• Created by Canonical - A UK company that markets commercial support for Ubuntu
• Desktop version   vs   Server version
  • Desktop is perfectly fine - any additional packages that might come preinstalled on a Server can be added.
  • For our class purpose, the desktop version is fine. If you are building an actual server for test purposes or for production, definitely install the Server. This way you have a standard image that you can always go back to with a reinstall.
• Version:  we are using : Ubuntu 16.04 Long Term Support (LTS) 
  • Should always be able to find the  Latest desktop
• 32 vs 64 bit - at this point, we should only be interested in installing 64 bit systems.
  • Any software that might be installed that will only work as a 32 bit program can be built in 32 bit mode.
  • Or if there is old code, you can create an appropriate 32 bit Guest VM
• Version of stuff installed :
• $uname -a ;
• Using apt-cache...many ways to learn what is installed with this command
  • sudo apt-cache stats

Sources of help for command lines

• the man pages (read details: $man man)
• Other commands:
  • apropos, type, which
• help - most GNU utilities support this: $help type
• Some utilities/commands might provide similar information if given a -h or -help parameter
• info - provides access to detailed help text.
  • pinfo - slightly easier to use version of info
• Or...google or bing
• Siri or 'Ok Google'
  • On an Android device, I asked 'Ok Google, On Linux, what are the parameters to the ls command?'
    • Audio response "here is information from RapicTables.com" and then it showed a brief summary of the syntax for 'ls'.
      • "...not bad Google!! "

Lineage...

• Top three distributions: Debian, Ubuntu and CentOS
• Ubuntu is derived from debian. Is a good choice for desktops - especially when running on laptops.
• Debian - very large range of support for different platforms. Many embedded Linux platforms run Debian.
• CentOS is cloned from Red Had Enterprise Linux - seems to be preferred for cloud or hosting usage.
  

• Select which installation and download the ISO
• ISO :  An 'image' of the CDs that hold the installation files.  ISO comes from the standard image disc image (file system) format used on CD-ROMs (ISO-9660)

Misc. items to point out related to Ubuntu

• Building your own kernel
  • Ubuntu page
• The desktop (i.e., a GUI) is based on GNOME  but modified to provide a simpler user interface.  It it referred to as Unity.
  

Last update: 2/5/2017