Alright, this might seem obvious to some but it is important so… Keeping any operational system updated is very important for security and stability. This article was tested on Ubuntu 9.10 but should work for previous versions also. Here is how simple it is to keep Ubuntu updated:

1 – Start update Manager

2 – Wait for system state check

3 – Click “Install Updates” button

4 – Wait for download and installation

5 – Restart Ubuntu (if it asks)

Note: Commenter Vadim P. wrote that you can use a program called Ksplice to be able to do major updates without rebooting your system. Might be useful for mission critical setups.

That’s it!

Easy heh? On my crappy connection and computer Ubuntu took around 20 minutes to update from a fresh install.

Have a nice day.

“The first release of Ubuntu Linux (version 4.10) occurred on 2004/10/20, and life hasn’t been the same since. Unless you’ve been living under a rock in Antarctica, then surely you’ve heard of Ubuntu…”

- DistroWatch.com

I’ve been using Ubuntu since version 5.04, in 2006. Since then it has only gotten better. Here is why I think Ubuntu excels in many points.

Edit: Due to popular demand: Yes you can translate, re-post and even edit this article. Credits are welcome.

1 – Free (and pretty good)

2 – It’s HUGE

Its clearly the most used linux distro. According to Wikipedia, Ubuntu passed 100 million users in April 2009 and many vendors started selling computers with Ubuntu pre-installed:

A number of vendors offer computers with Ubuntu pre-installed, including Dell, Tesco, OP3, Gliese IT, System76, and the South African company Bravium Computers.

- Wikipedia

3 – Many resources

It is very easy to find help for Ubuntu. A quick search in Amazon listed 800+ books about Ubuntu. There’s an official wiki with loads of FAQs, guides and manuals all organized in a practical and reachable way. If that still haven’t solved your issues there is the “unofficial” forum with over 7.5 million posts.

4 – Stable

Blue screen of death? Memory dump ? Frozen screen? Unacceptable memory leaks? Need to reboot it once in a while? Ubuntu has nothing to do with that son. I’ve seen reports of up-times as far as 2 years and the system kept smooth.

5 – Secure

Open source is more secure than closed source applications for many reasons. More people can detect and fix bugs on open-source software than in closed-source. Even the Whitehouse and the US Departament of Defense have realized that. Also Linux protects system critical resources without annoying the user.

6 – Commercial support

Ubuntu was born with enterprise mentality and thus is has very good commercial support around the world. Be it for desktop or servers, you can get it at Caonical’s paid support and from its partners.

7 – Faster

Doesn’t need to be reinstalled every now and then to keep running smooth since there is no registry. There’s no DLL hell and no viruses. It also uses less hardware resources.

Ironically like I said bellow on the Wine topic, some Windows games ran faster on Ubuntu for me. You can see a very good benchmark between Ubuntu and Windows on tuxradar.com’s article.

8 – Disk space

Ubuntu vs Windows comparing disk space usage. Altough Ubuntu uses way less disk space, it has more hardware support and comes with Office installed. Image source: tuxradar.com.

9 – No registry

With Ubuntu you don’t get that geek registry which is a big exposure of the system, a mess of system and user software configurations mixed forming a SPOF.

10 – Office for $679.95 Free!

It comes with the free OpenOffice suite which can also open and save in Microsoft Office format.

Edit: As noted by Shady, OpenOffice is not yet a full alternative to Microsoft Office. Although OpenOffice has 80% of the most important functionalities that any office suite, it can be very frustrating if you need anything from those 20% of advanced functionalities. I hope it catches up with but only time will tell.

11 – Battery efficient

Ubuntu can be very energy efficient if properly configured.

12 – Philosophy

Ubuntu makers follow a very humanistic philosophy which serves as a guideline for them to don’t be evil:

1. Every computer user should have the freedom to download, run, copy, distribute, study, share, change and improve their software for any purpose, without paying licensing fees.

2. Every computer user should be able to use their software in the language of their choice.

3. Every computer user should be given every opportunity to use software, even if they work under a disability.

13 – Great repository

As a child of Debian, Ubuntu inherited a very special power: it’s package system. APT works seamlessly with the whole system to keep it updated and offer a vast list of software to be installed.

With the addition of Synaptic things got even easier. And now the final blow: Ubuntu app store which is a hub for commercial and free software on Ubuntu. Enabling users to install apps with the click of a mouse, be it paid or free.

14 – Just works

Ubuntu offer better hardware support than Windows and MacOS and uses less resources to run. Add the fact that it can boot without installing and comes with a free Office suite and you’ll see that in most of the cases it Just Works.

15 – Easy and fast installation

Ubuntu installs faster with less clicks. It recognizes and respects other operating systems and try to keep them working side by side. Ubuntu 9.10 even prompts users to import user data and settings from other operating systems that where detected during install.

16 – Enterprise

Canonical takes Enterprise very seriously if you think at what it has been doing with Ubuntu. First hey created various editions of Ubuntu to attend to various endpoints of an Enterprise project such as Desktop, Server, Cloud and EC2.

17 – Cloud

Canonical offers Ubuntu for cloud computing that works both in-house and on Amazon EC2. Add that to the Desktop and Server versions of Ubuntu can you can build a complex but still homogeneous infrastructure that fit variable needs, all composed of the same type of brick – Ubuntu – which reduces TCO and simplifies IT allot.

18 – Virtualization

Ubuntu Server Edition offers a great variety of virtualization technologies, whether it is used as a host or a guest operating system. From free to non-free solutions, Ubuntu offers choices to match every need. We acknowledge that not any single tool offers all the options to fit all needs and while we are strongly committed with KVM as our maintained open source option, VMware and Parallels’ OpenVz offer choices for use cases that KVM does not account for in the server space.

- Ubuntu.com

19 – Ext4 – Modern file system

Ext4 adds some features on top of Ext3 while keeping backwards compatibility and speeding things up a little. According to kernelnewbies.orgExt4 increased filesystem size from 16TB to incredible 1 EB maximum. Ext4 also support larger files, now limited to 16 TB instead of 2 TB from Ext3.

While there is still some skepticism around Ext4 it now seems stable and reliable. It was available to the average joe since Ubuntu 9.04 but wasn’t the default option a that time.

20 – Wine: run windows applications with

Wine can run Windows programs and games without the impact on performance that virtualization has. In fact CounterStrike 1.6 and Warcraft 3 runs faster on Ubuntu with Wine than on WIndowsXP on my computer. It’s amazing to get 100fps on those games with a crappy PC. It runs smooth!

I remember the other day when I was playing Warcraft 3 against some friends online when all their games crashed but mine. What they had in common? They where all running windows, I wasn’t (no I was not the server).

21 – Learn once for all

Ubuntu 4.10 at 2005

Ubuntu 9.10: nothing much has changed since Ubuntu 4.10. It just got polished.

Ubuntu doesn’t change its interface very often. It just refines them. So that users can get nice design without having to relearn where things are.

You can see by the pictures above that Ubuntu haven’t changed much in the last 5 years, it has only been polished. Those two and other pictures can be seen in this nice softpedia’s article about the evolution of Ubuntu desktop interface.

22 – New releases add features, not bloat

Windows is well known for its bloatware, tons of useless stuff added update after update, release after release.

23 – Try without installing

Since its beginnings Ubuntu can run from a CD or other sources like USB pendrive without installing it and without any change to the PC. Today Linux distros that doesn’t offer this feature feels outdated.

This is a very valuable feature. Despite being able to use Ubuntu without installing, it enables one to use public computers with security or to execute recovery procedures to computers without altering their hard disk.

24 – Open source

Open source is often associated to free software. Well, although that’s often the case, it’s not a rule. There are paid open-source software. But is really the price the main advantage of open-source? Most experts say there’s much more into than just licensing costs.

25 – Predictable releases

26 – Hardware compatibility

One of the main strengths of Ubuntu is that it is considered one of the most hardware compatible Linux distribution. It is well known that Linux today has more hardware compatibility than Windows or Mac.

Some might argue that Windows 7 will recover its 1st place on the rank but recent events say the opposite. The first driver for USB3.0 was released by Intel to the Linux kernel.

27 – Server

There is the Server edition of Ubuntu. Which is great because you can setup an IT infrastructure consisting of servers and desktops of the same base: Ubuntu.

28 – Canonical factor

Canonical is not just another Linux fanboy. Its rich founder, Mark Shuttleworth, decided to take Linux to the next level of usability and made it accessible for all. From Desktop to the Cloud, Canonical filled the gaps and is investing heavy on making software cheap and accessible for normal users while not forgetting stability and TCO for the Enterprise.

29 – Fancy

Ubuntu desktop can get really cool if you enable Compiz Fusion graphics effects. They also enhance usability. Look at this demo (which is outdated, new effects had been added since then):

30 – Ubuntu One: 2GB of online space for free

Since Ubuntu 9.04 users can sign for a free 2GB space to store their files, notes, and contacts online. All integrated into the operational system. Note that to use it in 9.04 you need to install it, but from 9.10 on it comes pre-installed.

That’s it!

That is my toughs about Ubuntu and why it is here to stay.

Can you think of other good things about Ubuntu?

Welcome to ZenBuntu.com

I’m a young web developer and I started this blog to post my experiences and findings related to Ubuntu. I think the OS world for desktops is finally shifting. Waves of changes are coming and I think Ubuntu will take a big role in this process. I prefer to surf those waves instead of being hit by them. Thus my interest for Ubuntu.

Stay tuned to this blog, come surf waves of OS changes with me.