Ubuntu

For the African philosophy, see Ubuntu philosophy. For other uses, see Ubuntu (disambiguation).

Ubuntu
Ubuntu 24.10 "Oracular Oriole"
DeveloperCanonical Ltd.
OS familyLinux (Unix-like)
Working stateCurrent
Source modelOpen-source[1][2]
Initial releaseUbuntu 4.10 (Warty Warthog) / 20 October 2004 (20 years ago) (2004-10-20)
Latest releaseRegular: Oracular Oriole[3] Edit this on Wikidata 24.10[3] Edit this on Wikidata / 10 October 2024; 38 days ago (10 October 2024)
LTS: 24.04.1 LTS[4] Edit this on Wikidata / 29 August 2024; 2 months ago (29 August 2024)
Repository
Marketing targetCloud computing, personal computers, servers, supercomputers, IoT
Available inMore than 55 languages by LoCos
Update methodSoftware Updater, Ubuntu Software, apt
Package managerGNOME Software, dpkg (APT), Snap – graphical front-end: Snap Store
Platforms
Kernel typeMonolithic (Linux kernel)
UserlandGNU
Default
user interface		GNOME
LicenseFree software + some proprietary device drivers,[7] excluding trademarks
Official websiteubuntu.com Edit this at Wikidata

Ubuntu (/ʊˈbʊntuː/ ⓘ uu-BUUN-too)[8] is a Linux distribution derived from Debian and composed mostly of free and open-source software.[9][10][11] Ubuntu is officially released in multiple editions: Desktop,[12] Server,[13] and Core[14] for Internet of things devices[15] and robots.[16][17] The operating system is developed by the British company Canonical[18] and a community of other developers, under a meritocratic governance model.[8][19] As of October 2024, the latest interim release is 24.10 ("Oracular Oriole"), with most-recent long-term support release is 24.04 ("Noble Numbat").

As with other Linux distributions, all of the editions can run on a computer alone, or in a virtual machine. An upgrade to Ubuntu is released every six months, with long-term support (LTS) releases every two years.[8][20][21] Canonical provides security updates and support for each Ubuntu release, starting from the release date until the release reaches its designated end-of-life (EOL) date.[8][22][23] Canonical generates revenue through the sale of premium services related to the Ubuntu software and donations from those who download Ubuntu directly.[24][25][26]

Ubuntu is named after the Nguni philosophy of ubuntu, "humanity to others" with a connotation of "I am what I am because of who we all are".[8] Since the release of the first version in 2004, Ubuntu has become one of the most popular Linux distributions for general purposes[27][28] and is backed by large online communities like Ask Ubuntu. Numerous community-editions of Ubuntu also exist.[29] It is also popular for cloud computing, with support for OpenStack.[30]

Ubuntu - Version History - Visual Timeline - 20231019
  1. ^ "kernel.ubuntu.com". kernel.ubuntu.com. Archived from the original on 21 August 2018. Retrieved 20 April 2018.
  2. ^ "Index of /ubuntu". archive.ubuntu.com. Archived from the original on 11 May 2020. Retrieved 20 April 2018.
  3. ^ a b "Oracular Oriole Release Notes". Retrieved 10 October 2024.
  4. ^ "Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS released". 29 August 2024. Retrieved 30 August 2024.
  5. ^ "Installation". Ubuntu Server Documentation. Canonical Ltd. 2020. Archived from the original on 29 November 2021. Retrieved 1 January 2022. Ubuntu 20.04 Server Edition [...] supports four 64-bit architectures: amd64, arm64, ppc64el, s390x
  6. ^ "Supported platforms". Ubuntu Core Documentation. Canonical Ltd. 2020. Archived from the original on 1 January 2022. Retrieved 1 January 2022.
  7. ^ "Explaining Why We Don't Endorse Other Systems". Free Software Foundation. Archived from the original on 24 April 2011. Retrieved 14 July 2015.
  8. ^ a b c d e Canonical. "About the Ubuntu project". Ubuntu.com. Archived from the original on 28 April 2018. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  9. ^ Canonical. "Licensing". ubuntu.com. Archived from the original on 2 May 2018. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  10. ^ Canonical. "Our mission". ubuntu.com. Archived from the original on 2 May 2018. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  11. ^ Canonical. "Debian". ubuntu.com. Archived from the original on 2 May 2018. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  12. ^ Canonical. "Ubuntu PC operating system". Ubuntu.com. Archived from the original on 16 September 2015. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  13. ^ Canonical. "Ubuntu Server - for scale out workloads". Ubuntu.com. Archived from the original on 23 December 2018. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  14. ^ Canonical. "Ubuntu Core". Ubuntu.com. Archived from the original on 28 April 2018. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  15. ^ Canonical. "Ubuntu for the Internet of Things". Ubuntu.com. Archived from the original on 28 April 2018. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  16. ^ "Your first robot: A beginner's guide to ROS and Ubuntu Core [1/5]". blog.ubuntu.com. Archived from the original on 16 August 2018. Retrieved 16 August 2018.
  17. ^ Trenholm, Richard. "Open source Ubuntu Core connects robots, drones and smart homes". CNET. Archived from the original on 16 August 2018. Retrieved 16 August 2018.
  18. ^ Canonical. "Canonical and Ubuntu". ubuntu.com. Archived from the original on 2 May 2018. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  19. ^ Canonical. "Governance". Ubuntu.com. Archived from the original on 30 April 2018. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  20. ^ "Releases - Ubuntu Wiki". wiki.ubuntu.com. Archived from the original on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  21. ^ "LTS - Ubuntu Wiki". wiki.ubuntu.com. Archived from the original on 5 August 2011. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  22. ^ "Releases - Ubuntu Wiki". wiki.ubuntu.com. Archived from the original on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  23. ^ Canonical. "Release end of life". ubuntu.com. Archived from the original on 20 March 2018. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  24. ^ Canonical. "Support and management". ubuntu.com. Archived from the original on 28 April 2018. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  25. ^ Canonical. "Plans and pricing". Ubuntu.com. Archived from the original on 28 April 2018. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  26. ^ Canonical. "Thank you for your contribution". Ubuntu.com. Archived from the original on 17 August 2021. Retrieved 25 August 2021.
  27. ^ "Ubuntu Pulls Its Latest Desktop Release Over Hate Speech Concerns". PCMag Middle East. 15 October 2023. Retrieved 24 November 2023.
  28. ^ "Top Five Reasons Why Ubuntu Is the Most Used Linux OS". 7 September 2015.
  29. ^ Evangelho, Jason. "Linux For Beginners: Understanding The Many Versions Of Ubuntu". Forbes. Retrieved 24 November 2023.
  30. ^ Canonical. "OpenStack on Ubuntu is your scalable private cloud, by Canonical". ubuntu.com. Archived from the original on 28 April 2018. Retrieved 1 May 2018.