The Ubuntu Project is sponsored by Canonical Ltd., a company owned by South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth. Canonical has vowed to keep Ubuntu free
Ubuntu is actually a word from the African Nguni language family, meaning "humanity, caring, and harmony"--a fine sentiment to be sure
The Ubuntu installer is not particularly pretty: It's essentially a text based installer that functions adequately.
Unlike certain other distros, which feature KDE, Ubuntu uses Gnome--but not an old version of Gnome. Gnome 2.8 is here in all its glory, making Ubuntu a great way to check it out if you're curious about the latest version of that popular desktop environment.
Among other things, Gnome 2.8 features an improved file manager, the new "glider" theme, an on-screen preview of keyboard layouts, panel applets, a calendar integrated with Evolution, a bulked up network monitor, a better battery monitor, and an improved weather alert feature.
It also ships with Evolution 2.0, the Microsoft Outlook clone for Linux. Evolution has quite a few new goodies, including support for Novell GroupWise and Microsoft Exchange, Spam Assassin for junk mail control, online calendars with multiple sets of appointments in one calendar, and a Usenet newsreader.
The problems are,
there's no VPN wizard included in its Gnome desktop,
Ubuntu does not detect or configure the wireless card,
and it
needs more software and the ability to choose individual packages during the install
Finally,
Ubuntu definitely makes Debian accessible to less-experienced users
Source:
www.extremetech.com
Preview: Ubuntu Linux 4.10
Linear Mode
