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Ubuntu versions, derivatives and re-builds

Ubuntu was launched by Mark Shuttleworth's company, Canonical, in 2004.  Since then, it has become the centre of a large galaxy of Linux "distros" - many of which are simply variations on the Ubuntu packaging with a few new or different packages.  For new users, this can be a bit of a puzzle.  Sometimes the marketing hype gets a bit ahead of reality.  This page seeks to make sense of the this phenomenon and to act as portal to Distropedia articles about the various versions, offshoots and builds that claim Ubuntu in their bloodline.

Firstly, Ubuntu itself is based on Debian - drawing on both the stable and unstable ("sid") branches.  Its Debian heritage is most evident in its package management and craftsman-like attention to detail in integrating various FOSS utilties and applications into a seamless whole.  What Shuttleworth and his development team did was move Debian from the workbench and backroom to the average user's desktop.  They did this by putting together - and then constantly improving - a LiveCD that includes the latest fairly stable versions of common packages and tweaking things like hardware detection and the way GUIs, including the Gnome desktop, handle common tasks.  Importantly, Canonical created the Ubuntu repositories - with their own contributions sitting alongside more than 4,0000 existing packages.  The installer that comes on the Ubuntu LiveCD was also a major advance, providing for hard disk partitioning and custom installs while keeping things very simple (a good installer is now pretty much standard for most distros).

Like Debian, Ubuntu subscribes to the Free and Open Software philosophy - it does not include non-free software by default unless (and this is important) the inclusion is necessary to ensure that some machines can use Ubuntu.  Note that this does not mean "unless some people want  it".  Non-free and non-open source components are only included to ensure that all hardware will run Ubuntu.  The inclusion on non-open source packages ("binary blobs") in distro offerings is an important point of contention in the linux community.  Some distros will have none, some go wild.  Ubuntu has a few.

Shuttleworth also put Ubuntu on a six-month release cycle - something unheard of in the world of Debian where it can be years between stable releases. New versions of Ubuntu are generally launched in April and October each year (the version number represent Year.Month - so Feisty Fawn, released in April 2007, is version 7.04)

In a short time, Canonical had established another four variants on Ubuntu - a GUI-free server install version (that also doubles as a minimal install of Ubuntu for older machines or for people who like to build their desktop and application library suite themselves), Kubuntu, which has the same base as Ubuntu but uses the KDE Desktop Environment and a range of KDE applications, Xubuntu, using the less resource hungry Xfce Desktop, and Edubuntu, a build specially designed for students and education administration.  These five, Ubuntu, Ubuntu server, Kubuntu, Xubunu and Edubuntu, are the "Official", and therefore supported, Ubuntu group of distros.  They are all available for 32 bit and 64 bit computers and for Power PCs, Itanium chip based PCs and even for the Palaystation 3.  These last three builds are not officially supported. 

A key element of the Ubuntu phenomenon is Canonical's business model.  Ubuntu and the official variants are the product.  Unlike some other companies packaging their own distros, there is no "corporate version" - a bigger, better version you have to pay for.   Canonical makes its money from paid support, not selling linux.  Shuttleworth (who is known as "Self-Appointed Benevolent Dictator For Life" or sabdfl) also established a large trust fund to ensure that Canonical (and therefore Ubuntu) can survive for several years without making a profit.

So, the basic picture is a suite of connected, well supported distros tracing their line back to Debian. The initial success of Ubuntu - attracting both new and more experienced Linux users - has had a real impact.  Developers "upstream" from Ubuntu (the people who code or package the applications and utilities) have felt the pressure (and received help) to improve their products.  All this appears to have benefited the user and Canonical has quickly gained ground to become a leading vendor of Linux.  A particularly vibrant community has grown up around Ubuntu, with the Ubuntu Forums often having several thousand users online at any one time.

Then along comes those mysterious people; the "Third Parties".  These are individuals and companies who know a good thing when they see it. And some of them even have ideas about how Ubuntu could be "better" - just as sabdfl saw ways that Debian could be "better".  Some of these third parties are already in the Linux distro business.  What they see is someone putting in the hard yards to build repositories that are more up-to-date than Debian stable's and more reliable than Debian sid's.  So they (eg Mepis and Linspire) do a deal with Canonical to rewrite their own unique bits of code to fit with the Ubuntu repositories and they launch their next versions with Ubuntu's repositories on tap.  No problem - its open source anyway and maybe Canonical gets some interesting code out of it and more developers will be working on things the "Ubuntu way".  A few more companies, like the ones who package Pioneer Linux and Impi Linux join-in too.  Then a few individuals start to see ways they can customise Ubuntu for things they really need - like support for particular languages or something to do with their faith or other interests.  So are born a whole raft of re-packaged Ubuntus under various names - Italian, Spanish, Chinese and Japanese versions, a Christian version and an Islamic version to name a few. 

You see, repackaging a distro has become much easier over the past few years - and is even encouraged by many distro makers.  Morphix (an older Debian-based distro) was specifically put togther with this in mind and has spawned some great distros (like eLive and Dreamlinux).  There is even a tool called Reconstructor that has been specially designed to "re-master" Ubuntu CDs.  It allows a moderately competent user to add or delete packages and change the art-work and the way some menus and tools look.   The days of hacking code and staying up all night debugging scripts seem to be over for many of us.  It does mean, however, that almost anyone with a computer and a bit of Linux knowledge can put together a CD and call it a "new Distro".

One of things people seem to like to do with Ubuntu is breakdown the whole division between "free" and "non'free" inclusions.  Some people just slap the non-free stuff onto the build and call it "new".  Others include "easier" ways to install non-free components.  For example Pioneer Linux includes a third-party script called Automatix in its build and touts this as the answer to "difficult" codec and driver installation issues with Ubuntu.  Others, such a Ubuntu Ultimate and Linux Mint, use a range of start-up scripts to give the user the option of installing these non-free components on first boot (even on a LiveCD boot).  Of course, these "distros" also change the look of the default desktop and include a number of packages that are different from Ubuntu's defaults - but these are mostly already available in Ubuntu's repositories (as are most of the non-free drivers and codecs).  Don't get me wrong - scripts are great and there's no problem replacing one set of packages with another.  But these offerings are rebuilds - and many are very minor rebuilds - of what Canonical has already delivered as Ubuntu.  They rely on both the Ubuntu core and its repositories - although they often add a new repository or two where they aggregate packages not already in Ubuntu's.   These offerings are often promoted as easier than Ubuntu for users who are new to Linux.  They may be, but in reality it would take no more than hour following good "How-to" documentation to achieve the same result from a default Ubuntu install.

At the other end of the "freedom" spectrum is gNewsense, an Ubuntu derivative that includes absolutely no non-free components at all.  Canonical has recently announced that the next release of Ubuntu will feature a similar "pure" version called Gobuntu.

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Another objective of rebuilders is to take advantage of the many different desktop environments Linux has to offer.  Canonical has given us three different default desktops - Gnome in Ubuntu proper, KDE in Kubuntu and Xfce in Xubuntu.  Some experienced Linux users would prefer a desktop that owes less to the standard ways that Microsoft and Apple like to organise our computing experience - hence Fluxbuntu (a minimalist fluxbox desktop) and, possibly sometime soon, Elbuntu, using the Enlightment desktop.  These builds certainly have some advantages, especially for those with less-then-bleeding-edge computers (and there is more to them than just a different window manager).  Uberyl is another rebuild that offers a different desktop experience by building in Beryl 3D desktop effects to the LiveCD (Beryl is now called Compiz Fusion and available widely in other distros). Uberyl also included the E17 version of the enlightenment window manager as an alternative LiveCD session.

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There are certainly other reasons that people remodel Ubuntu.  Some specialist tasks are not well catered for in the default installation - like heavy-duty network security services, development for embedded devices or specialist audio-visual production.  Where people find they like Ubuntu as a base but have critical needs in a particular area, they may decide to repackage and make their work available to others.  Ubuntu Studio is an example focussing on audio and graphics packages.  Audio and video work is very demanding in terms of "real time" processing and requires not just special packages (mixers, recorders etc.) but also a "low latency" Linux kernel.  So Ubuntu Studio fills a particular gap. 

Other specialist builds are Pyramid Linux, designed for use as an OS for embedded machines, and nUbuntu which is a security testing platform. 

In an evolutionary sense, all this diversity is a Good Thing. New ideas, better applications, a neater way of doing something, will all be tested in the real world of users and the fittest will survive - possibly even as modifications to Ubuntu itself (or other distros).  Let us rejoice in Linux diversity!  But let's also bear in mind that, for a linux distro to serve its users, it must be stable and supported - at least in terms of updates, bug-fixes and upgrades.  Amongst the plethora of Ubuntu-derived offerings, how many will pass that test?  What happens when the next kernel update crashes your machine?  Will the developer be there with a fix?  Will he or she keep their offering up-to-date with future Ubuntu releases? Some will and some won't.  Canonical and the "core" Ubuntu community will, I think, be around for few years yet and have a real interest in keeping things working well.  But they cannot be expected to support every script, modification or non-free bleeding-edge package that someone decides would be nice to include on a LiveCD. 

By all means try these "new distros" and enjoy them for their innovation and ideas - I certainly do!  But recognise what they are and what they are not.  At Distropedia we will try to keep you informed of what's what in the world of derivatives, versions and rebuilds as well as the major "real" distros.

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 1. Official (Canonical supported) - free to download, commercial support available

• Ubuntu - available as a LiveCD for 32 and 64 bit x86 processors (PCs)

• Kubuntu- available as a LiveCD for 32 and 64 bit processors

• Xubuntu- available as a LiveCD for 32 and 64 bit processors

• Edubuntu- available as a LiveCD for 32 and 64 bit processors

• Ubuntu Alternate Install (server)- available as an install CD only for 32 and 64 bit processors - No desktop - command-line only

2. Canonical "ports" of all the above (no commercial support)

(LiveCD images for Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu and Edubuntu and install disk image for Alternate Install. )

• Apple Macintosh G3, G4, and G5 computers, including iBooks and PowerBooks as well as IBM OpenPower machines

• Intel Itanium and Itanium 2 computers (IA-64)

• Sony PlayStation 3

3. Derivatives with inbuilt support for a language other than English

• Finnish version

• Italian version (translated by CreaLabs)

• Japanese version

• Baltix - Lithuanian version

• Taiwanese version

• Dubuntu Simplified Chinese version

• Kiwi (Hungarian and Romanian)

• Polish version

• Nordic version

• Spanish derivative - Guadalinex - 

•  Froglinux - in French, via Quebec 

3. Commercial re-builds or distros using Ubuntu Repositories

• Pioneer Linux

• SimplyMepis

• Impi Linux

4. Community-based or individual project builds

• Gnoppix - LiveCD (discontinued)
  

• nUbuntu - security testing platform

• TheOpenCD

• Pyramid Linux - stripped down version for embedded systems

• PUD Gnu/Linux - Taiwanese mini live and installation CD

• Gnome Live CD - LiveCD to demonstrate GNOME

• Fluxbuntu - uses Fluxbox as the desktop environment

• Elbuntu - uses E17 as the desktop environment

• gNewSense - FSF approved operating system using only free software

• Linux Mint
  

• Ubuntu Christian Edition

• Ubuntu Muslim Edition

• Ubuntu Studio - for multimedia editing and creation

• Nexenta - using the OpenSolaris kernel

• Symphony OS

• Uberyl

• Ubuntu Ultimate
  

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