Ubuntu

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

Ubuntu
Ubuntu 24.04 "Noble Numbat"
DeveloperCanonical Ltd.
OS familyLinux (Unix-like)
Working stateCurrent
Source modelOpen-source[1][2]
Initial releaseUbuntu 4.10 (Warty Warthog) / 20 October 2004 (19 years ago) (2004-10-20)
Latest releaseLTS: 24.04.1 LTS[3] Edit this on Wikidata / 29 August 2024; 31 days ago (29 August 2024)
Latest previewUbuntu 24.10 Beta (Oracular Oriole) / 19 September 2024 (10 days ago) (2024-09-19)
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,[6] excluding trademarks
Official websiteubuntu.com Edit this at Wikidata

Ubuntu (/ʊˈbʊntuː/ uu-BUUN-too)[7] is a Linux distribution derived from Debian and composed mostly of free and open-source software.[8][9][10] Ubuntu is officially released in multiple editions: Desktop,[11] Server,[12] and Core[13] for Internet of things devices[14] and robots.[15][16] The operating system is developed by the British company Canonical[17] and a community of other developers, under a meritocratic governance model.[7][18] As of April 2024, the 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.[7][19][20] 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.[7][21][22] Canonical generates revenue through the sale of premium services related to the Ubuntu software and donations from those who download Ubuntu directly.[23][24][25]

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".[7] Since the release of the first version in 2004, Ubuntu has become one of the most popular Linux distributions for general purposes[26][27] and is backed by large online communities like Ask Ubuntu. Numerous community-editions of Ubuntu also exist.[28] It is also popular for cloud computing, with support for OpenStack.[29]

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. ^ "Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS released". 29 August 2024. Retrieved 30 August 2024.
  4. ^ "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
  5. ^ "Supported platforms". Ubuntu Core Documentation. Canonical Ltd. 2020. Archived from the original on 1 January 2022. Retrieved 1 January 2022.
  6. ^ "Explaining Why We Don't Endorse Other Systems". Free Software Foundation. Archived from the original on 24 April 2011. Retrieved 14 July 2015.
  7. ^ a b c d e Canonical. "About the Ubuntu project". Ubuntu.com. Archived from the original on 28 April 2018. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  8. ^ Canonical. "Licensing". ubuntu.com. Archived from the original on 2 May 2018. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  9. ^ Canonical. "Our mission". ubuntu.com. Archived from the original on 2 May 2018. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  10. ^ Canonical. "Debian". ubuntu.com. Archived from the original on 2 May 2018. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  11. ^ Canonical. "Ubuntu PC operating system". Ubuntu.com. Archived from the original on 16 September 2015. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  12. ^ Canonical. "Ubuntu Server - for scale out workloads". Ubuntu.com. Archived from the original on 23 December 2018. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  13. ^ Canonical. "Ubuntu Core". Ubuntu.com. Archived from the original on 28 April 2018. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  14. ^ Canonical. "Ubuntu for the Internet of Things". Ubuntu.com. Archived from the original on 28 April 2018. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  15. ^ "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.
  16. ^ 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.
  17. ^ Canonical. "Canonical and Ubuntu". ubuntu.com. Archived from the original on 2 May 2018. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  18. ^ Canonical. "Governance". Ubuntu.com. Archived from the original on 30 April 2018. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  19. ^ "Releases - Ubuntu Wiki". wiki.ubuntu.com. Archived from the original on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  20. ^ "LTS - Ubuntu Wiki". wiki.ubuntu.com. Archived from the original on 5 August 2011. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  21. ^ "Releases - Ubuntu Wiki". wiki.ubuntu.com. Archived from the original on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  22. ^ Canonical. "Release end of life". ubuntu.com. Archived from the original on 20 March 2018. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  23. ^ Canonical. "Support and management". ubuntu.com. Archived from the original on 28 April 2018. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  24. ^ Canonical. "Plans and pricing". Ubuntu.com. Archived from the original on 28 April 2018. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  25. ^ Canonical. "Thank you for your contribution". Ubuntu.com. Archived from the original on 17 August 2021. Retrieved 25 August 2021.
  26. ^ "Ubuntu Pulls Its Latest Desktop Release Over Hate Speech Concerns". PCMag Middle East. 15 October 2023. Retrieved 24 November 2023.
  27. ^ "Top Five Reasons Why Ubuntu Is the Most Used Linux OS". 7 September 2015.
  28. ^ Evangelho, Jason. "Linux For Beginners: Understanding The Many Versions Of Ubuntu". Forbes. Retrieved 24 November 2023.
  29. ^ 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.