What is Ubuntu
Ubuntu is an operating system that was developed in South Africa and that very much like Unix. It is available in over 55 languages and it was developed by Canonical Ltd and is set to be administered by the Ubuntu Foundation, which was created specifically for this purpose.

The word of Ubuntu is a South African word that describes an ideal or an ideology promoted there, which is “humanity towards others”. Ubuntu is a stable operating system and has been developed as an open source software platform that is distributed for free. One of the main goals of the software, and something that they have done successfully is make it very easy to use for the average computer user. It is very user-friendly and easy to install.

Ubuntu History
Ubuntu was first released in 2004 with the explicit goal of releasing an update every 6 months. The operating system has been developed with usability being one of the highest priorities. One of the biggest concerns though for computer users that have been raised on Microsoft Windows is, how many applications does Ubuntu come with and are software developers writing programs for this platform? Ubuntu comes with Firefox, OpenOffice, Pidgin, GIMP and a few others and it is also possible to use quite a few programs that have been written for Microsoft Windows, including Microsoft Office. This can be done either through a virtual machine (VM) or through Wine.

Can Ubuntu Compete with Windows?
Ubuntu has made huge strides when you consider that just a few years back it was a brand new operating system. Furthermore, it is attempting to compete with Microsoft which is a massive competitor. Ubuntu has made great progress and in just a few years. According to the New York Times in January of 2009, Ubuntu had more than 10 million users and this figure is reported to be growing consistently.

Although Ubuntu is not currently making much of a dent in the Microsoft market, it can no way be an indicator of where things can go. Ubuntu definitely has potential and it has made remarkable strides. At the end of the day, all sorts of factors can potentially affect whether a product finds true success or not. Keep an eye on the technology news headlines as well as to the way that investors and vendors respond to this operating system. The biggest challenges in my view will be keeping the product strong against viruses and security attacks, which are one Microsoft’s biggest weaknesses. Ubuntu can only begin to content with Windows when software developers create programs to run on their OS as often as they make them for Windows and Mac.

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