME - Image Viewer F-Spot - Photo Library gThumb - Image Viewer OpenOffice.org Draw - Images and diagrams creation and manipulation The GIMP - Advanced image creation and manipulation XSane - Scanner application

INTERNET:
Ubuntu includes the following Internet applications by default.

Ekiga Softphone - Talk to people over the internet Evolution Mail - Read and write emails Firefox Web Browser - Browse the World Wide Web Pidgin Internet Messenger - Send instant messages over multiple protocols Remote Desktop Viewer - Access remote desktops Terminal Server Client - Connect to a remote computer Transmission Bittorrent Client - Download and share files over BitTorrent

OFFICE:
OpenOffice.org is an open-source office suite which is compatible with other major office suites (such as Microsoft Office). Open Office consists of several commonly used office-type applications, which provide hundreds of different features. The applications are highly integrated, and data from one application can be copied and edited in another with great ease.

Writer (Word Processor)

Writer is Open Offices word processing application. It offers many advanced features, such as the ability to connect to a variety of databases, while still making the basic of word processing easy. From simply changing the font color to applying advanced page styles, Writer can handle pretty much any word-processing task you throw at it. You can even use Writer as a simple webpage designer.

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Calc (Spreadsheet)

Calc is the spreadsheet component of Open Office. It uses Microsoft Excel-style formulas and is able to produce high-quality charts. You can even enhance the impact of your graphs by adding statistical trend lines.

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Impress (Presentations)

Impress is a presentation designer. It comes with several templates to get you started, but has all you need to create your own customized, high-impact presentations. The Task Pane makes adding animations and slide effects a breeze, as well as helping you to organize the structure of your presentation.

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Draw (Diagrams)

Draw is designed to make it easy to create illustrative diagrams for your presentations and reports. With a large selection of shapes and drawing tools, you can create anything from a flowchart to a floor plan.

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Base (Databases)

Base is a database tool, which allows you to collect together large amounts of data into one organized location. Base can be used to automatically produce high-quality reports based on your data, and has powerful search tools to help you find relevant pieces of information from within your databases. Base is tightly integrated with the other Open Office applications, and data from a Base database can be automatically fed into letters, documents, envelopes, labels, spreadsheets and graphs.

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GLabels

gLabels is a program for creating labels and business cards. It is designed to work with various laser/ink-jet peel-off label and business card sheets that you'll find at most office supply stores.

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Scribus
Scribus is an open source desktop page layout program with the aim of producing commercial grade output in PDF and Postscript, primarily, though not exclusively for Linux. Scribus can be used for many tasks; from brochure design to newspapers, magazines, newsletters and posters to technical documentation. It has sophisticated page layout features like precision placing and rotating of text and/or images on a page, manual kerning of type, bezier curves polygons, precision placement of objects, layering with RGB and CMYK custom colors. The Scribus document file format is XML-based.

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Scribus supports professional DTP features, such as CMYK color and a color management system to soft proof images for high quality color printing, flexible PDF creation options, Encapsulated PostScript import/export and creation of 4 color separations, import of EPS/PS and SVG as native vector graphics, Unicode text including right to left scripts such as Arabic and Hebrew via freetype. Graphic formats which can be placed in Scribus as images include PDF, Encapsulated Post Script (eps), TIFF, JPEG, PNG and XPixMap(xpm), and any bitmap type supported by QT3.

SOUND AND VIDEO: The Sound & Video menu contains applications for viewing video, listening to audio, working with optical media (CDs and DVDs) and making sound recordings

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Audio CD Extractor
. The Ubuntu desktop uses Sound Juicer as it's default Audio CD Extractor - "Copy Music from your CDs" "Sound Juicer is a simple and clean CD ripping tool. It allows you to extract the audio from audio compact discs and convert them into audio files that your computer can understand and play. Sound Juicer can also play the audio tracks directly from the CD, allowing you to preview the CD before ripping it."

Brasero Disc Burning

For writing to optical media the Ubuntu desktop uses Brasero - A "simple and easy to use CD/DVD burning application." "Brasero is a application to burn CD/DVD for the Gnome Desktop. It is designed to be as simple as possible and has some unique features to enable users to create their discs easily and quickly
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Movie Player

The Ubuntu desktop uses Totem as it's default video and music player - "Play music and songs" "The Totem Movie Player application is a movie player for the GNOME desktop based on GStreamer framework and xine library, and enables you to play movies or songs.

Rhythmbox Music Player

Rhythmbox is Ubuntu's default music library manager, and is similar in function to iTunes.

SYSTEM TOOLS:
List of administrative application

Device Manager - Information about your machine's hardware. Keyboard Indicator Plugins - One of life's mysteries! Keyring Manager - Stores keys for wifi, etc. Language Support - Install/remove language support for many different languages.

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Login Window - Configure your login. Under the 'Security' tab there is an option for enabling automatic login for a given user. Be warned against automatic login, and other security risks!. Download additional login windows from art.gnome.org.

Networking - Configure your network (this may become largely redundant if you connect via another tool).

Network Tools - Ping, traceroute, etc. Printing - Add, configure, remove printers. Services - Start and stop services/daemons from running in the background. Shared Folders - Share folders on your network and the Internet. Software Sources - Configure software repositories. Synaptic Package Manager Program and application installer. (See

also: InstallingSoftware).

System Log - Log viewer for various log files detailing activity on your machine. System Monitor - Keep an eye on system processes running, resources being used, and your filesystem. See also: System Monitor applet.

Time and Date - Set date/time, select time zone, configure synchronization with Internet clock servers.

Update Manager - Checks for software updates. Equivalent to 'pseudo apt-get update', then 'pseudo apt-get upgrade' in Terminal.

List of Preferences applications

About Me - Enter personal information. Appearance - Change the theme, fonts, desktop wallpaper, and visual effects. (eg, Compiz).
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Assistive Technology Preferences - Enable and configure features like the Screen reader, magnifier and on-screen keyboard.

Bluetooth - Configure Ubuntu to sync with a Bluetooth Device. Default Printer - Set as PDF, but can be changed to printer. Encryption and Keyrings - Keeps track of passwords, and GPG keys. Keyboard - Configure Keyboard features, including accessibility features. Keyboard Shortcuts - Configure certain keys for certain behaviors (also enables putting those ideological keys to good use).

Main Menu - Configure the default menus. Mouse - Configure the settings for your mouse. Network Proxy - Set up information for your proxy server. PalmOS Devices - Configure your Palm device (see also: gnome-pilot applet). Power Management - Configure power features, including what your machine does when you hit the power button.

Preferred Applications - Set default Web Browser, Mail application and Terminal. Remote Desktop - Allow other people to see your desktop Removable Drives and Media - Configure what your device does when, for example, you insert a disk or pen drive. Also adjust settings for all sorts of devices.

Screen Resolution - Set screen resolution, refresh rate and rotation.

ADVANTAGES :

Cost The most obvious advantage of using Linux is the fact that it is free to obtain, while Microsoft products are available for a hefty and sometimes recurring fee. Microsoft licenses typically are only allowed to be installed on a single computer, whereas a Linux distribution can be installed on any number of computers, without paying a single dime.

Security In line with the costs, the security aspect of Linux is much stronger than that of Windows. Why should you have to spend extra money for virus protection software?
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The Linux operating system has been around since the early nineties and has managed to stay secure in the realm of widespread viruses, spyware and adware for all these years. Sure, the argument of the Linux desktop not being as widely used is a factor as to why there are no viruses. My rebuttle is that the Linux operating system is open source and if there were a widespread Linux virus released today, there would be hundreds of patches released tomorrow, either by ordinary people that use the operating system or by the distribution maintainers. We wouldnt need to wait for a patch from a single company like we do with Windows.

Choice (Freedom) The power of choice is a great Linux advantage. With Linux, you have the power to control just about every aspect of the operating system. Two major features you have control of are your desktops look and feel by way of numerous Window Managers, and thekernel. In Windows, your either stuck using the boring default desktop theme, or risking corruption or failure by installing a third-party shell.

Software - There are so many software choices when it comes to doing any specific task. You could search for a text editor on Freshmeat and yield hundreds, if not thousands of results. My article on 5 Linux text editors you should know about explains how there are so many options just for editing text on the command-line due to the open source nature of Linux. Regular users and programmers contribute applications all the time. Sometimes its a simple modification or feature enhancement of a already existing piece of software, sometimes its a brand new application. In addition, software on Linux tends to be packed with more features and greater usability than software on Windows. Best of all, the vast majority of Linux software is free and open source. Not only are you getting the software for no charge, but you have the option to modify the source code and add more features if you understand the programming language. What more could you ask for?

Hardware - Linux is perfect for those old computers with barely any processing power or memory you have sitting in your garage or basement collecting dust. Install Linux and use it as a firewall, a file server, or a backup server. There are endless possibilities. Old 386 or 486computers with barely any RAM run Linux without any issue. Good luck running Windows on these machines and actually finding a use for them.
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Eye Candy

The biggest reason y I converted was the eye candy. Sure Windows Vista comes wit lots of it, but it just isnt as good. Ubuntu 7.04 comes with just a few of the effects seen a lot now a days, these effects include the rotating cube desktop and wobbly windows, it just makes it much nicer to use. I have installed Beryl on my computer to give much more eye candy. I base a lot of my judgments on looks first, features later.

Easy to Install Applications

Installing new programs in Ubuntu is a breeze, far easier than in Windows, because there is one program that basically gives you access to most applications available to Ubuntu, simply click the program you want and it will install, you dont need to accept agreements because its all open source so there is no need to click Next 20 times before the program is installed :D Simply select the program and click OK.. DONE !!

Secure

In Windows Vista, to change a setting requires a ridiculous amount of dialog boxes and passwords, in Ubuntu, you are never logged in as an administrator (root), you are logged in as a simple user, you can change options that are only applicable to your user area but for changing options that affect the system you are required to input the administrator password, one dialog and youre in, simple and secure. There is also the added bonus that there are very few viruses for Linux, I havent ever come across one yet so you can feel safe, imagine not having any virus protection software installed in Windows, there is no need for it in Linux, freedom from the threat of losing all your data.

Easy to change options

Ubuntu comes with a control panel but also comes with a menu next to the Applications menu where you simply select the thing you want to change, be it the Desktop background or the network settings. Everything on the windows that appear is simple and there are just the options you need so it is easy to change the options.
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Community

The community behind Linux, especially Ubuntu is what attracts many people to the operating system. People in the Linux community are mainly ex-Windows users so they know what it feels like to be new to an operating system, so they are happy to help. Whenever I had and have a problem with Ubuntu I simply post on the Ubuntu forum and within minutes there are answers to the problems. I never got put on hold for help :)

Free

Everything about Ubuntu is free, the operating system, the software installed is free (including all the software you can download) any help and support is free. The whole experience is 100% free, because it is open source. Open source means that you can distribute and even edit the code behind the program.

Simple Networking

Networking easier than before ! no need for tuff configs.

Mozilla Firefox

OK, I know that you can use Firefox on Vista as well, but on Ubuntu, there is no Internet Explorer that keeps popping up and cant get rid of. Mozilla Firefox is the number one web browser

Fast

Windows Vista is slow and takes up a lot of resources which means you need a pretty decent computer to run it. Ubuntu is just fast, it doesnt slow down in performance when it has been on for a couple of hours, it just keeps on going and everything opens literally a second after you click the icon, and closes when you click the X, with Windows Vista you have to wait for like 30 seconds before a program starts and try shutting down a program like Word 2007 or MATLAB after using it for a couple of hours, it takes forever.

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Updates

Ubuntu gets updated every 6 months, well as close as it can do, and whenever I turn my computer on there are updates for the programs installed. Compare that to Windows, how often does that get updated, well the 5 years between Windows XP and Vista sort of answers that question. Finally, Windows Vista is for some people and good luck to them (or you, if that is you), but Ubuntu offers a worthy alternative for all.

DISADVANTAGES:

Understanding Becoming familiar with the Linux operating system requires patience as well as a strong learning curve. You must have the desire to read and figure things out on your own, rather than having everything done for you. Check out the 20 must read how tos and guides for Linux.

Compatibility Because of its free nature, Linux is sometimes behind the curve when it comes to brand new hardware compatibility. Though the kernel contributors and maintainers work hard at keeping the kernel up to date, Linux does not have as much of a corporate backing as alternative operating systems. Sometimes you can find third party applications, sometimes you cant.

Alternative Programs Though Linux developers have done a great job at creating alternatives to popular Windows applications, there are still some applications that exist on Windows that have no equivalent Linux application. Read Alternatives to Windows Applications to find out some of the popular alternatives.

FREE DOWNLOADING WEBSITES:

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www.ubuntu.com/GetUbuntu/download www.popularmechanics.com www.wubi-installer.org

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