List of Ubuntu releases
Encyclopedia
Ubuntu releases are made semiannually by Canonical Ltd, the developers of the Ubuntu
operating system
, using the year and month of the release as a version number. The first Ubuntu release, for example, was Ubuntu 4.10 and was released on 20 October 2004. Consequently, version numbers for future versions are provisional; if the release is delayed until a different month to that planned, the version number changes accordingly.
Ubuntu releases are timed to be approximately one month after GNOME
releases, which are in turn about one month after releases of X.Org
, resulting in each Ubuntu release including a newer version of GNOME and X.
To date every fourth release, in the second quarter of even-numbered years, has been designated as a Long Term Support (LTS) release, indicating that it has updates for three years for desktop use and five years for server, with paid technical support also available from Canonical Ltd.
Releases 6.06, 8.04, and 10.04 are the LTS releases. Non-LTS releases have typically been supported for over a year, and to date have always been supported until at least the date of the next LTS release. Therefore, users who have a non-LTS release can still safely set the Update Manager to notify about "LTS releases only" if they wish.
s, using an adjective and an animal with the same first letter (e.g. Dapper Drake). With the exception of the first two releases, code names are in alphabetical order, allowing a quick determination of which release is newer. Commonly, Ubuntu releases are often referred to using only the adjective portion of the code name (e.g. Dapper).
Ubuntu 4.10 (Warty Warthog), released on 20 October 2004, was Canonical's first release of Ubuntu, building upon Debian
, with plans for a new release every six months and eighteen months of support thereafter. Ubuntu 4.10's support ended on 30 April 2006. Ubuntu 4.10 was the first version of Ubuntu to offer ShipIt services, allowing users to order free install CDs.
Ubuntu 5.04 (Hoary Hedgehog), released on 8 April 2005, was Canonical's second release of Ubuntu. Ubuntu 5.04's support ended on 31 October 2006. Ubuntu 5.04 added many new features including an update manager
, upgrade notifier, readahead and grepmap, suspend, hibernate and standby
support, dynamic frequency scaling
for processors, ubuntu hardware database, Kickstart installation, and APT
authentication. Ubuntu 5.04 allowed installation from USB devices. Ubuntu 5.04 used UTF-8
by default.
Ubuntu 5.10 (Breezy Badger), released on 12 October 2005, was Canonical's third release of Ubuntu. Ubuntu 5.10's support ended on 13 April 2007. Ubuntu 5.10 added several new features including a graphical bootloader (Usplash
), an Add/Remove Applications tool, a menu editor (alacarte), an easy language selector, logical volume management
support, full Hewlett-Packard
printer support, OEM
installer support, a new Ubuntu logo in the top-left, and Launchpad
integration for bug
reporting and software development.
Ubuntu 6.06 (Dapper Drake), released on 1 June 2006, was Canonical's fourth release, and the first Long Term Support (LTS) release. Ubuntu 6.06 was released behind schedule, having been intended as 6.04. Development was not complete in April 2006 and Mark Shuttleworth
approved slipping the release date to June, making it 6.06 instead.
Ubuntu 6.06's support ended on 14 July 2009 for desktops and ended in June 2011 for servers. Ubuntu 6.06 included several new features, including having the Live CD
and Install CD
merged onto one disc, a graphical installer on Live CD (Ubiquity
), Usplash
on shutdown as well as startup, a network manager for easy switching of multiple wired and wireless connections, Humanlooks theme implemented using Tango
guidelines, based on Clearlooks
and featuring orange colors instead of brown, and GDebi graphical installer for package files
. Ubuntu 6.06 did not include a means to install from a USB device, but did for the first time allow installation directly onto removable USB devices.
Ubuntu 6.10 (Edgy Eft), released on 26 October 2006, was Canonical's fifth release of Ubuntu. Ubuntu 6.10's support ended on 25 April 2008. Ubuntu 6.10 added several new features including a heavily modified Human theme, Upstart
init
daemon, automated crash reports (Apport), Tomboy
note taking application, and F-Spot
photo manager. EasyUbuntu, a third party program designed to make Ubuntu easier to use, was included in Ubuntu 6.10 as a meta-package.
Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn), released on 19 April 2007, was Canonical's sixth release of Ubuntu. Ubuntu 7.04's support ended on 19 October 2008. Ubuntu 7.04 included several new features, among them a migration assistant to help former Microsoft Windows
users transition to Ubuntu, support for Kernel-based Virtual Machine
, assisted codec and restricted drivers installation including Adobe Flash
, Java
, MP3
support, easier installation of Nvidia
and ATI
drivers, Compiz
desktop effects, support for Wi-Fi Protected Access
, the addition of Sudoku
and chess
, a disk usage analyzer (baobab
), GNOME Control Center, and Zeroconf support for many devices. Ubuntu 7.04 dropped support for PowerPC
architecture.
Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon), released on 18 October 2007, was Canonical's seventh release of Ubuntu. Ubuntu 7.10's support ended on 18 April 2009. Ubuntu 7.10 included several new features, among them AppArmor
security framework, fast desktop search
, a Firefox plug-in manager (Ubufox), a graphical configuration tool for X.Org
, full NTFS
support (read/write) via NTFS-3G
, and a revamped printing system with PDF printing by default. Compiz Fusion was enabled as default in Ubuntu 7.10 and Fast user switching
was added.
Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron), released on 24 April 2008, was Canonical's eighth release of Ubuntu and the second Long Term Support (LTS) release. Ubuntu 8.04's support ended on 12 May 2011 for desktops and will end in April 2013 for servers. Ubuntu 8.04 included several new features, among them Tracker desktop search integration, Brasero
disk burner, Transmission BitTorrent client, Vinagre
VNC
client, system sound through PulseAudio
, and Active Directory
authentication and login using Likewise Open. In addition Ubuntu 8.04 included updates for better Tango
compliance, various Compiz usability improvements, automatic grabbing and releasing of the mouse cursor when running on a VMware
virtual machine, and an easier method to remove Ubuntu. Ubuntu 8.04 was the first version of Ubuntu to include the Wubi installer on the Live CD that allows Ubuntu to be installed as a single file on a Windows hard drive without the need to repartition the disk.
Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex), released on 30 October 2008, was Canonical's ninth release of Ubuntu. Support ended on 30 April 2010. Ubuntu 8.10 introduced several new features including improvements to mobile computing and desktop scalability, increased flexibility for Internet connectivity, an Ubuntu Live USB creator
and a guest account, which allowed others to use a computer allowing very limited user rights (e.g. accessing the Internet, using software and checking e-mail). The guest account had its own home folder and nothing done on it was stored permanently on the computer's hard disk. Intrepid Ibex also included an encrypted private directory for users, the inclusion of Dynamic Kernel Module Support
, a tool that allows kernel drivers to be automatically rebuilt when new kernels are released and support for creating USB flash drive
images.
Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope), released on 23 April 2009, was Canonical's tenth release of Ubuntu. Support ended on 23 October 2010. New features included faster boot
time, integration of web services and applications into the desktop interface. It had a new usplash
screen, a new login screen
and also support for both Wacom
(hotplugging
) and netbook
s. It also included a new notification system, Notify OSD, and themes
. It marked the first time that all of Ubuntu's core development moved to the Bazaar distributed revision control
system.
In an announcement to the community on 20 February 2009, Mark Shuttleworth explained that 9.10 would focus on improvements in cloud computing
on the server using Eucalyptus
, further improvements in boot speed as well as development on the Netbook Remix.
The initial announcement of version 9.10 indicated that this release might include a new theme, however the project was moved forward to 10.04, and only minor revisions were made to the default theme. Other graphical improvements included a new set of boot up and shutdown splash screens, a new login screen that transitions seamlessly into the desktop and greatly improved performance on Intel graphics chipsets.
In June 2009 Canonical created the One Hundred Paper Cuts
project, focusing developers to fix minor usability issues. A paper cut is defined as: "a trivially fixable usability bug that the average user would encounter on his/her first day of using a brand new installation of the latest version of Ubuntu Desktop Edition."
The desktop installation of Ubuntu 9.10 replaced Pidgin
with Empathy Instant Messenger
as its default instant messaging client. The default filesystem is ext4
, and the Ubuntu One
client, which interfaces with Canonical's new online storage system, is installed by default. It also debuted a new application called the Ubuntu Software Center
that unifies package management. Canonical stated their intention for this application to replace Add/Remove Programs (gnome-app-install) in 9.10 and possibly Synaptic, Software Sources, Gdebi and Update Manager in Ubuntu 10.04. Karmic Koala also includes a slideshow during the installation process (through ubiquity-slideshow) that highlights applications and features in Ubuntu.
10.04, which is built on KDE
.
The new release includes, among other things, improved support for Nvidia
proprietary graphics drivers, while switching to the open source Nvidia graphics driver, Nouveau
, by default. Plymouth
was also introduced allowing boot animations.
GIMP
was removed from the Lucid installation CD due to its professional-grade complexity and its file size. F-Spot
provides normal user-level graphics-editing capabilities and GIMP remains available for download in the repositories.
The distribution emphasizes the new importance of web services and social networking with integrated interfaces for posting to sites like Facebook
and Twitter
, complementing the IM and email integration already in Ubuntu.
On 4 March 2010, it was announced that Lucid Lynx would feature a new theme, including new logos, taking Ubuntu's new visual style into account:
Critical responses to the new theme have been mixed. Ars Technica
's Ryan Paul said "The new themes and updated color palette are nice improvement for Ubuntu... After testing the new theme for several hours, I feel like it's a step forward, but it still falls a bit short of my expectations." Paul also noted that the most controversial aspect of the new design amongst users has been the placement of the window control buttons on the left instead of the right side of the windows. TechSource's Jun Auza expressed concern that the new theme is too close to that used by Apple's Mac OS X
: "I think Ubuntu is having an identity crisis right now and should seriously consider changing several things in terms of look and feel to avoid being branded as a Mac OS X rip-off, or worse, get sued by Apple." Auza also summarized Ubuntu user feedback: "I believe the fans are divided right now. Some have learned to love the brown color scheme since it uniquely represents Ubuntu, while others wanted change."
The first point release
10.04.1 was made available on 17 August 2010, the second update 10.04.2 was released on 17 February 2011, and the third update 10.04.3 was released on 21 July 2011. The 10.04.4 update is scheduled for 25 January 2012.
, since, in binary
, 101010 is equal to the number 42, the "Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything" within the series. It is Canonical's 13th release of Ubuntu. New features included the new Unity interface for the Netbook Edition, a new default photo manager, Shotwell
, replacing F-Spot
, the ability to purchase applications in the Software Center, and an official Ubuntu font
used by default. Maverick Meerkat 10.10 will be supported until April 2012.
Ubuntu 11.04 used the Unity user interface instead of GNOME Shell as default. The move to Unity was controversial as some GNOME
developers feared it would fracture the community and marginalize GNOME Shell. The GNOME
desktop environment is still available in Ubuntu 11.04 under the title Ubuntu Classic as a fallback to Unity.
Ubuntu 11.04 employed Banshee as the default music player, replacing Rhythmbox
. Other new applications included Mozilla Firefox 4
and LibreOffice
, which replaced OpenOffice.org
. The OpenStack
cloud computing platform was added in this release.
Starting with Ubuntu 11.04, the Ubuntu Netbook Edition was merged into the desktop edition.
In reviewing Ubuntu 11.04 upon its stable release, Ryan Paul of Ars Technica
said "There is a lot to like in Ubuntu 11.04, but also a lot of room for improvement." Jesse Smith of Distrowatch
said "I'm of the opinion there are good features in this release, but 11.04 definitely suffered from being rushed out the door while it was still beta quality. Ubuntu aims to be novice-friendly, but this release is buggy and I think they missed the mark this time around. I'm limiting my recommendation of 11.04 to people who want to play with an early release of Unity."
In April 2011 Shuttleworth announced that Ubuntu 11.10 would not include the classic GNOME
desktop as a fall back to Unity, unlike Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal. Instead, 11.10 will include a 2D version of Unity as a fallback for computers that lack the hardware resources for the Compiz
-based 3D version. However, the classic GNOME desktop remains available as a fallback in Ubuntu 11.10 through a package in the Ubuntu repositories. Shuttleworth also confirmed that Unity in Ubuntu 11.10 will run as a shell for GNOME 3 on top of GNOME 3 libraries, unlike in Ubuntu 11.04 where it ran as a shell for GNOME 2. Moreover, users will also be able to install the entire GNOME 3 stack along with GNOME Shell directly from the Ubuntu repositories, to be presented with a "GNOME 3 desktop" choice at login. During the development cycle, there also have been many changes to Unity, including the placement of the Ubuntu button on the Launcher instead of on the Panel, the autohiding of the window controls (and the global menu) of maximized windows, the introduction of more transparency
into the Dash (and the Panel if the Dash is opened), and the introduction of window controls for the Dash.
In May 2011 it was announced that PiTiVi
would be no longer part of the Ubuntu ISO, starting with Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot. The reasons given for removing it included poor user reception, lack of fit with the default user-case for Ubuntu, lack of polish and the application's lack of development maturity. PiTiVi will not be replaced on the ISO with another video editor. Other changes include removing Computer Janitor, as it caused broken systems for users, and the removal of the Synaptic package manager, which can optionally be installed via the Ubuntu Software Center
. Déjà Dup has been added as Ubuntu's backup program. Mozilla Thunderbird
has replaced the Evolution email client. All removed applications will remain available to users for installation from the Ubuntu Software Center
and Repositories.
Following the Ubuntu Developer Summit in early November 2011 Canonical announced that the default download for 12.04 will be 64-bit, with 32-bit still available as a user choice. Also the ISO size will increase to 750 MB, meaning that it will no longer fit on a CD, but will require a DVD. Other planned changes for this release include a much faster start up time for the Ubuntu Software Center
and refinements to Unity
. This release will replace the Banshee media player with Rhythmbox
and drop the Tomboy note-taking application and the supporting Mono
framework as well.
– Non-stable alpha, beta or release candidate version.
– Indicates an application not installed by default.
Each Ubuntu release follows the release of a new GNOME
desktop environment
version by a month.
Ubuntu (operating system)
Ubuntu is a computer operating system based on the Debian Linux distribution and distributed as free and open source software. It is named after the Southern African philosophy of Ubuntu...
operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
, using the year and month of the release as a version number. The first Ubuntu release, for example, was Ubuntu 4.10 and was released on 20 October 2004. Consequently, version numbers for future versions are provisional; if the release is delayed until a different month to that planned, the version number changes accordingly.
Ubuntu releases are timed to be approximately one month after GNOME
GNOME
GNOME is a desktop environment and graphical user interface that runs on top of a computer operating system. It is composed entirely of free and open source software...
releases, which are in turn about one month after releases of X.Org
X.Org
X.Org refers to several things related to the X Window System:* X.Org, the organisation in charge of X standards from 1999 * The X.Org Foundation, a community-based foundation which took over X stewardship in 2004...
, resulting in each Ubuntu release including a newer version of GNOME and X.
To date every fourth release, in the second quarter of even-numbered years, has been designated as a Long Term Support (LTS) release, indicating that it has updates for three years for desktop use and five years for server, with paid technical support also available from Canonical Ltd.
Canonical Ltd.
Canonical Ltd. is a private company founded by South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth to market commercial support and related services for Ubuntu Linux and related projects. Canonical is registered in London and employs staff around the world...
Releases 6.06, 8.04, and 10.04 are the LTS releases. Non-LTS releases have typically been supported for over a year, and to date have always been supported until at least the date of the next LTS release. Therefore, users who have a non-LTS release can still safely set the Update Manager to notify about "LTS releases only" if they wish.
Naming convention
Ubuntu releases are also given code nameCode name
A code name or cryptonym is a word or name used clandestinely to refer to another name or word. Code names are often used for military purposes, or in espionage...
s, using an adjective and an animal with the same first letter (e.g. Dapper Drake). With the exception of the first two releases, code names are in alphabetical order, allowing a quick determination of which release is newer. Commonly, Ubuntu releases are often referred to using only the adjective portion of the code name (e.g. Dapper).
Ubuntu 4.10 (Warty Warthog)
Debian
Debian is a computer operating system composed of software packages released as free and open source software primarily under the GNU General Public License along with other free software licenses. Debian GNU/Linux, which includes the GNU OS tools and Linux kernel, is a popular and influential...
, with plans for a new release every six months and eighteen months of support thereafter. Ubuntu 4.10's support ended on 30 April 2006. Ubuntu 4.10 was the first version of Ubuntu to offer ShipIt services, allowing users to order free install CDs.
Ubuntu 5.04 (Hoary Hedgehog)
Update Manager
Update Manager is a program that updates all installed software and their associated packages, with important software updates for security or recommended patches. It also informs users when updates are available, listing them in alphabetical orders so that users can choose which updates to...
, upgrade notifier, readahead and grepmap, suspend, hibernate and standby
Advanced Configuration and Power Interface
In computing, the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface specification provides an open standard for device configuration and power management by the operating system....
support, dynamic frequency scaling
Dynamic frequency scaling
Dynamic frequency scaling is a technique in computer architecture whereby the frequency of a microprocessor can be automatically adjusted "on the fly," either to conserve power or to reduce the amount of heat generated by the chip...
for processors, ubuntu hardware database, Kickstart installation, and APT
Advanced Packaging Tool
The Advanced Packaging Tool, or APT, is a free user interface that works with core libraries to handle the installation and removal of software on the Debian GNU/Linux distribution and its variants...
authentication. Ubuntu 5.04 allowed installation from USB devices. Ubuntu 5.04 used UTF-8
UTF-8
UTF-8 is a multibyte character encoding for Unicode. Like UTF-16 and UTF-32, UTF-8 can represent every character in the Unicode character set. Unlike them, it is backward-compatible with ASCII and avoids the complications of endianness and byte order marks...
by default.
Ubuntu 5.10 (Breezy Badger)
Usplash
Usplash is a software project in the Ubuntu community. Historically, scrolling text "verbose mode" has typically appeared on Linux computers during boot. Usplash replaces the scrolling-text screens with a graphical splash screen. It was designed to replace Bootsplash, which did the same thing on...
), an Add/Remove Applications tool, a menu editor (alacarte), an easy language selector, logical volume management
Logical volume management
In computer storage, logical volume management or LVM provides a method of allocating space on mass-storage devices that is more flexible than conventional partitioning schemes...
support, full Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard Company or HP is an American multinational information technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, USA that provides products, technologies, softwares, solutions and services to consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses and large enterprises, including...
printer support, OEM
Original Equipment Manufacturer
An original equipment manufacturer, or OEM, manufactures products or components that are purchased by a company and retailed under that purchasing company's brand name. OEM refers to the company that originally manufactured the product. When referring to automotive parts, OEM designates a...
installer support, a new Ubuntu logo in the top-left, and Launchpad
Launchpad (website)
Launchpad is a web application and website that allow users to develop and maintain software, particularly free software. Launchpad is developed and maintained by Canonical Ltd....
integration for bug
Software bug
A software bug is the common term used to describe an error, flaw, mistake, failure, or fault in a computer program or system that produces an incorrect or unexpected result, or causes it to behave in unintended ways. Most bugs arise from mistakes and errors made by people in either a program's...
reporting and software development.
Ubuntu 6.06 LTS (Dapper Drake)
Mark Shuttleworth
Mark Richard Shuttleworth is a South African entrepreneur who was the second self-funded space tourist. Shuttleworth founded Canonical Ltd. and as of 2010, provides leadership for the Ubuntu operating system...
approved slipping the release date to June, making it 6.06 instead.
Ubuntu 6.06's support ended on 14 July 2009 for desktops and ended in June 2011 for servers. Ubuntu 6.06 included several new features, including having the Live CD
Live CD
A live CD, live DVD, or live disc is a CD or DVD containing a bootable computer operating system. Live CDs are unique in that they have the ability to run a complete, modern operating system on a computer lacking mutable secondary storage, such as a hard disk drive...
and Install CD
Installation (computer programs)
Installation of a program is the act of putting the program onto a computer system so that it can be executed....
merged onto one disc, a graphical installer on Live CD (Ubiquity
Ubiquity (software)
Ubiquity is a simple Linux installer for Ubuntu and its derivatives. It runs on LiveCD and has a Qt frontend and a GTK+ frontend. Ubiquity was first introduced in Ubuntu 6.06 .-Features:* Internationalization support...
), Usplash
Usplash
Usplash is a software project in the Ubuntu community. Historically, scrolling text "verbose mode" has typically appeared on Linux computers during boot. Usplash replaces the scrolling-text screens with a graphical splash screen. It was designed to replace Bootsplash, which did the same thing on...
on shutdown as well as startup, a network manager for easy switching of multiple wired and wireless connections, Humanlooks theme implemented using Tango
Tango Desktop Project
]The Tango Desktop Project is an open-source initiative to create a set of design guidelines and to provide a consistent user experience for applications on desktop environments. The project has created a set of icons known as the Tango Icon Library, which is described as a "proof of concept"...
guidelines, based on Clearlooks
Clearlooks
Clearlooks is a theme engine for GTK+, the main widget toolkit used by the GNOME desktop environment. It is based on Red Hat's Bluecurve theme. The theme engine draws the actual widgets, and can be configured with 'themes' that invoke the theme engine with different configurations. It is the...
and featuring orange colors instead of brown, and GDebi graphical installer for package files
Deb (file format)
deb is the extension of the Debian software package format and the most often used name for such binary packages. Like the "Deb" part of the term Debian, it originates from the name of Debra, erstwhile girlfriend and now ex-wife of Debian's founder Ian Murdock.Debian packages are also used in...
. Ubuntu 6.06 did not include a means to install from a USB device, but did for the first time allow installation directly onto removable USB devices.
Ubuntu 6.10 (Edgy Eft)
Upstart
Upstart is an event-based replacement for the traditional init daemon — the method by which several Unix-like computer operating systems perform tasks when the computer is started. It was written by Scott James Remnant, a former employee of Canonical Ltd....
init
Init
init is a program for Unix-based computer operating systems that spawns all other processes. It runs as a daemon and typically has PID 1. The boot loader starts the kernel and the kernel starts init...
daemon, automated crash reports (Apport), Tomboy
Tomboy (software)
Tomboy is a free and open-source desktop notetaking application written for Unix-like and Microsoft Windows operating systems, written in C# using Gtk#. Tomboy is part of the GNOME desktop environment, often for personal information management. Its interface is a notepad with a wiki-like linking...
note taking application, and F-Spot
F-Spot
F-Spot is an image organizer, designed to provide personal photo management for the GNOME desktop environment. The name is a play on the words F-Stop and G-Spot.-Features:...
photo manager. EasyUbuntu, a third party program designed to make Ubuntu easier to use, was included in Ubuntu 6.10 as a meta-package.
Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn)
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
users transition to Ubuntu, support for Kernel-based Virtual Machine
Kernel-based Virtual Machine
Kernel-based Virtual Machine is a virtualization infrastructure for the Linux kernel. KVM supports native virtualization on processors with hardware virtualization extensions....
, assisted codec and restricted drivers installation including Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...
, Java
Java (programming language)
Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities...
, MP3
MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
support, easier installation of Nvidia
NVIDIA
Nvidia is an American global technology company based in Santa Clara, California. Nvidia is best known for its graphics processors . Nvidia and chief rival AMD Graphics Techonologies have dominated the high performance GPU market, pushing other manufacturers to smaller, niche roles...
and ATI
ATI Technologies
ATI Technologies Inc. was a semiconductor technology corporation based in Markham, Ontario, Canada, that specialized in the development of graphics processing units and chipsets. Founded in 1985 as Array Technologies Inc., the company was listed publicly in 1993 and was acquired by Advanced Micro...
drivers, Compiz
Compiz
Compiz is one of the first compositing window managers for the X Window System that uses 3D graphics hardware to create fast compositing desktop effects for window management. The effects, such as a minimization effect and a cube workspace are implemented as loadable plugins...
desktop effects, support for Wi-Fi Protected Access
Wi-Fi Protected Access
Wi-Fi Protected Access and Wi-Fi Protected Access II are two security protocols and security certification programs developed by the Wi-Fi Alliance to secure wireless computer networks...
, the addition of Sudoku
Sudoku
is a logic-based, combinatorial number-placement puzzle. The objective is to fill a 9×9 grid with digits so that each column, each row, and each of the nine 3×3 sub-grids that compose the grid contains all of the digits from 1 to 9...
and chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
, a disk usage analyzer (baobab
Baobab (software)
Baobab is a graphical disk usage analyzer for GNOME. It is a part of GnomeUtils. It is named after a strange tree: Adansonia.- External links :**...
), GNOME Control Center, and Zeroconf support for many devices. Ubuntu 7.04 dropped support for PowerPC
PowerPC
PowerPC is a RISC architecture created by the 1991 Apple–IBM–Motorola alliance, known as AIM...
architecture.
Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon)
AppArmor
AppArmor is a security module for the Linux kernel, released under the GNU General Public License. AppArmor allows the system administrator to associate with each program a security profile that restricts the capabilities of that program. It supplements the traditional Unix discretionary access...
security framework, fast desktop search
Desktop search
Desktop search is the name for the field of search tools which search the contents of a user's own computer files, rather than searching the Internet...
, a Firefox plug-in manager (Ubufox), a graphical configuration tool for X.Org
X.Org
X.Org refers to several things related to the X Window System:* X.Org, the organisation in charge of X standards from 1999 * The X.Org Foundation, a community-based foundation which took over X stewardship in 2004...
, full NTFS
NTFS
NTFS is the standard file system of Windows NT, including its later versions Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista, and Windows 7....
support (read/write) via NTFS-3G
NTFS-3G
NTFS-3G is an open source cross-platform implementation of the Microsoft Windows NTFS file system with read-write support. NTFS-3G often uses the FUSE file system interface, so it can run unmodified on many different operating systems. It is runnable on Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenSolaris, BeOS,...
, and a revamped printing system with PDF printing by default. Compiz Fusion was enabled as default in Ubuntu 7.10 and Fast user switching
Fast user switching
Fast user switching is a feature on some modern multi-user operating systems such as Windows XP and newer, Mac OS X, Linux. It allows users to switch between user accounts on a single PC without quitting applications and logging out. Analogous functionality was first developed on consumer level...
was added.
Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron)
Brasero (software)
Brasero is a free disc-burning program for Unix-like systems, which serves as a graphical front-end to cdrtools, growisofs, and libburn.Brasero is the default CD/DVD application in the GNOME desktop....
disk burner, Transmission BitTorrent client, Vinagre
Vinagre
Vinagre is a VNC client for the GNOME desktop environment. It was included in GNOME 2.22. It has several features, like the ability to connect to multiple servers simultaneously and switch between them by tabs, VNC servers browsing and bookmarking. In version 2.29 Vinagre added controlling frame...
VNC
Virtual Network Computing
In computing, Virtual Network Computing is a graphical desktop sharing system that uses the RFB protocol to remotely control another computer...
client, system sound through PulseAudio
PulseAudio
PulseAudio is a cross-platform, networked sound server commonly used on the Linux-based and FreeBSD operating systems.PulseAudio runs under Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and POSIX-compliant platforms, such as Linux and FreeBSD...
, and Active Directory
Active Directory
Active Directory is a directory service created by Microsoft for Windows domain networks. It is included in most Windows Server operating systems. Server computers on which Active Directory is running are called domain controllers....
authentication and login using Likewise Open. In addition Ubuntu 8.04 included updates for better Tango
Tango Desktop Project
]The Tango Desktop Project is an open-source initiative to create a set of design guidelines and to provide a consistent user experience for applications on desktop environments. The project has created a set of icons known as the Tango Icon Library, which is described as a "proof of concept"...
compliance, various Compiz usability improvements, automatic grabbing and releasing of the mouse cursor when running on a VMware
VMware
VMware, Inc. is a company providing virtualization software founded in 1998 and based in Palo Alto, California, USA. The company was acquired by EMC Corporation in 2004, and operates as a separate software subsidiary ....
virtual machine, and an easier method to remove Ubuntu. Ubuntu 8.04 was the first version of Ubuntu to include the Wubi installer on the Live CD that allows Ubuntu to be installed as a single file on a Windows hard drive without the need to repartition the disk.
Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex)
Ubuntu Live USB creator
Ubuntu Live USB creator is an official tool to create Live USBs of Ubuntu from the Live CD or from an ISO image. The tool is by default included in all releases after Ubuntu 8.04, and can be installed on Ubuntu 8.04. A KDE frontend was released for Ubuntu 8.10, and is currently included by default...
and a guest account, which allowed others to use a computer allowing very limited user rights (e.g. accessing the Internet, using software and checking e-mail). The guest account had its own home folder and nothing done on it was stored permanently on the computer's hard disk. Intrepid Ibex also included an encrypted private directory for users, the inclusion of Dynamic Kernel Module Support
Dynamic Kernel Module Support
Dynamic Kernel Module Support is a framework used to generate Linux kernel modules whose sources do not generally reside in the Linux kernel source tree. DKMS enables kernel device drivers to be automatically rebuilt when a new kernel is installed....
, a tool that allows kernel drivers to be automatically rebuilt when new kernels are released and support for creating USB flash drive
USB flash drive
A flash drive is a data storage device that consists of flash memory with an integrated Universal Serial Bus interface. flash drives are typically removable and rewritable, and physically much smaller than a floppy disk. Most weigh less than 30 g...
images.
Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope)
Booting
In computing, booting is a process that begins when a user turns on a computer system and prepares the computer to perform its normal operations. On modern computers, this typically involves loading and starting an operating system. The boot sequence is the initial set of operations that the...
time, integration of web services and applications into the desktop interface. It had a new usplash
Usplash
Usplash is a software project in the Ubuntu community. Historically, scrolling text "verbose mode" has typically appeared on Linux computers during boot. Usplash replaces the scrolling-text screens with a graphical splash screen. It was designed to replace Bootsplash, which did the same thing on...
screen, a new login screen
Login
Login is the method whereby a user obtains access to a computer system.Login may also refer to:*Magazines:** LOGiN, published by Enterbrain** ;login:, published by USENIX* Login, Carmarthenshire, an hamlet in Carmarthenshire...
and also support for both Wacom
Wacom
in Krefeld, Germany. Wacom is a Japanese portmanteau: Wa for "harmony" or "circle", and Komu for "computer". Wacom tablets are notable for their use of a patented cordless, battery-free, and pressure-sensitive stylus or digital pen...
(hotplugging
Hot swapping
Hot swapping and hot plugging are terms used to describe the functions of replacing computer system components without shutting down the system...
) and netbook
Netbook
Netbooks are a category of small, lightweight, legacy-free, and inexpensive laptop computers.At their inception in late 2007 as smaller notebooks optimized for low weight and low cost — netbooks omitted certain features , featured smaller screens and keyboards, and offered reduced computing...
s. It also included a new notification system, Notify OSD, and themes
Theme (computing)
In computing, a theme is a preset package containing graphical appearance details, used to customize the look and feel of an operating system, widget set or window manager....
. It marked the first time that all of Ubuntu's core development moved to the Bazaar distributed revision control
Distributed revision control
A distributed revision control system , distributed version control or decentralized version control keeps track of software revisions and allows many developers to work on a given project without necessarily being connected to a common network.-Distributed vs...
system.
Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala)
Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala), released on 29 October 2009, was Canonical's 11th release of Ubuntu. It was supported until April 2011.In an announcement to the community on 20 February 2009, Mark Shuttleworth explained that 9.10 would focus on improvements in cloud computing
Cloud computing
Cloud computing is the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices as a utility over a network ....
on the server using Eucalyptus
Eucalyptus (computing)
Eucalyptus is a software platform for the implementation of private cloud computing on computer clusters. There is an open-core enterprise edition and an open-source edition. Currently, it exports a user-facing interface that is compatible with the Amazon EC2 and S3 services but the platform is...
, further improvements in boot speed as well as development on the Netbook Remix.
The initial announcement of version 9.10 indicated that this release might include a new theme, however the project was moved forward to 10.04, and only minor revisions were made to the default theme. Other graphical improvements included a new set of boot up and shutdown splash screens, a new login screen that transitions seamlessly into the desktop and greatly improved performance on Intel graphics chipsets.
In June 2009 Canonical created the One Hundred Paper Cuts
Paper cut (Ubuntu)
In the Ubuntu Linux-based operating system a Paper Cut is "a trivially fixable usability bug that the average user would encounter on his/her first day of using a brand new installation of the latest version of Ubuntu Desktop Edition."-History:...
project, focusing developers to fix minor usability issues. A paper cut is defined as: "a trivially fixable usability bug that the average user would encounter on his/her first day of using a brand new installation of the latest version of Ubuntu Desktop Edition."
The desktop installation of Ubuntu 9.10 replaced Pidgin
Pidgin (software)
Pidgin is an open-source multi-platform instant messaging client, based on a library named libpurple. Libpurple has support for many commonly used instant messaging protocols, allowing the user to log into various services from one application.The number of Pidgin users was estimated to be over 3...
with Empathy Instant Messenger
Empathy (software)
Empathy is an instant messaging client which supports text, voice, video, file transfers, and inter-application communication over various IM protocols....
as its default instant messaging client. The default filesystem is ext4
Ext4
The ext4 or fourth extended filesystem is a journaling file system for Linux, developed as the successor to ext3.It was born as a series of backward compatible extensions to ext3, many of them originally developed by Cluster File Systems for the Lustre file system between 2003 and 2006, meant to...
, and the Ubuntu One
Ubuntu One
Ubuntu One is a personal cloud service operated by Canonical Ltd.The service enables users to store files online and sync them between computers and mobile devices, as well as stream audio and music from cloud to mobile devices.- Features :...
client, which interfaces with Canonical's new online storage system, is installed by default. It also debuted a new application called the Ubuntu Software Center
Ubuntu Software Center
Ubuntu Software Center is a computer program for browsing, installing and removing software on the Ubuntu operating system. Based upon the GNOME application, gnome-app-install, which is similar in function and appearance, it serves as a GTK+ graphical user interface front-end to the Advanced...
that unifies package management. Canonical stated their intention for this application to replace Add/Remove Programs (gnome-app-install) in 9.10 and possibly Synaptic, Software Sources, Gdebi and Update Manager in Ubuntu 10.04. Karmic Koala also includes a slideshow during the installation process (through ubiquity-slideshow) that highlights applications and features in Ubuntu.
Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx)
Shuttleworth first announced Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) on 19 September 2009 at the Atlanta Linux Fest; Canonical released it on 29 April 2010. It is Canonical's 12th release of Ubuntu and the third LTS release. Canonical intends to provide support for Ubuntu 10.04 until April 2013 for the desktop version, and until April 2015 for the server version. The same dates apply to KubuntuKubuntu
Kubuntu is an official derivative of the Ubuntu operating system using the KDE Plasma Desktop instead of the Unity graphical environment. It is part of the Ubuntu project and uses the same underlying system. It is possible to install both the KDE Plasma Desktop as well as the Unity desktop on...
10.04, which is built on KDE
KDE
KDE is an international free software community producing an integrated set of cross-platform applications designed to run on Linux, FreeBSD, Microsoft Windows, Solaris and Mac OS X systems...
.
The new release includes, among other things, improved support for Nvidia
NVIDIA
Nvidia is an American global technology company based in Santa Clara, California. Nvidia is best known for its graphics processors . Nvidia and chief rival AMD Graphics Techonologies have dominated the high performance GPU market, pushing other manufacturers to smaller, niche roles...
proprietary graphics drivers, while switching to the open source Nvidia graphics driver, Nouveau
Nouveau (graphics)
In computing, nouveau is a software project aiming to develop free software drivers for Nvidia graphics cards, by reverse engineering Nvidia's current proprietary drivers for Linux. This project by X.Org Foundation and freedesktop.org was initially based on the obfuscated 2D-only free and...
, by default. Plymouth
Plymouth (software)
Plymouth is a bootsplash for Linux. It supports animations. It makes use of Direct Rendering Manager and kernel-based mode-setting . It gets packed into the initrd.Besides eye-candy, Plymouth also handles user interaction during boot....
was also introduced allowing boot animations.
GIMP
GIMP
GIMP is a free software raster graphics editor. It is primarily employed as an image retouching and editing tool and is freely available in versions tailored for most popular operating systems including Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS X, and Linux.In addition to detailed image retouching and...
was removed from the Lucid installation CD due to its professional-grade complexity and its file size. F-Spot
F-Spot
F-Spot is an image organizer, designed to provide personal photo management for the GNOME desktop environment. The name is a play on the words F-Stop and G-Spot.-Features:...
provides normal user-level graphics-editing capabilities and GIMP remains available for download in the repositories.
The distribution emphasizes the new importance of web services and social networking with integrated interfaces for posting to sites like Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
and Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
, complementing the IM and email integration already in Ubuntu.
On 4 March 2010, it was announced that Lucid Lynx would feature a new theme, including new logos, taking Ubuntu's new visual style into account:
Critical responses to the new theme have been mixed. Ars Technica
Ars Technica
Ars Technica is a technology news and information website created by Ken Fisher and Jon Stokes in 1998. It publishes news, reviews and guides on issues such as computer hardware and software, science, technology policy, and video games. Ars Technica is known for its features, long articles that go...
's Ryan Paul said "The new themes and updated color palette are nice improvement for Ubuntu... After testing the new theme for several hours, I feel like it's a step forward, but it still falls a bit short of my expectations." Paul also noted that the most controversial aspect of the new design amongst users has been the placement of the window control buttons on the left instead of the right side of the windows. TechSource's Jun Auza expressed concern that the new theme is too close to that used by Apple's Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
: "I think Ubuntu is having an identity crisis right now and should seriously consider changing several things in terms of look and feel to avoid being branded as a Mac OS X rip-off, or worse, get sued by Apple." Auza also summarized Ubuntu user feedback: "I believe the fans are divided right now. Some have learned to love the brown color scheme since it uniquely represents Ubuntu, while others wanted change."
The first point release
Point release
A point release is a minor release of a software project, especially one intended to fix bugs or do minor cleanups rather than add features. The term implies that such releases are relatively frequent, and is generally used with respect to open source projects being developed in the "bazaar model"...
10.04.1 was made available on 17 August 2010, the second update 10.04.2 was released on 17 February 2011, and the third update 10.04.3 was released on 21 July 2011. The 10.04.4 update is scheduled for 25 January 2012.
Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat)
The naming of Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) was announced by Mark Shuttleworth on 2 April 2010, along with the release's goals of improving the netbook experience and a server focus on hybrid cloud computing. Ubuntu 10.10 was released on 10 October 2010 (10.10.10) at around 10:10 UTC. This is a departure from the traditional schedule of releasing at the end of October to get "the perfect 10", and a playful reference to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the GalaxyThe Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a science fiction comedy series created by Douglas Adams. Originally a radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1978, it was later adapted to other formats, and over several years it gradually became an international multi-media phenomenon...
, since, in binary
Binary numeral system
The binary numeral system, or base-2 number system, represents numeric values using two symbols, 0 and 1. More specifically, the usual base-2 system is a positional notation with a radix of 2...
, 101010 is equal to the number 42, the "Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything" within the series. It is Canonical's 13th release of Ubuntu. New features included the new Unity interface for the Netbook Edition, a new default photo manager, Shotwell
Shotwell (software)
Shotwell is an image organizer designed to provide personal photo management for the GNOME desktop environment. It has replaced F-Spot as the standard image tool for several GNOME-based Linux distributions, including Fedora in version 13 and Ubuntu in its 10.10 Maverick Meerkat...
, replacing F-Spot
F-Spot
F-Spot is an image organizer, designed to provide personal photo management for the GNOME desktop environment. The name is a play on the words F-Stop and G-Spot.-Features:...
, the ability to purchase applications in the Software Center, and an official Ubuntu font
Ubuntu Font Family
Ubuntu Font Family is an OpenType TTF based font, designed to be a modern humanist-style font by London-based type foundry Dalton Maag, with funding by Canonical Ltd. The font was under development for nearly nine months, with only a limited initial release through a beta program, until September...
used by default. Maverick Meerkat 10.10 will be supported until April 2012.
Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal)
The naming of Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) was announced on 17 August 2010 by Mark Shuttleworth. Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal was released on 28 April 2011. It is Canonical's 14th release of Ubuntu.Ubuntu 11.04 used the Unity user interface instead of GNOME Shell as default. The move to Unity was controversial as some GNOME
GNOME
GNOME is a desktop environment and graphical user interface that runs on top of a computer operating system. It is composed entirely of free and open source software...
developers feared it would fracture the community and marginalize GNOME Shell. The GNOME
GNOME
GNOME is a desktop environment and graphical user interface that runs on top of a computer operating system. It is composed entirely of free and open source software...
desktop environment is still available in Ubuntu 11.04 under the title Ubuntu Classic as a fallback to Unity.
Ubuntu 11.04 employed Banshee as the default music player, replacing Rhythmbox
Rhythmbox
Rhythmbox is an audio player that plays and helps organize digital music. Originally inspired by Apple's iTunes, it is free software, designed to work well under the GNOME Desktop using the GStreamer media framework. However, Rhythmbox functions on desktop environments other than GNOME.-Music...
. Other new applications included Mozilla Firefox 4
Mozilla Firefox 4
Mozilla Firefox 4 is a version of the Firefox web browser, released on 22 March 2011. The first beta was made available on 6 July 2010; Release Candidate 2 was released on 18 March 2011. It was codenamed Tumucumaque, and has been confirmed as Firefox's last large release cycle...
and LibreOffice
LibreOffice
LibreOffice is a free and open source office suite developed by The Document Foundation as a fork of OpenOffice.org. It is largely compatible with other major office suites, including Microsoft Office, and available on a variety of platforms...
, which replaced OpenOffice.org
OpenOffice.org
OpenOffice.org, commonly known as OOo or OpenOffice, is an open-source application suite whose main components are for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, and databases. OpenOffice is available for a number of different computer operating systems, is distributed as free software...
. The OpenStack
OpenStack
OpenStack is an IaaS cloud computing project by Rackspace Cloud and NASA. Currently more than 120 companies have joined the project among which are Citrix Systems, Dell, AMD, Intel, Canonical, SUSE Linux, HP, and Cisco...
cloud computing platform was added in this release.
Starting with Ubuntu 11.04, the Ubuntu Netbook Edition was merged into the desktop edition.
In reviewing Ubuntu 11.04 upon its stable release, Ryan Paul of Ars Technica
Ars Technica
Ars Technica is a technology news and information website created by Ken Fisher and Jon Stokes in 1998. It publishes news, reviews and guides on issues such as computer hardware and software, science, technology policy, and video games. Ars Technica is known for its features, long articles that go...
said "There is a lot to like in Ubuntu 11.04, but also a lot of room for improvement." Jesse Smith of Distrowatch
DistroWatch
DistroWatch is a website which provides news, popularity rankings, and other general information about various Linux distributions as well as other free software/open source Unix-like operating systems such as OpenSolaris, MINIX and BSD. It now contains information on several hundred distributions...
said "I'm of the opinion there are good features in this release, but 11.04 definitely suffered from being rushed out the door while it was still beta quality. Ubuntu aims to be novice-friendly, but this release is buggy and I think they missed the mark this time around. I'm limiting my recommendation of 11.04 to people who want to play with an early release of Unity."
Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot)
The naming of Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) was announced on 7 March 2011 by Mark Shuttleworth. He explained that Oneiric means "dreamy". Ubuntu 11.10 was released on schedule on 13 October 2011 and is Canonical's 15th release of Ubuntu.In April 2011 Shuttleworth announced that Ubuntu 11.10 would not include the classic GNOME
GNOME
GNOME is a desktop environment and graphical user interface that runs on top of a computer operating system. It is composed entirely of free and open source software...
desktop as a fall back to Unity, unlike Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal. Instead, 11.10 will include a 2D version of Unity as a fallback for computers that lack the hardware resources for the Compiz
Compiz
Compiz is one of the first compositing window managers for the X Window System that uses 3D graphics hardware to create fast compositing desktop effects for window management. The effects, such as a minimization effect and a cube workspace are implemented as loadable plugins...
-based 3D version. However, the classic GNOME desktop remains available as a fallback in Ubuntu 11.10 through a package in the Ubuntu repositories. Shuttleworth also confirmed that Unity in Ubuntu 11.10 will run as a shell for GNOME 3 on top of GNOME 3 libraries, unlike in Ubuntu 11.04 where it ran as a shell for GNOME 2. Moreover, users will also be able to install the entire GNOME 3 stack along with GNOME Shell directly from the Ubuntu repositories, to be presented with a "GNOME 3 desktop" choice at login. During the development cycle, there also have been many changes to Unity, including the placement of the Ubuntu button on the Launcher instead of on the Panel, the autohiding of the window controls (and the global menu) of maximized windows, the introduction of more transparency
Alpha compositing
In computer graphics, alpha compositing is the process of combining an image with a background to create the appearance of partial or full transparency. It is often useful to render image elements in separate passes, and then combine the resulting multiple 2D images into a single, final image in a...
into the Dash (and the Panel if the Dash is opened), and the introduction of window controls for the Dash.
In May 2011 it was announced that PiTiVi
PiTiVi
PiTiVi is a open source non-linear video editor developed by Collabora and contributors from the worldwide community. It is licensed under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License. PiTiVi is designed to be intuitive video editing software that integrates well in the GNOME desktop...
would be no longer part of the Ubuntu ISO, starting with Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot. The reasons given for removing it included poor user reception, lack of fit with the default user-case for Ubuntu, lack of polish and the application's lack of development maturity. PiTiVi will not be replaced on the ISO with another video editor. Other changes include removing Computer Janitor, as it caused broken systems for users, and the removal of the Synaptic package manager, which can optionally be installed via the Ubuntu Software Center
Ubuntu Software Center
Ubuntu Software Center is a computer program for browsing, installing and removing software on the Ubuntu operating system. Based upon the GNOME application, gnome-app-install, which is similar in function and appearance, it serves as a GTK+ graphical user interface front-end to the Advanced...
. Déjà Dup has been added as Ubuntu's backup program. Mozilla Thunderbird
Mozilla Thunderbird
Mozilla Thunderbird is a free, open source, cross-platform e-mail and news client developed by the Mozilla Foundation. The project strategy is modeled after Mozilla Firefox, a project aimed at creating a web browser...
has replaced the Evolution email client. All removed applications will remain available to users for installation from the Ubuntu Software Center
Ubuntu Software Center
Ubuntu Software Center is a computer program for browsing, installing and removing software on the Ubuntu operating system. Based upon the GNOME application, gnome-app-install, which is similar in function and appearance, it serves as a GTK+ graphical user interface front-end to the Advanced...
and Repositories.
Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin)
Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) will be the next release after 11.10 and will be a Long Term Support (LTS) release. The name for the release was announced by Shuttleworth on 5 October 2011. Unlike previous LTS releases that have been supported for three years for the desktop version and five years for the server version, this release will be supported for five years on both.Following the Ubuntu Developer Summit in early November 2011 Canonical announced that the default download for 12.04 will be 64-bit, with 32-bit still available as a user choice. Also the ISO size will increase to 750 MB, meaning that it will no longer fit on a CD, but will require a DVD. Other planned changes for this release include a much faster start up time for the Ubuntu Software Center
Ubuntu Software Center
Ubuntu Software Center is a computer program for browsing, installing and removing software on the Ubuntu operating system. Based upon the GNOME application, gnome-app-install, which is similar in function and appearance, it serves as a GTK+ graphical user interface front-end to the Advanced...
and refinements to Unity
Unity (user interface)
Unity is a shell interface for the GNOME desktop environment developed by Canonical Ltd for its Ubuntu operating system. Unity debuted in the netbook edition of Ubuntu 10.10. It is designed to make more efficient use of space given the limited screen size of netbooks, including, for example, a...
. This release will replace the Banshee media player with Rhythmbox
Rhythmbox
Rhythmbox is an audio player that plays and helps organize digital music. Originally inspired by Apple's iTunes, it is free software, designed to work well under the GNOME Desktop using the GStreamer media framework. However, Rhythmbox functions on desktop environments other than GNOME.-Music...
and drop the Tomboy note-taking application and the supporting Mono
Mono (software)
Mono, pronounced , is a free and open source project led by Xamarin to create an Ecma standard compliant .NET-compatible set of tools including, among others, a C# compiler and a Common Language Runtime....
framework as well.
Table of versions
| Version | Code name | Release date | Supported until | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Desktops | Servers | |||
| 4.10 | Warty Warthog | 20 October 2004 | 30 April 2006 | |
| 5.04 | Hoary Hedgehog | 8 April 2005 | 31 October 2006 | |
| 5.10 | Breezy Badger | 13 October 2005 | 13 April 2007 | |
| 6.06 LTS | Dapper Drake | 1 June 2006 | 14 July 2009 | 1 June 2011 |
| 6.10 | Edgy Eft | 26 October 2006 | 25 April 2008 | |
| 7.04 | Feisty Fawn | 19 April 2007 | 19 October 2008 | |
| 7.10 | Gutsy Gibbon | 18 October 2007 | 18 April 2009 | |
| 8.04 LTS | Hardy Heron | 24 April 2008 | 12 May 2011 | April 2013 |
| 8.10 | Intrepid Ibex | 30 October 2008 | 30 April 2010 | |
| 9.04 | Jaunty Jackalope | 23 April 2009 | 23 October 2010 | |
| 9.10 | Karmic Koala | 29 October 2009 | 30 April 2011 | |
| 10.04 LTS | Lucid Lynx | 29 April 2010 | April 2013 | April 2015 |
| 10.10 | Maverick Meerkat | 10 October 2010 | April 2012 | |
| 11.04 | Natty Narwhal | 28 April 2011 | October 2012 | |
| 11.10 | Oneiric Ocelot | 13 October 2011 | April 2013 | |
| 12.04 LTS | Precise Pangolin | 26 April 2012 | April 2017 | |
| Colour | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Red | Release no longer supported |
| Green | Release still supported |
| Blue | Future release |
Version history of common programs
| Core | Desktop | ||||||||||
| Release | Linux kernel Linux kernel The Linux kernel is an operating system kernel used by the Linux family of Unix-like operating systems. It is one of the most prominent examples of free and open source software.... |
X.Org Server X.Org Server X.Org Server refers to the X server release packages stewarded by the X.Org Foundation,which is hosted by freedesktop.org, and grants... / X.Org X.Org X.Org refers to several things related to the X Window System:* X.Org, the organisation in charge of X standards from 1999 * The X.Org Foundation, a community-based foundation which took over X stewardship in 2004... |
Python Python (programming language) Python is a general-purpose, high-level programming language whose design philosophy emphasizes code readability. Python claims to "[combine] remarkable power with very clear syntax", and its standard library is large and comprehensive... |
Perl Perl Perl is a high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming language. Perl was originally developed by Larry Wall in 1987 as a general-purpose Unix scripting language to make report processing easier. Since then, it has undergone many changes and revisions and become widely popular... |
GNOME GNOME GNOME is a desktop environment and graphical user interface that runs on top of a computer operating system. It is composed entirely of free and open source software... |
Firefox | OpenOffice OpenOffice.org OpenOffice.org, commonly known as OOo or OpenOffice, is an open-source application suite whose main components are for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, and databases. OpenOffice is available for a number of different computer operating systems, is distributed as free software... |
LibreOffice LibreOffice LibreOffice is a free and open source office suite developed by The Document Foundation as a fork of OpenOffice.org. It is largely compatible with other major office suites, including Microsoft Office, and available on a variety of platforms... |
GIMP GIMP GIMP is a free software raster graphics editor. It is primarily employed as an image retouching and editing tool and is freely available in versions tailored for most popular operating systems including Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS X, and Linux.In addition to detailed image retouching and... |
Pidgin Pidgin (software) Pidgin is an open-source multi-platform instant messaging client, based on a library named libpurple. Libpurple has support for many commonly used instant messaging protocols, allowing the user to log into various services from one application.The number of Pidgin users was estimated to be over 3... |
PiTiVi PiTiVi PiTiVi is a open source non-linear video editor developed by Collabora and contributors from the worldwide community. It is licensed under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License. PiTiVi is designed to be intuitive video editing software that integrates well in the GNOME desktop... |
| 4.10 | 2.6.8 | (XFree86 XFree86 XFree86 is an implementation of the X Window System. It was originally written for Unix-like operating systems on IBM PC compatibles and is now available for many other operating systems and platforms. It is free and open source software under the XFree86 License version 1.1. It is developed by the... 4.3) |
2.3.4 | 5.8.4 | 2.8 | 0.9 | 1.1.2 | 2.0.2 | 1.0.0 | ||
| 5.04 | 2.6.10 | (6.8.2) | 2.4.1 | 5.8.4 | 2.10 | 1.0.2 | 1.1.3 | 2.2.2 | 1.1.4 | ||
| 5.10 | 2.6.12 | (6.8.2) | 2.4.2 | 5.8.7 | 2.12 | 1.0.7 | 2.0 | 2.2.8 | 1.5.0 | ||
| 6.06 | 2.6.15 | 1.0.2 / 7.0.0 | 2.4.2 | 5.8.7 | 2.14 | 1.5.3 | 2.0.2 | 2.2.11 | 1.5.0 | 0.10.0 | |
| 6.10 | 2.6.17 | 1.1.1 / 7.1.1 | 2.4.3 | 5.8.8 | 2.16 | 2.0.0 | 2.0.4 | 2.2.13 | 2.0b3 | 0.10.1 | |
| 7.04 | 2.6.20 | 1.2.0 / 7.2 | 2.5.1rc1 | 5.8.8 | 2.18 | 2.0.3 | 2.2.0 | 2.2.13 | 2.0b6 | 0.10.2 | |
| 7.10 | 2.6.22 | 1.3.0 / 7.2 | 2.5.1 | 5.8.8 | 2.20 | 2.0.6 | 2.3.0 | 2.4.0rc3 | 2.2.1 | 0.10.3 | |
| 8.04 | 2.6.24 | 1.4.1 / 7.3 | 2.5.2 | 5.8.8 | 2.22 | 3.0b5 | 2.4.0 | 2.4.5 | 2.4.1 | 0.11.1 | |
| 8.10 | 2.6.27 | 1.5.2 / 7.4 | 2.5.2 | 5.10.0 | 2.24 | 3.0.3 | 2.4.1 | 2.6.1 | 2.5.2 | 0.11.1 | |
| 9.04 | 2.6.28 | 1.6.0 / 7.4 | 2.6.2 | 5.10.0 | 2.26 | 3.0.8 | 3.0.1 | 2.6.6 | 2.5.5 | 0.11.3 | |
| 9.10 | 2.6.31 | 1.6.4 / 7.4 | 2.6.4rc1 | 5.10.0 | 2.28 | 3.5.3 | 3.1.1 | 2.6.7 | 2.6.2 | 0.13.3 | |
| 10.04 | 2.6.32 (DRM Direct Rendering Manager The Direct Rendering Manager is a component of the Direct Rendering Infrastructure, a system to provide efficient video acceleration on Unix-like operating systems, e.g... from 2.6.33) |
1.7.6 / 7.5 | 2.6.5 | 5.10.1 | 2.30 | 3.6.3 | 3.2.0 | 2.6.8 | 2.6.6 | 0.13.4 | |
| 10.10 | 2.6.35 | 1.9.0 / 7.5 | 2.6.6 | 5.10.1 | 2.32 | 3.6.10 | 3.2.1 | 2.6.10 | 2.7.3 | 0.13.5 | |
| 11.04 | 2.6.38 | 1.10.1 / 7.6 | 2.7.1 | 5.10.1 | 2.32.1 | 4.0 | 3.3.2 | 2.6.11 | 2.7.11 | 0.13.5 | |
| 11.10 | 3.0 | 1.10.4 / 7.6 | 2.7.2 | 5.12.4 | 3.2 | 7.0 | 3.4.3 | 2.6.11 | 2.10.0 | 0.15 | |
| 12.04* | 3.2 | 1.11 / 7.6 | 3.2.2 | 5.14.2 | 3.2.1 | 9.0 | 3.4.4 | 2.7.3 | 2.10.0 | 0.15 | |
– Non-stable alpha, beta or release candidate version.
– Indicates an application not installed by default.
Each Ubuntu release follows the release of a new GNOME
GNOME
GNOME is a desktop environment and graphical user interface that runs on top of a computer operating system. It is composed entirely of free and open source software...
desktop environment
Desktop environment
In graphical computing, a desktop environment commonly refers to a style of graphical user interface derived from the desktop metaphor that is seen on most modern personal computers. These GUIs help the user in easily accessing, configuring, and modifying many important and frequently accessed...
version by a month.
Version end of life
After each version of Ubuntu has reached its end-of-life time, its repositories are removed from the main Ubuntu servers and consequently the mirrors. Older versions of Ubuntu repositories and releases can be found at old-releases.ubuntu.com.See also
- List of Ubuntu-based distributions
- Ubuntu Certified ProfessionalUbuntu Certified ProfessionalUbuntu Certified Professional , which was first introduced in May 2006, is a computer based examination about the Ubuntu operating system.It is administered by the LPI foundation....
- List of Linux distributions