The "X" in Xubuntu stands for the Xfce graphical desktop environment, but the word "Ubuntu" represents both the technical and philosophical core of the operating system. "Ubuntu" is a South African ethical ideology focusing on people's allegiances and relations with each other. The word comes from the Zulu and Xhosa languages. Ubuntu (pronounced "oo-BOON-too") is seen as a traditional African concept, is regarded as one of the founding principles of the new republic of South Africa and is connected to the idea of an African Renaissance.

A rough translation of the principle of Ubuntu is "humanity towards others". Another translation could be: "the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity".

As a part of the Ubuntu family of Linux-based distributions, the Xubuntu operating system brings the spirit of ubuntu to the software world.

The Xubuntu project is entirely committed to the principles of free software development; people are encouraged to use free software, improve it, and pass it on.

"Free software" doesn't mean that you shouldn't have to pay for it (although Xubuntu is committed to being free of charge as well); it means that you should be able to use the software in any way you wish: the code that makes up free software is available for anyone to download, change, fix, and use in any way. Alongside ideological benefits, this freedom also has technical advantages: when programs are developed, the hard work of others can be used and built upon. With non-free software, this cannot happen and when programs are developed, they have to start from scratch. For this reason the development of free software is fast, efficient and exciting!

You can find out more about free software and the ideological and technical philosophy behind it at the GNU website.

There are many different operating systems based on Linux: Debian, SuSE, Gentoo, Red Hat, and Mandriva are examples. Xubuntu is yet another contender in what is already a highly competitive world. So what makes Xubuntu different?

Xubuntu is part of the Ubuntu family of Linux distributions, and is based on Debian, one of the most widely acclaimed, technologically advanced, and well-supported distributions, Xubuntu aims to create a distribution that provides an up-to-date and coherent Linux system for desktop and server computing. Xubuntu includes a number of carefully selected packages from the Debian distribution and retains its powerful package management system which allows easy installation and clean removal of programs. Unlike most distributions that ship with a large amount of software that may or may not be of use, Xubuntu's list of packages is reduced to a number of important applications of high quality.

By focusing on quality, Xubuntu produces a robust and feature-rich computing environment that is suitable for use in both home, commercial, and educational environments. The project takes the time required to focus on finer details and is able to release a version featuring the latest and greatest of today's software once every 6 months. Xubuntu is available in flavours for the i386 (386/486/Pentium(II/III/IV) and Athlon/Duron/Sempron processors), AMD64 (Athlon64, Opteron, and new 64-bit Intel processors). A community-supported PowerPC (iBook/Powerbook, G4 and G5) architecture architecture is also available.

As mentioned above, the default desktop environment for Xubuntu is Xfce, one of the top three Unix and Linux desktop suite and development platforms. In the words of Olivier Fourdan, the creator of the Xfce desktop environment, "Xfce is a lightweight desktop environment for various *NIX systems. Designed for productivity, it loads and executes applications fast, while conserving system resources."

Because of this emphasis on conserving system resources, Xubuntu is an ideal candidate for old or low-end machines, thin-client networks, or for those who would like to get more performance out of their hardware.

Another leading UNIX and Linux desktop is GNOME. Gnome is the default desktop environment of the Ubuntu project. Xubuntu users are able to easily install and use the Gnome desktop on their system. To get a working install of Ubuntu on a Xubuntu system, install the ubuntu-desktop package. Once ubuntu-desktop is installed, you can choose to use either an Xfce or Gnome desktop environment.

A third leading UNIX and Linux desktop is KDE. The Kubuntu project offers Ubuntu users an alternative choice to the Xfce or Gnome desktop environments. Thanks to the efforts of the Kubuntu team, users can also install and use the KDE desktop on their system. To get a working installation of Kubuntu, just install the kubuntu-desktop package. Once kubuntu-desktop is installed, you can also choose to use the KDE desktop environment when logging in to your computer.

The Xubuntu version numbering scheme is based on the date we release a version of the distribution. The version number comes from the year and month of the release rather than reflecting the actual version of the software. The first official release of Xubuntu (Dapper Drake) was in June of 2006 so its version was 6.06. This version of Xubuntu (Gutsy Gibbon) was released in October 2007 so its version number is 7.10.

Xubuntu is developed and supported by a quickly growing community. The project is sponsored by Canonical Ltd., a holding company founded by Mark Shuttleworth. Canonical employs the core Ubuntu developers and offers support and consulting services for Ubuntu. More information about Canonical's support offerings can be found on the Canonical website.

Although Canonical does not provide professional consulting services support for Xubuntu at this time, Xubuntu user support is available through the Xubuntu community. Information regarding community support can be found at the Help & Support page of the Xubuntu website.

The Linux kernel, pronounced 'linnuks' is the heart of the Xubuntu operating system. A kernel is an important part of any operating system, providing the communication bridge between hardware and software.

Linux was brought to life in 1991 by a Finnish student named Linus Torvalds. At the time, it would run only on i386 systems, and was essentially an independently created clone of the UNIX kernel, intended to take advantage of the then-new i386 architecture.

Nowadays, thanks to a substantial amount of development effort by people all around the world, Linux runs on virtually every modern architecture.

The Linux kernel has gained an ideological importance as well as a technical one. There is an entire community of people who believe in the ideals of free software and spend their time helping to make open source technology as good as it can be.

People in this community gave rise to initiatives such as Ubuntu, standards committees that shape the development of the Internet, organizations like the Mozilla Foundation, responsible for creating Mozilla Firefox, and countless other software projects from which you've certainly benefited in the past.

The spirit of open source, commonly attributed to Linux, is influencing software developers and users everywhere to drive communities with common goals.

The GNU Project, pronounced “guh-noo”, was launched in 1984 to develop a complete UNIX style operating system which is comprised of free software: the GNU system. Variants of the GNU operating system, which use the Linux kernel, are now widely used.

The GNU project is closely linked to the philosophy of free software, which is central to the projects that derive from it, such as Ubuntu. The concept of free software is explained at the section called “Free Software”.