Ubuntu

The information on this page is a direct copy of the data from the Linux/BSD Distribution Comparison page on PolishLinux.org. Please feel free to edit the current content and provide better, more up-to-date information about this selected distribution. All the content provided on this page is copylefted under GFDL and will be copied to the appropriate sections of PolishLinux.org site.

Go ahread and edit the distro features now!

Press the little "edit" link on the bottom of the page to switch to the edit mode.

Latest version: 10.10, released October 2010. Download from Ubuntu.com.

FEATURE	DESCRIPTION
KEY FEATURES	Ubuntu is an ancient African word meaning "humanity to others". A distribution f(o)unded by Mark Shuttleworth and sponsored by Canonical Ltd. is currently one of the most popular GNU/Linux flavors.
Supported architectures	amd64, i386
Minimal hardware requirements	For text-mode: <192 MB RAM, 450 MB hard drive For graphical-mode: >256 MB RAM, preferable at least 2 GB HDD
Software freedom status	Includes some proprietary drivers. Non-free components (like proprietary WiFi drivers or graphics drivers) have been present in Ubuntu since the very beginning. The idea is to provide non-free drivers only in case that free drivers do not exist or are of significantly of lower quality. Ubuntu provides a monit when enabling proprietary drives, giving users the freedom not to use them.
INSTALLATION
Installer - overall	(8) Since Ubuntu 6.06 (Dapper Drake), a graphical installer has been available with the Live-CD edition. The installer is fast and asks a small number of questions. It's one of the easiest Linux distributions to set up for a newbie user. Ubuntu's alternative text-based installer is based on Debian's text installer. It adds a few new screens in expert mode, and removes a few in novice mode, making it even simpler to install the system with default setting. The defaults are: latest GNOME with a selection of GTK software. Since Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon), the alternate-CD installer allows for encrypting the hard drive during the installation.
Package selection	(2) Not available. You can however install additional packages before running the Live-CD installer (graphically or using apt-get). Every package you install before running the main installer will appear in your final installation.
Predefined package groups	(2) Desktop or server installations are available. No package group selection.
Expert mode install	(8) Expert/Beginner and kernel 2.4/2.6 choices.
Graphical installer	(6) Available since Ubuntu 6.06 (Dapper Drake). The older text (dialog-based) installer is also very simple and is more suitable for custom installations for advanced users.
Installer speed	(6) The Live-CD installation is pretty fast. The installer only asks a few questions and then copies the entire Live-CD image to the disk, configuring the hardware and the boot menu. The legacy (alternative) installation process is rather slow. Default installation took 35 minutes on 1.6Ghz, 1GB RAM laptop. On the same machine.
CONFIGURATION
Graphical system management	(5) Ubuntu does not provide a disto-specific Control Panel (like in SuSE or Mandriva). Still, a lot of Ubuntu-specific tools have been added to the default GNOME desktop: the update notifier, update and installation manager (similar to Windows' Add/Remove Software application), an applet to mount disks, a NetworkManager (from RedHat) for wifi support, Beagle Search (Tracker since Gutsy Gibbon) integration and more.
Console-based system management	(8) Very good package configuration tool - debconf - from Debian project and standard Debian configuration tools are available
PACKAGE SYSTEM
Number of packages	(8) Except for base Ubuntu packages (built and supported by the Ubuntu team), there are official but unsupported repositories: universe and multiverse. It all sums up to over 10,000 of Ubuntu specific packages. Using alternative sources from Debian or its derivatives is not recommended (and usually not useful).
Package management, automatic dependency resolving	(8) Dpkg, APT and aptitude - Debian package management tools are among the leading GNU/Linux tools for software management. Installing software in Ubuntu is simple and troubleless, and certainly much more pleasurable than in most distributions using the RPM format. Only Smart package manager is considered superior to APT (however, it can be used in Ubuntu as well).
Graphical package management tools	(8) Synaptic - a graphical frontend to APT - a software installation and update tool, very useful if someone likes to click rather than type. Also, an "Add/Remove applications" program is delivered, which is much simpler and more straightforward than Synaptic, but allows to install only the most typical desktop applications. Clicking on DEB package invokes a GNOME installation tool which resembles InstallShield known from MS Windows.
PERFORMANCE
System boot-up speed	(6) Thoughtful selection of services and default configuration make Ubuntu boot usually a bit faster than Debian. It's getting better with each release, but there is still some room for improvement.
System responsiveness	(7) Fair responsiveness of the system. Working with Ubuntu seems faster than with the default Debian installation, but not as fast as with one of the performance-optimized systems like PLD, KateOS or Zenwalk. Technically, packages (except for the kernel and libc) are compiled for 486, but with Pentium III (or higher) optimizations.
STABILITY/SECURITY
Popularity	(9) Ubuntu got extremely popular during the last couple of years and currently occupies the first place in the DistroWatch rank. The creators claim that it has over 8 million users worldwide.
Security focus	(8) All of the key security packages (including kernel packages) are being updated on a daily basis, so if you update the system frequently, you should not have to worry about security much. Additional security tools (like SELinux or AppArmour) are not installed by default, though. There is no graphical firewall and almost no security tools in the default installation either.
Stability and maturity	(7) Ubuntu is based on Debian, which is one of the most stable and mature distributions available. Still, Ubuntu comes with fresh software and instabilities may occur. Kubuntu on the other hand is considered a bit worse in terms of stability since recent versions of KDE usually break more often that fresh GNOME.
INTERNATIONALIZATION
Does the installer support multiple languages?	(8) Ubuntu installer is translated into 40 languages which makes it one of the leaders in this area. Internationalization is one of the Ubuntu project priorities.
Is the system localized after installation?	(7) The installed system is localized. The only problems may occur with QT-based applications. QtConfig app can fix this problem when installed.
Is manual system localization easy?	(5) If something does not work, we should make friends with dpkg-reconfigure tool which makes it easier to change the package configuration without the need to mess up with the configuration files.
APPLICATIONS/NETWORK
Support for restricted formats	(5) You can install all the non-free packages from the multiverse repository (no officially supported but hosted at ubuntu.com). The Restricted Formats wiki entry describes the Ubuntu policy and the multiple ways of getting support for non-free packages. Using EasyUbuntu — a graphical non-free software installer is another good option here.
Sagem DSL modem support	(6) Eagle-USB has been available as a Debian package since version 4.11 (Warty Warthhog). Unfortunately, the support for Thompson modems got worse and worse with every release. Now, it's not possible to install the modem without kernel recompilation.
Alcatel DSL modem support	(6) Speedtouch modem installation is not fully automatic. Package "speedtouch" is responsible for firmware loading. Still, we have to copy the driver manually. Manual configuration is also a must.
ISDN support	(4) As in Debian, proper modules and applications are in the repository.
Wireless support	(8) System automatically detects the common supported wireless cards and looks for the wireless connections using NetworkManager (adequate icon appears on the desktop appears if WiFi is available). Of course, standard Debian tools for dealing with wireless cards are also available, so is Ndiswrapper for Windows-only cards.

General editing info

Each feature should be described shortly, providing the basic information on the subject. The rest can be included in wisely named links. Each feature has a mark, too. This should be granted after a long consideration, with marks of other systems in mind. Be as objective as you can!

Please do use Wiki syntax to emphasize things. A lot of hyperlinks is good as well, to indicate important websites which describe certain distro features in more detail.

Notice that the data provided in this table is automatically copied to the database of polishlinux.org website using a special script. Please do not modify the headers and names of the columns or the order of them. If you need to add a new-line sign in the table, please put a "_" sign at the end of the row, press ENTER and just finish the table cell normally (with the "||").

Please take a look at the Wikidot syntax guide for more details about adding links, bold or italic text to the descriptions. The markup is automatically converted to HTML by the script.

Discussion

If you would like to discuss the current state of the description or have some ideas or are not sure about the validity of some information, please use the comments form on the bottom. Thanks you for your participation.