Happy 19th Birthday, Ubuntu
October 20, 2004 was when Ubuntu 4.10 arrived, codenamed ‘Warty Warthog’ as it was still rather rough around the edges.
Buoyed by a marketing campaign, the first version of Ubuntu was an instant hit with Linux users. Warty lit the flame of popularity that has seen the distro blaze an inextinguishable trail in the years since.
Why was Ubuntu such a hit from the get go?
Ubuntu 4.10 fitted on a single CD; could detect hardware and configure support automatically; and drastically simplified the installation of X — a real BLEEP ache at the time!
Canonical also chose to offer free Ubuntu CDs. Anyone could request a shrink-wrapped copy of the release. This was a major lure in an era when high-speed broadband wasn’t ubiquitous.
Update
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On this day, the first Ubuntu distro was released
There are no Linux distributions known quite as well as Ubuntu. The biggest brand in the Linux world by far, there are people out there who won't even know what Linux is, but they'll know what Ubuntu is if you mention it to them. That's how big it is, and on this day 19 years ago, on Oct. 20, 2004, the first Ubuntu distribution was released to the world.