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20 years of Ubuntu is just the beginning

The story of Ubuntu is a story written by many hands. This page is a tribute to our community, partners and Canonical staff who have all given a piece of themselves to making this open source project thrive. Thank you to all of you.

Above all, it's a celebration of what Ubuntu has achieved so far, and an invitation to collaborate with us in delivering an even faster pace of innovation in the future.


Milestones that shaped us

How did a small, community maintained distro grow to become the no.1 Linux OS for developers, running on millions of servers and devices around the world?

We did it by staying true to our mission, but there were a lot of turns on the road that led us here. Let's start with the history of Ubuntu.


Warty warthog logo

2004

The first version
of Ubuntu is released


The first Ubuntu Developer Summit takes place
in MatarΓ³, Spain


2005

The first Ubuntu LoCos (Local Communities) are founded
in Portugal, Italy, France, Japan


Ubuntu ShipIt begins - a mailing program
of free Ubuntu CDs to anyone who requested them


Release of the first official Ubuntu Flavour,
Kubuntu 5.04


Ubuntu wins multiple awards for
"favourite Linux distribution"


2006

Ubuntu 6.06 LTS (Dapper Drake) becomes
the first Long Term Support release


2008

The first Ubuntu Cloud images
are released as Beta

Wubi logo

Wubi is released, allowing Windows users
to safely dual-boot Ubuntu within existing Windows partitions


2011

Ubuntu ShipIt comes to an end,
with releases moving to download


Ubuntu adopts OpenStack
as its core cloud fabric


Precise Pangolin logo

2012

Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise Pangolin) becomes
the first LTS to include 5 years of desktop support


2013

64 bit becomes
the recommended download


Utopic Unicorn logo

2014

Ubuntu turns 10 years old and
Utopic Unicorn (14.10) is released


Ubuntu Mate logo

2015

Ubuntu MATE, a community developed flavour,
becomes an official Ubuntu flavour


Old Circle of friends logo

2016

The first release of Ubuntu Core,
a dedicated deployment OS for devices

Snap store logo

Snap packages are introduced to Ubuntu,
attracting well-known ISVs to the platform


2017

Ubuntu arrives on
WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux)


2019

19.10 chosen as best Ubuntu release of the decade
by OMG! Ubuntu


Circle of Friends tag

2022

Canonical unveils
a new Ubuntu logo


2023

Ubuntu Pro is launched, expanding Canonical's commitment
to the Universe repository and open source applications


Noble Numbat logo

2024

Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (Noble Numbat)
is released


Legacy support takes the Ubuntu LTS commitment
to 12 years

Birthday cake emoji

Ubuntu's 20th anniversary
and Oracular Oriole release


Hear from people who were there at the beginning

Canonical attracts a diverse team of experts united by one mission: to amplify the impact of open source. Many of the original contributors and team members behind Ubuntu are still around, including our Founder and CEO.

So what was it that attracted them to get involved in a project like Ubuntu?


Watch the video to find out ›


What was your
first Ubuntu experience?

It's not just Canonical and Ubuntu contributors that have been there from the start. Our community and our users all have their own tales about how they discovered Ubuntu.

From hobbyists and enthusiasts to enterprises and innovators, we spoke to different users to hear their tales.


View the video to hear their stories ›


Where were you when you discovered Ubuntu?
Join the conversation!

Share your memories with us at @ubuntu on X, Ubuntu on Facebook, Canonical on LinkedIn or on our community discourse. Tag us and use the hashtag #Ubuntu20years

Scroll down to see what other community members have been sharing.


Relive your best Ubuntu memories


Download your favourite wallpaper

Ubuntu mascots and wallpapers have become an iconic feature of every release. We're bringing the Ubuntu zoo together to give you all of our wallpapers.


Get all our wallpapers ›


Make your mark in our wallpaper competition

Oracular Oriole is our next release, coming this October. We recently conducted a wallpaper competition to allow our community to design the wallpaper that our millions of users will see every time they open their laptops. Read about the latest competition and keep your eyes peeled for the next one!


Read about the latest winners ›


See who's behind our previous wallpapers

No separating the art from the artist – all credit to our amazing community! Check out the voting and submissions from our previous releases:


Amplifying Ubuntu's impact with our partners

We couldn't keep Ubuntu at the forefront of the latest technology without the support of our partners.

What is it about Ubuntu that our partners value? Our partners have helped us take Ubuntu across industries, and from desktops to automotive devices.


Birthday wishes from our partners

Qualcomm logo

"As we celebrate Canonical's 20th anniversary, our collaboration is a testament to the enduring value you bring to the open-source community. Partnering with Canonical enables us to integrate secure, optimised Ubuntu OS into our SoC solutions, enhancing our offerings for the AI and IoT markets."

Leendert van Doorn

Senior Vice President, Engineering, Qualcomm

DFI logo

"We are happy to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Ubuntu and Canonical. Our realisation is that our clients are putting more and more trust in Ubuntu: it is a reliable platform for them. And their guarantees of security and support will drive innovation for many years. As a leading industrial IPC provider, we will continue to provide hardware support for Ubuntu-based offerings."

Jarry Chang

DFI Product Centre General Manager, DFI Inc.

Advantech logo

"We are thrilled to commemorate 20 years of Canonical. Advantech offers over 100 Ubuntu-ready solutions for global IoT intelligence in various sectors. Our customers trust Canonical's unwavering commitment to security and support, together we look forward to fostering innovation for many years to come."

Joe Chen

Director for Embedded IoT Group, Advantech

Adlink logo

"ADLINK is thrilled to celebrate Canonical's 20 years of technological excellence. As a close partner, we have launched numerous embedded solutions supporting Ubuntu for its security and adaptability. We look forward to many more years of collaboration, and pioneering in the future!"

Alex Wang

Senior Product Manager of Computer on Module BU, ADLINK

ASRock logo

"I am immensely proud to collaborate with Canonical. Our partnership thrives on a shared commitment to accelerating the adoption of industrial edge AIoT applications and delivering the best out-of-box experience for customers. Together, we are paving the way for a smarter and more connected future."

Kenny Chang

Vice President, ASRock Industrial

Asus IOT logo

"Partnering with Canonical means secure, reliable solutions for our customers. Their exceptional support in sales, project management, and R&D helps us provide top-notch products and choices. We're excited about our future together!"

Leslie Yu

Deputy Division Director of Software Design Department, ASUS IoT

A24 logo

"I've been an open source evangelist for over 25 years. Beginning as an Ubuntu Advantage (now Ubuntu Pro) reseller in 2012, we have since moved into distribution to better serve the community. Congratulations Canonical on your 20-years of steadfast commitment to open source."

Robin Porter

Open Source Practice Leader, A24

NVidia logo

"Our 20-year collaboration with Canonical has been invaluable in bringing the best AI development and deployment tools to the global developer community. This partnership provides a robust platform that enhances access to both enterprise and open source solutions, benefiting the broader AI community."

Chris Lamb

Vice President, Computing Platforms Software, NVIDIA

ARM logo

"We are very excited to take part in the 20-year birthday celebrations - you have some incredible achievements to look back on. You have played an instrumental role in enabling developers to land their software easily on Arm architectures and to take advantage of multi-architecture software deployment."

Andrew Wafaa

Senior Director and Fellow, Arm

Dell logo

"Congratulations on Ubuntu's 20th anniversary! I am honored to acknowledge our long-standing partnership with Canonical. Together, we have brought innovative solutions to our customers, addressing their unique needs through the power of open source. We look forward to many more years of continued success."

Dan Mroz

C4 Chief Cloud Strategists, Dell

HP Enterprise logo

"We're proud to be a longstanding collaborator with Canonical. Starting with Ubuntu certification on HPE platforms, we expanded to meet customer needs for open source clouds. As Canonical celebrates 20 years, we look forward to deepening our partnership to deliver cloud modernization and AI initiatives to customers."

Tam Vuong

Technology Partner Program Lead, HPE (Hewlett Packard Enterprise)


Shape the future with us


Taking place from 25-27 October in The Hague, the Netherlands, this summit is where we bring together experts, builders, tinkerers and engineers.

Join us to drive forward our collective mission to build the future with open source software.


Ubuntu is most of all a community. All of the software, artwork and documentation in Ubuntu has been created, tested, used and discussed openly by people around the world. Anyone who uses Ubuntu is part of this global community, and we invite you to help shape Ubuntu to better meet your needs. To make it yours!


We can't do what we do without the amazing people that work with us. If you're interested in starting your next chapter with us, take a look at our careers page.


With Everything LTS, we're breaking new ground and offering up to 12 years of long term support for any open source docker image. We're taking the security maintenance commitments we've made to Ubuntu to the wider world of open source.

That means CVE patching for upstream components in your entire open source dependency tree, whether you host your services on Ubuntu, RHEL, VMware or public cloud K8s.