[Buddha-l] Is this guy an, er, budding bodhisattva of IT?

[Christopher Fynn]

jkirk wrote:

> Hi Christopher,
> So Unbuntu is basically Linux? what is the difference that gives it a 
> different moniker?
> Joanna
> ==========================

Ho Joanna

Since Linux is free and open source anyone can make a "distribution" and 
call it pretty much whatever they like (Ubuntu, Red Hat, Fedora, SUSE, 
Debian are just some of most well known of these distributions - there 
are seemingly hundreds of others).

The differences you might notice are things like the installation 
program, the default GUI, the number of applications or packages 
included, the method of installing packages or updates, and how 
up-to-date the components of the distribution are.

Ubuntu is very easy to install compared to many of the other 
distributions you don't have to pay for. Ubuntu includes a fewer
packages than many distributions (so you are not confronted with a
huge and bewildering array of choices at install time) - you can
always add more later.

The basic philosophy behind Ubuntu seems to be to make a version of 
Linux available suitable for ordinary users with no particular
technical expertise. Originally the project appears to have been
started with the needs of users in developing countries, particularly
in Africa, in mind. It is very well done and so has attracted many
users all over the world.

One thing Ubuntu does is pay some attention to design - something which 
seems to be almost ignored in many other Linux distributions.

Ubuntu have also been behind the development of "user friendly" tools 
for doing things like localization. see: 
<http://translate.sourceforge.net/wiki/pootle>
<http://pootle.wordforge.org/>

- Chris