Ubuntu
Ubuntu is a branch of the Linux Family Tree and has several branches of its own. Ubuntu's parent is Debian, chosen by Mark Shuttleworth, the founder of Canonical and Ubuntu. Ian Murdock, the founder of Debian, "packaged" a "distribution" of Linux under a social rather than proprietary model. I am confident Mark's choice is related to "Ubuntu" the concept promoted by Archbishop Desmond Tutu which means "I am who I am because of who we all are." For those of us conditioned by big box stores, corporate agriculture and proprietary intellectual property, these notions are "strange". I trust you will find the effort to grok these notions rewarding.
Ubuntu has two main branches, desktop and server. The desktop branch has several branches of its own. These include several "desktops" - Gnome, KDE, and and XFCE and several target audiences - education, media, Christian etc.
The other main branch is Ubuntu Server. This side of the market is dominated by RedHat and SUSE as most of its users are corporations who naturally cannot comprehend the social model. We have found Ubuntu server to be "fresh" (recent packages), stable (a number of users depend on it and contribute to its stability) and socially rewarding.
LSNet participates in the Ubuntu Server Team watching trouble reports and contributing assistance where we have some expertise. Thus we have some idea of the problems other Ubuntu server users are having and a decent idea of how they are solved.
LSNet also operates "sandboxes" loaded with emerging versions of Ubuntu Server so we know what is coming and we know how to deal with inevitable change that briings.
Finally, many staff members run Ubuntu as their "personal" work station operating system. The symbiosis between desktop and server aids understanding of both as we see both sides.
Ubuntu "images" can be downloaded over the Internet. LSNet supplies CDs and DVDs to the bandwidth challenged. Installation support is provided individuals free and at modest rates for commercial users. The following images are available.
ubuntu-7.10-alternate-amd64.iso ubuntu-7.10-alternate-i386.iso ubuntu-7.10-desktop-amd64.iso ubuntu-7.10-desktop-i386.iso ubuntu-7.10-server-amd64.iso ubuntu-7.10-server-i386.iso