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Small History of "Ubuntu"

The word "Ubuntu" is an ancient Zulu and Xhosa word which means "humanity to others". Ubuntu also means "I am what I am because of who we all are". It was chosen because these sentiments precisely describe the spirit of the Ubuntu Linux distribution.

Ubuntu is one of a number of Linux distributions. The source code that makes up the Ubuntu Linux distribution originates from Debian (so called because it was started by two people named Debra and Ian). Debian is still a widely respected operating system but came under criticism for infrequent updates and less than user friendly installation and maintenance.

A South African internet mogul (who made his fortune selling his company to VeriSign for around $500 million) decided it was time for a more user friendly Linux. He took the Debian distribution and worked to make it a more human friendly distribution which he called Ubuntu. He subsequently formed a company called Canonical Ltd to promote and provide support for Ubuntu Linux. In addition Shuttleworth has formed and funded (to the tune of $10 million) a foundation to guarantee the future of Ubuntu.

The rest, as they say, is history. Ubuntu has since gone from strength to strength. Dell now ship computers pre-loaded with Ubuntu Linux and Ubuntu usually tops the chart at DistroWatch.com (a web site which tracks the popularity of the various Linux distributions).

If you are new to Linux, or already use Linux and want to try a different Linux distro it is unlikely you will find a better option than Ubuntu Linux.




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