Table of Contents
The Ubuntu Project is built on the ideas enshrined in the Ubuntu Manifesto: that software should be available free of charge, that software tools should be usable by people in their local language, and that people should have the freedom to customize and alter their software in whatever way they need. For those reasons:
Ubuntu will always be free of charge, and there is no extra fee for the "enterprise edition", we make our very best work available to everyone on the same Free terms.
Ubuntu comes with full professional support on commercial terms from hundreds of companies around the world, if you need those services. Each new version of Ubuntu receives free security updates for 18 months after release, some versions are supported for even longer.
Ubuntu uses the very best in translations and accessibility infrastructure that the Free Software community has to offer, to make Ubuntu usable for as many people as possible.
Ubuntu is released regularly and predictably; a new release is made every six months. You can use the current stable release or help improve the current development release.
The Ubuntu community is entirely committed to the principles of free software development; we encourage people to use open source software, improve it and pass it on.
Creating a desktop operating system is challenging, but it's also great fun. Read further in this document to learn how you can participate in the Ubuntu Project, and about the free software projects that produce the key components of Ubuntu.