You won’t believe it, but Ubuntu has been with us for 15 years!
Thanks to the presence of Ubuntu in the operating system market, Linux has attacked the home user sector for good. Those before this distribution didn’t have much choice when it comes to more user-friendly Linux software that wasn’t targeted at professionals. Choosing the right distribution was simply difficult, and any failure in this matter meant that many users were discouraged by the alternative to Windows.
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Ubuntu is based on the Debian distribution and is developed on Launchpad. The project is sponsored by Canonical Ltd. and Ubuntu Foundation. According to online surveys, Ubuntu was the most popular GNU/Linux distribution on personal computers in 2012. However, it is also popular on servers and in the cloud. Ubuntu is released at regular six-monthly intervals.
The first release of Ubuntu came out on October 20, 2004 as a temporary version of the Debian GNU/Linux distribution. Its initial goal was to create its own six-month publishing cycle. The project gradually evolved and became independent. Unlike other Debian-based distributions, however, Ubuntu remained true to its philosophy of using only free software. Two more versions, 5.04 “Hoary Hedgehog” (7 April 2005) and 5.10 “Breezy Badger” (13 October 2005), brought the system a success that its authors did not expect, ahead of the popularity of Debian, Fedora and SuSE, among others.
The beginnings of Ubuntu are a piece of good history of new technologies
I still remember how the first editions of this distribution were available not only on the Internet, but also by mail order. All you had to do was place a free order on the Ubuntu website – it was best to book at least a few media with the operating system (CDs or DVDs) and keep them for yourself or give them to your friends. You waited even a few weeks for the free order to be processed, but this waiting time was magical before 2010.
Thanks to the great friendliness of Ubuntu and the extensive community around the system, this distribution has become extremely popular. Unlike the often complicated Linux kernel-based system variants, Ubuntu was characterized by a clear, yet powerful interface and plenty of programs installed on the system “from the box”.
Currently, Ubuntu is probably the most popular GNU/Linux distribution in the world and probably the third most popular in terms of users (after Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac OS X). In 2010, it was known that the number of users of the system was already much higher than eight million. In April 2010, Canonical announced that 12 million users (10.04 Beta 2) had installed a trial version of their system.
We cannot imagine a world without Ubuntu – it is also used by specialists in Concise Software. This operating system is ideal not only for home users, but also for professional use. We can only wish you even more distribution and more successful years on the market – all the best, Ubuntu!