Ubuntu released its first version in October 2004. It quickly gained a
reputation for ease of installation and use, combined with the slightly wacky
code names given to each release. However, Ubuntu itself is based on Debian,
which is a much older distribution, well respected by the wider Linux
community. Debian is the rock on which Ubuntu is founded.
Sponsored by Canonical Software and with the formidable resources of Mark
Shuttleworth, Ubuntu got off to a great start with version 4.10, the Warty
Warthog. From the start, Ubuntu specified clear goals: to provide a
distribution that was easy to install and use, that did not overly confuse the
user, and that came on a single CD (now one DVD image). Releasing every
six months, Ubuntu made rapid progress into the Linux community and is
now one of the most popular Linux distros in the world.
UBUNTU VERSION NUMBERS
As mentioned earlier, Ubuntu has chosen a unique numbering scheme and
some peculiar code names for releases since the first launch in October- Doing away with the typical version numbering found elsewhere,
Ubuntu decided to take the month and year of release and reverse them.
Hence, the first release in October 2004 became 4.10, followed quickly by
5.04 (April 2005), 5.10, 6.06LTS, and so on up to the current 18.04.
The version covered in this book was released in April 2018 and therefore
bears the version number 18.04. What’s even more special about some
releases is that they also carry the LTS (long-term support); Canonical will
support LTS versions for three years on the desktop version and a total of
five years for the server version after its release. LTS releases come out
every two years, and the most recent LTS version is 18.04.
The code names during development are even better: 4.10 was christened
the Warty Warthog, in recognition of the fact that it was a first release,
warts and all. The second release, 5.04, was dubbed the Hoary Hedgehog.
Things got slightly better with 5.10, code-named the Breezy Badger. 6.06
was announced as the Dapper Drake and was the first Ubuntu distribution
to carry the LTS badge. Beyond Dapper, there was the Edgy Eft (6.10)
followed by the Feisty Fawn (7.04), and more. For a full list of
development code names, see
http://wiki.ubuntu.com/DevelopmentCodeNames.
Ubuntu for Business
Linux has matured over the years. It includes all the essential features for use
in enterprise-level environments, such as CPU architecture support, file