'* Ubuntu - Linux for Human Beings!
* Ubuntu will always be free of charge, and there is
no extra fee for the "enterprise edition"; we make our very best work available to everyone on the same Free terms.
* Ubuntu includes the very best in translations and accessibility infrastructure that the free software community has to offer, to make Ubuntu usable for as many people as possible.
* Ubuntu is released regularly and predictably; a new release is made every six months. You can use the current stable release or the current development release. Each release is supported for at least 18 months.
* Ubuntu is entirely committed to the principles of open source software development; we encourage people to use open source software, improve it and
pass it on.
About the Name
Ubuntu is a South African ethical ideology focusing on people's allegiances and relations with each other. The word comes from the Zulu and Xhosa languages. Ubuntu is seen as a traditional African concept, is regarded as one of the
founding principles of the new republic of South Africa and is connected to the idea of an African Renaissance.
A rough translation of the principle of Ubuntu is "humanity towards others". Another translation could be: "the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity".
"A person with ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed."
Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Free Software
The Ubuntu project is entirely committed to the principles of free software development; people are encouraged to use free software, improve it,
and pass it on.
"Free software" doesn't mean that you shouldn't have to pay for it (although Ubuntu is committed to being free of charge as well). It means that you should be able to use the software in any way you wish: the code that makes up free software is available for anyone to download, change, fix, and use in any way. Alongside ideological benefits, this freedom also has technical advantages: when programs are developed, the hard work of others can be used and built upon. With non-free software, this cannot happen and when programs are developed, they have to start from scratch. For this reason the development of free software is fast, efficient and exciting!
What is GNU?
The GNU Project was launched in January 1984 by Richard Stallman, to develop a complete UNIX-style operating system which is comprised of free software: the GNU system. Variants of the GNU operating system, which use the Linux kernel, are now widely used.
The GNU project is closely linked to the philosophy of free software, which is central to the projects that derive from it,such as Ubuntu.
You can find out more about free software and the ideological and technical philosophy behind it at the GNU website.
The Linux kernel is the heart of the Ubuntu operating system. A kernel is an important part of any operating system, providing the communication bridge between hardware and software.
Linux was brought to life in 1991 by a Finnish student named Linus Torvalds. At the time, it would run only on i386 systems, and was essentially an independently-created clone of the UNIX kernel, intended to take advantage of the then-new i386 architecture.
Nowadays, thanks to a substantial amount of development effort by people all around the world, Linux runs on virtually every modern computer architecture.
The Linux kernel has gained an ideological importance as well as a technical one.
There is an entire community of people who believe in the ideals of free software and spend their time helping to make open source technology as good as it can be.
People in this community gave rise to initiatives such as Ubuntu, standards committees that shape the development of the Internet, organizations like the Mozilla Foundation, responsible for creating Mozilla Firefox, and countless other software projects from which you've almost certainly benefited in the past.
The spirit of open source, commonly attributed to Linux, is influencing software developers and users everywhere to drive communities with common goals.'
#iuseubuntubecause I stand for freedom, but require a working desktop envorinment. Ubuntu has the best of both.
Jeffrey Bouter, 4:16 PM Sep 2nd, 2010 via web Retweeted by 5 people
text-source: http://twitter.com/kyentei/status/22823326089
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