Ubuntu 5.04
Andy Hudson hopes this is one hedgehog that won’t get squashed.
IN BRIEF
Ubuntu is a Debian-based distro that first appeared in 2004, backed by Mark Shuttleworth, a South African entrepreneur who created Canonical, which develops it. Its ease of use and support of the wider ecosystem helped propel Ubuntu and a huge number of spin-off distros to the fore.
SPECS
Released: April 2005 CPU: x86 Mem: 32MB HDD: 110MB Builds: IA-32, x86-64, PPC, Arm
This review originally appeared in LXF068. The Ubuntu team only launched its first release (4.10, aka The Warty Warthog) in October 2004. Since then, Ubuntu has become one of the most downloaded distros available today. What’s its secret? The slogan says it all: Linux for human beings. This is a distro that you shouldn’t have to be a geek to use. Version 5.04 – The Hoary Hedgehog – comes on a single CD and doesn’t even use its full capacity. It doesn’t baffle the new user with a puzzle of software choices. In fact, you don’t even select individual packages for installation; you’re given a predetermined set of software recommended by Ubuntu.