Some of my friends seemed a little unclear about the different Ubuntus out there. One example is of a friend who asked how I can upgrade my Xubuntu installation to Feisty Fawn. “Isn’t Feisty Fawn the new Ubuntu?” and “What is the code name for the 7.04 version of Xubuntu?” are questions I recently heard.

Ubuntu, the base
The Linux distro Ubuntu is the base for several derivatives. That’s what all these derivatives have in common: They all use the same Ubuntu base. The main difference between them all is either the desktop environment they use or the purpose they serve.

I know what desktops are, but I was looking for a nice way to describe them and found this:

Linux offers graphical environments, similar to Microsoft’s Windows or Apple’s Mac OS X, in which a user can interact easily with applications. The main graphical environments for Linux consist of desktop environments and window managers.

Window managers provide an environment for launching and managing applications with graphical user interfaces (GUI). Desktop environments provide a similar interface for GUI applications and contain additional applications to manage everyday computing tasks, such as reading email and Web browsing.

The derivatives
The are a number of operating systems derived from Ubuntu. Some of them are supported by Canonical and the Ubuntu community, others are local language versions, hardware specific versions and versions to serve a group or purpose.

Supported
These derivatives are fully supported by Canonical and the Ubuntu community.

• Kubuntu – Ubuntu with the K Desktop Environment
• Edubuntu – Ubuntu for Education
• Xubuntu – Ubuntu with the XFCE desktop environment
• Ubuntu Server Edition – Ubuntu for Servers

The standard installation of Ubuntu comes with the Gnome desktop environment. Gnome and KDE are considered “heavy” desktops, which probably look nicer and have a lot of nice graphical features, but may use more resources to display these nice features.. The XFCE desktop on the other hand is quite “lighter” than the other 2 desktops, using less system resource. This is why Xubuntu is “ideal for old or low-end machines, thin-client networks, or for those who would like to get more performance out of their hardware”, according to the Xubuntu website.

Local
Due to space limitations just a couple of languages are included in the Ubuntu installations. However, there is support for a lot more languages online. Some of the language specific versions of Ubuntu are:

• Finnish version
• Italian version (translated by CreaLabs)
• Japanese version
• Baltix – Lithuanian version
• Taiwanese version
• Dubuntu Simplified Chinese version
• Kiwi (Hungarian and Romanian)
• Polish version

Other derivatives
There is a not-complete list of derivatives on the Ubuntu site, but I’m highlighting a few here.

• nUbuntu – security testing platform
• Ufficio Zero – Italian derivative for newbie office users, by CreaLabs
• Arabian Linux
• Fluxbuntu – uses Fluxbox as the desktop environment
• Elbuntu – uses E17 as the desktop environment
• Ubuntu Christian Edition
• Ubuntu Muslim Edition
• Ubuntu Studio – for multimedia editing and creation
• Ubuntu Multimedia Center
• Mepis

Conclusion
The widely promoted Ubuntu comes with Gnome as default desktop environment. For people who are used to the KDE (and believe me, there are a lot) Kubuntu replaces Gnome with KDE. For those who still run low-end machines or those who want to get more performance from their hardware Xubuntu replaces Gnome with Xfce. But they all have the same base. So when an upgrade of the base is made available, it’s version number and code name extends to it’s derivatives.

I hope this clears up some misunderstandings there could have been about the different derivatives of Ubuntu.

Now learn more about Ubuntu in this book: Beginning Ubuntu Linux, Second Edition (Beginning from Novice to Professional)