Brief History of Ubuntu

Ubuntu User Manual

In Partial Fulfillment in the Requirements for the Subject Operating System

Submitted by:
Dragon, Glennis Ann F.
Fortin, Brian Kenneth T.
Gabertan, Mark Jay D.
Maniago, Marvin M.
Nuqui, Archie J.

Date Submitted:
March 20, 2013

A brief history of Ubuntu

Ubuntu was conceived in 2004 by Mark Shuttleworth, a successful South
African entrepreneur,and his company Canonical. Shuttleleworth recognized the power of Linux and open source, but was also aware of weaknesses that prevented mainstream use.

Shuttleworth set out with clear intentions to address these weaknesses and create a system that was easy to use,and could compete with other mainstream operating systems. With the Debian system as a base, Shuttleworth began to build Ubuntu. Using his own funds at first, installation cds were pressed and shipped worldwide at no cost to the recipients. Ubuntu spread quickly, its community grew rapidly, and soon Ubuntu became the most popular Linux distribution available.
With more people working on the project than ever before, its core features and hardware support continue to improve, and Ubuntu has gained the attention of large organizations worldwide. One of IBM’s open source operating systems is based on Ubuntu. In 2005, the French Police began to transition their entire computer infrastructure to a variant of Ubuntu—a process which has reportedly saved them “millions of euros” in licensing fees for Microsoft Windows. By the end of 2012, the French Police anticipates that all of their computers will be running Ubuntu. Canonical profits from this arrangement by providing technical support and custom-built software.

While large organizations organization ofen find it useful to pay for support services, Shuttleworth has promised that the Ubuntu desktop operating system will always be free. As of 2012, Ubuntu is installed on an estimated 2% of the world’s computers. This equates to tens of millions of users worldwide, and is growing each year. As there is no compulsory registration, the percentage of Ubuntu users should be treated as an estimate.

What is Linux?
Ubuntu is built on the foundation of Linux, which is a member of the Unix family. UNIX is one of the oldest types of operating systems, and together with Linux has provided reliability and security for professional applications for almost half a century. Many servers around the world that store data for popular websites (such as YouTube and Google) run some variant of Linux or Unix. The popular Android system for smartphones is a Linux variant; modern in-car computers usually run on Linux. Even the Mac os x is based on UNIX. The Linux kernel is best described as the core—almost the brain—of the Ubuntu operating system.

The Linux kernel is the controller of the operating system; it is responsi ble for allocating memory and processor time. It can also be thought of as the program which manages any and all applications on the computer itself.
Linux was designed from the ground up with security and hardware compatibility in mind, and is currently one of the most popular Unix-based operating systems. One of the benefits of Linux is that it is incredibly flexible and can be configured to run on almost any device—from the smallest micro-computers and cellphones to the largest super-computers. UNIX was entirely command line-based until graphical user interfaces (GUIs) emerged in 1973 (in comparison, Apple came out with Mac os ten years later, and Microsoft released Windows 1.0 in 1985).

The early GUIs were difficult to configure, clunky, and generally only used by seasoned computer programmers. In the past decade, however, graphical user interfaces have grown in usability, reliability, and appearance.

Installation

How to install Ubuntu from CD

1) Download the Ubuntu ISO from http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download and save to your desktop
2) Burn the ISO image to a blank CD using Roxio CD creator or similar:

3) Run the CD from “My Computer” – the CD should ask permission to run at which point you’ll see this option screen:

4) If you’d like to install Ubuntu using Wubi, select “install inside Windows” and follow the instructions. Installing with WUBI is ideal for a first taste of Ubuntu as you can remove from add/remove programs in Windows later on. This install process is really easy but you don’t get the same performance as if Ubuntu had a separate partition running on its EXT3 file system. The following screens are all based on the Wubi installer process, so you can follow the rest of the instructions below.
If you’d like to install Ubuntu separately to Windows, then skip to point 7) below.
Here’s what you see next:

If you’ve got the space on your hard drive, go for 30gb or more for the installation size.
5) Now configure your installation using the simple settings options. You can specify the location of the Ubuntu installation on your Windows partition, the size of the Ubuntu installation, the Ubuntu flavour (Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, etc), your preferred language, and a username and password for the Ubuntu system.
When you click install, you’ll see this screen:

As soon as the files have finished downloading, you’ll see this:

6) That’s it! Click reboot now, and select “Ubuntu” on the startup screen. You now have a fully functional dual boot Windows / Ubuntu machine.

Ubuntu Desktop Environment
Unity (Installed by default)

Founded in 2010, the Unity project started by Mark Shuttleworth and Canonical has gone on to deliver a consistent user experience for desktop and netbook users alike. Putting great design at the heart of the project, Unity and its technologies such as Application indicators, System indicators, and Notify OSD, have strived to solve common problems in the Free Software desktop while optimizing the experience for touch, consistency and collaboration.

Unity is the default shell for GNOME 2/3 used by Ubuntu.

Features

Unity is available in 3D or 2D. The 3D version is powered by Compiz.
The top-right portion of the panel is very similar to GNOME 2, offering support for various menus and indicators.

A launcher on the left side keeps track of currently-running applications, and also allows the user to pin favorite applications. Applications demanding attention will glow blue. Badges and progress bars on the launcher icons are also supported by some applications, as are quicklists revealed by right-clicking.

By either clicking the button in the upper-left corner or pressing the Super key, the user can open the Dash, which allows searching for applications, files, and more via the use of "lenses".

Four workspaces are provided that the user can use for organizing windows.
A global menu, similar to that used in Mac OS X, is used for windows by default. You can reveal the menu by mousing over the left portion of the top panel, or by holding Alt.

Alternatively, in Ubuntu 12.04 LTS onward, you can tap the Alt key to reveal the HUD, which allows you to find menu commands by entering search terms, similar to the Dash.

Maximized windows have their window controls also integrated into the top panel. This and the global menu are intended to provide more vertical screen space as compared to other DEs / shells, which is useful for machines like netbooks where screen space is limited.

System Requirements

Unity 3D, like GNOME Shell, requires a 3D graphics card and hardware acceleration to run. If you cannot run Unity 3D, your machine should still be able to run the 2D version of Unity. They are very similar aside from minor differences in appearance, and that you might get better performance while running Unity 2D.