System 10.10: Overview of the Ubuntu distribution

Many are rumored to be called Linux. Some even know that this is a family of completely free operating systems for PCs and laptops. A bright representative of the family is the Ubuntu distribution and in particular the Ubuntu 10.10 system. What kind of animal is this? We will analyze it below.

What is Ubuntu?

The Ubuntu system is the most popular free OS in the world. It is developed by the guys from the company Canonical. It should be noted that in Ubuntu absolutely everything is absolutely free: the system itself, and updates, and programs. Each release of Ubuntu is code-named. This is the tradition of Canonical. Its huge popularity system 10.10 is due, most likely, the working environment of Gnome 3. It is this graphical shell is famous for its high reliability and flexibility of customization. In all of the following Ubuntu distributions, the new Unity desktop environment was used by default, which was not to the liking of many Linux users. The interface "braked", there were frequent departures of the working shell. Unsurprisingly, after the release of Unity, the Ubuntu system began to lose its popularity.

The interface Ubuntu at first can be shocked by a person who is used to dealing with Windows. There is absolutely nothing in common between them. However, there is one big plus: the system can be configured "by itself". Here you can change almost everything to make it as convenient as possible.

Installing Ubuntu 10.10

Installation Maverick Meerkat (Ubuntu 10.10) fundamentally different from the installation of previous versions of the OS. System 10.10 received a fully graphical installation wizard. Now you do not need to strain your eyes in the black and white version of the installer in DOS.

The installation wizard welcomes us with the language selection window. We choose Russian and follow further instructions. After clicking the "Next" button we will be offered to connect to the Internet. We, of course, agree, because during the installation it will be necessary to download and install the language packs. After that, Linux Ubuntu offers options for installing the system on a disk - automatic and manual. We will assume that we do not have the necessary files on the hard disk, and we select the automatic method.

After a successful partitioning of the hard disk into partitions, the installer offers to choose a username and password that is mandatory in Ubuntu. Finally, click the "Install" button. After about 20 minutes, the system prompts you to restart the computer. Everything, OS is ready to use.

Manual disk partitioning

Sometimes you have to manually partition the disk. If there are some important files on it, then all of them will be lost during the automatic installation. Therefore, it is important to understand the way to manually partition the disk into partitions.

System 10.10 is installed only on a partition formatted in the ext3 file system. With the new ext4, she is still slightly friendly. So, create a partition of about 10 GB in the ext3 file system and specify the mount point "/". Next, create a swap file partition. If you have, for example, 4 GB of RAM, it means that the paging file should be 8 GB. And at the final stage, again, create a partition in ext3 from the remaining free space with the mount point "/ home". It's like "My Documents" in Windows. All. The disc is successfully broken. You can proceed with the installation of the system.

Setup after installation

The operating system 10.10 , like any other, needs a basic configuration. The first thing to do is update the system components. To do this, go to the settings section, enter the password and click "Update". Then the system will do everything itself. After installing the updates, you must restart the computer for them to take effect.

The next step is to install the drivers for the devices. One of the advantages of Ubuntu is the support of almost all devices out of the box. You do not have to search for drivers on the Web. It will only go to the driver manager and note for their new versions.

Fresh distributions

Since the release of Ubuntu 10.10, many distributions have been released. The last of these is Ubuntu 14.10 LTS. The abbreviation LTS (Long Term Support) means that the system will be maintained for a long period of time (usually a couple of years). There is also a test distribution of Linux Ubuntu 15.10. But it is still damp and only suitable for testing. As the main system it can not be established, for its stability is still lame.

Of course, compared to 10.10, there are a lot of changes in release 14.10. They mainly touched the working environment, the program manager and the driver manager. The system has become even more stable. In addition, support for many new devices has appeared.

Conclusion

Today we met with the Ubuntu system. Overview of the main functions of the system showed that it can be used as a replacement for Windows. Unlike a Microsoft product, Ubuntu is completely free. Another big plus is that it does not fear viruses written for Windows. Of course, there will be some problems with running Windows applications, but in emulation mode this is not a problem. Ubuntu is a system for those who value freedom and security.

And nevertheless, because of the lack of marketing, advertising and strong visual differences from the brainchild of Microsoft OS Linux family among the townsfolk are still unpopular.

However, they will not be completely replaced by the computer market: different enterprises and institutions simply can not afford to spend hundreds of thousands on paid software.