Ubuntu is a community developed operating system that is perfect for laptops, desktops and servers. Whether you use it at home, at school or at work Ubuntu contains all the applications you'll ever need, from word processing and email applications, to web server software and programming tools.
Ubuntu is and always will be free of charge. You do not pay any licensing fees. You can download, use and share Ubuntu with your friends, family, school or business for absolutely nothing.
We issue a new desktop and server release every six months. That means you'll always have the latest and greatest applications that the open source world has to offer.
Ubuntu is designed with security in mind. You get free security updates for at least 18 months on the desktop and server. With the Long Term Support (LTS) version you get three years support on the desktop, and five years on the server. There is no extra fee for the LTS version, we make our very best work available to everyone on the same free terms. Upgrades to new versions of Ubuntu are and always will be free of charge.
Everything you need comes on one CD, providing a complete working environment. Additional software is available online.

The graphical installer enables you to get up and running quickly and easily. A standard installation should take less than 25 minutes.
Once installed your system is immediately ready-to-use. On the desktop you have a full set of productivity, internet, drawing and graphics applications, and games.

On the server you get just what you need to get up and running and nothing you don't.

Features

OpenOffice - A complete productivity suite

Word Processor has everything you would expect from a modern, fully-equipped word processor or desktop publisher. It's simple enough for a quick memo and powerful enough to create complete books with contents, diagrams, indexes, etc. You're free to concentrate on your message - while Word Processor makes it look great. The Wizards feature takes all the hassle out of producing standard documents such as letters, faxes, agendas, minutes, or carrying out more complex tasks such as mail merges.
Spreadsheet is the programme you've always wanted. Newcomers find it intuitive and easy to learn; professional data miners and number crunchers will appreciate the comprehensive range of advanced functions. Of course, you are free to use your old Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, or save your work in Excel format for sending to people who still use Microsoft products. If all they want to see is your results, then use Portable Document Format (.pdf) - no need to buy any extra software.
Presentation is an outstanding tool for creating effective multimedia presentations. Your presentations will stand out with 2D and 3D clip art, special effects, animation, and high-impact drawing tools. A complete range of views are supported: Drawing / Outline / Slides / Notes / Handouts to meet all the needs of presenters and audiences, plus an optional multi-pane view to put all the tools at your fingertips.

Integrated email and calendaring

Whether you need to simply check your email, create a calendar or search for a contact, Evolution can help you.
See your email the way you want it. Search Folders let you save intelligent searches which can display groups of email according to your specified criteria. Create Search Folders to combine mail from different mail accounts into a single view, quickly view all mail from your boss (or a particular friend).

Easy note-taking with Tomboy

Tomboy is a desktop note-taking application. It is simple and easy-to-use, and can help you organise the ideas and information you deal with every day. Tomboy relates notes and ideas together. Using a wiki-like linking system, organising ideas is as simple as typing a name.

Safe, easy and tabbed web browsing

Firefox is a powerful, award-winning and standards-compliant web browser. With tabbed browsing you'll be able to use one window to view all your web pages.

With Firefox, you get inline spellcheck support in web forms, the ability to restore crashed sessions, built-in phishing detectors, better support for previewing and subscribing to web feeds, enhanced search engine management with built-in OpenSearch support, and much more.

Easy editing and uploading of photos

F-Spot enables you to import your photos from your hard drive, camera (including PTP type), or iPod, and supports 16 common files types, including JPEG, GIF, TIFF, RAW. Your photos can be tagged for searching and grouping. Other features include full-screen and slideshow modes.
Editing photos in F-Spot is a breeze. Easily rotate, crop, resize, and adjust red eye and other colour settings with a few simple clicks, and versioning ensures your originals are never altered. You can also enter descriptions of photos that are saved in the actual file so other people and programs will be able to see them, whether they use F-Spot or not.

Music and videos

Rhythmbox media player has a number of features that enable you to easily store, search and browse your music library and listen to internet radio. You can also view films or videos using Totem, which features a playlist, a full-screen mode, seek and volume controls and keyboard navigation.

Accessibility

We aim to make Ubuntu, and its derivatives, usable by as many people as possible across ages, languages and physical abilities. This includes providing an accessible platform with high-quality assistive tools, and ensuring that other applications work well with these. The assistive tools on Ubuntu, along with the entire operating system, are provided free of charge.

High contrast

Ubuntu ships with a selection of high-contrast themes, complete with custom icons and mouse cursors. To activate a new theme, go to the System menu, followed by Preferences -> Theme.

Magnification and speech synthesis

Orca is a screen reader and magnifier that enables users with limited vision, or no vision, to use the Gnome desktop and associated applications. The magnifier features automated focus tracking and full-screen magnification. The screen reader enables low-vision and blind users to access applications via speech and braille output. Key-mapped functions are organised on layers giving control over navigation, mouse, magnifier, speech and Braille devices. Orca can be customised to individual applications. This can make otherwise difficult interfaces, such as those of instant messaging clients, easy to use. Orca is available on the Ubuntu Desktop CD.

Keyboard modifiers

The Gnome desktop environment supports several options for modifying the behaviour of the mouse and keyboard. The modifier keys (Shift, Ctrl and Alt) can be made Sticky so that when they are pressed once, they remain active until the next key is pressed. This enables users to write upper case characters or use keyboard shortcuts while only pressing one key at a time.
Other features include Slow Keys and Bounce Keys which control the reaction rate and repeat rate of keys and Mouse Keys which allow the numeric keypad to be used to control the mouse cursor. These features can be activated on the Keyboard Accessibility panel (from System -> Preferences -> Keyboard).

On-screen keyboard

Ubuntu 6.10 includes the onBoard on-screen keyboard, a lightweight text-entry application, extensible through macros, scripts and custom layouts.
Also available is Gnome On-screen Keyboard (GOK), which in addition to basic text entry, also provides facilities for controlling the entire desktop behaviour through the on-screen keyboard by gathering information about other applications and sending them control signals through the Gnome assistive technology framework AT-SPI.

Getting started

The Desktop CD

The easiest way to try out the Ubuntu accessibility tools is with the standard Ubuntu Desktop CD, which can be started directly with a range of tools already installed and running. The CD can be downloaded from here (select the 'desktop' version for your architecture).

Activating pre-installed tools

If you install the Ubuntu system after booting the Ubuntu Desktop CD with an accessibility option as described above, those features will also be pre-configured to start by default on your newly installed system.
The most common accessibility tools such as Orca and onBoard are pre-installed on any standard Ubuntu system and are easy to activate. The screen reader, magnifier and on-screen keyboard are all activated using the Gnome Assistive Technology Preferences panel, Found in the System menu under Preferences.

You can also Download...

For your desktop or laptop - download Ubuntu

Download Ubuntu CD image

After the ISO file has finished downloading, you will have to burn the file to CD. The ISO file will usually require a special application to burn. Click the link below to find detailed instructions.

How to burn a CD image »

Install Ubuntu

When the CD is ready, simply put it in your CD drive, restart your computer and follow the instructions that will appear on your screen. Don't forget that you can create more copies and pass the CD to as many people as you like.