Who can use Ubuntu Operating System ?

If you were to ask this question to the creators of Ubuntu, they would say ‘anyone’, and they wouldn’t be wrong. Ubuntu comes with almost all software which you would require as a normal computer user. We know demands differ, so let’s look at the valley from different mountains :

Home user

The term ‘home user’ would almost automatically ask your creative side to form an image of a person who enjoys using a computer for entertainment and a few not-so-important tasks. That would include music for passing the boring Sunday evening, a few movies to make yourself smile, email to keep you posted, web browsing to stay updated, a messaging client to chitchat with friends and probably a spread sheet to help keep expenses in limit. Ubuntu comes with all of this. It’s got ‘Banshee’ to play your music, the ‘totem’ video player to play the movies, ‘Evolution’ to manage your calendar, contacts and email, Firefox to browse the mighty online mess (although beautiful and organised, the web is a mess after all!), ‘Empathy’ for chatting with friends on Yahoo, Google Talk and others and ‘LibreOffice’ for your office needs. We believe that is what a home user would want from his / her computer. However, in case an Ubuntu aficionado wants more, installing software on this OS is a piece of cake (more about it later).

Office user

The typical office user fills data into spreadsheets, creating presentations to be shown to clients and/or typing in a leave letter. Despite the change in definition of offices or its users, almost all software manufacturers (including Microsoft) continue to consider “office applications” as a set of software used for creating documents, presentations, spreadsheets and small database applications. Ubuntu comes with an office suite named LibreOffice (Libre means open) which is similar to and compatible with the Microsoft Office range of applications. In addition to the document, spreadsheet, and presentation application, it also comprises two other programs named ‘Draw’ and ‘Math’ which can be used to create illustrative drawings and complex formulas for office purposes. Math is unique to LibreOffice because it is a full fledged formula editor. You couldn’t ask for more.