Dear Reader,

"We should try to work with these guys. They are just getting started, but I think they might be going places, and it will be good to make the connection." These were the words of Brian, my publisher, 20 years ago, when talking about an upstart new Linux that had recently appeared on the scene. This group had a way of looking like a community, but they were strangely more organized and directed than the lovable but too-often chaotic community distros of the era. And the name of this newcomer? It was so unlikely, and yet so memorable – once you heard it, you couldn't forget it: Ubuntu. When you asked them what the name meant, they would say, "It sort of means togetherness, or 'I can be me because you are you,' but the concept is too beautiful to translate directly into English." It is hard to believe that it as been 20 years since the first Ubuntu release. (Yes, it is also hard to believe that I've been doing this job for 20 years, but seriously, I had just started when this happened – I guess that means this is my 20th anniversary also.)

There was so much excitement about Ubuntu in those first few years. Although they were owned and backed by a for-profit company, a lot of volunteers were working for them for free just for the chance to be part of something. But honestly, they didn't act like a for-profit company. They gave their full distribution away – not a scaled-down "community edition." They flew volunteers to exotic meetups in cool European cities. And they really dreamed big. I think they truly wanted to be as ubiquitous as Windows. They even had a crowd-funding effort to launch a mobile phone project at one point, with the dream of converging phone and PC technology.

We really did work with them, especially in those early years. We were one of the first to distribute their DVD as a covermount, and our very first special edition was an Ubuntu special.

At the time Ubuntu and its parent company Canonical appeared on the scene, several other Linux companies were vying for a piece of the Linux market. Most of these companies – Xandros, Linspire, and other names of the past – had the general idea that, if Microsoft could charge $250 for Windows, we ought to be able to charge at least $25 for a fully operational and well-integrated version of Linux. When I interviewed Ubuntu founder and self-described "benevolent dictator" Mark Shuttleworth years ago, he told me he had always believed the competitive pressures of the Linux market would mean that these for-profit distros would be in a "race to zero," so he decided he might as well start out at zero and build his business model around it – a brilliant move, as it turns out, but not one he could have easily explained to a venture capitalist or bank loan officer. Luckily, Shuttleworth was spending his own money, so he could chase his zero-cost vision.

The fact that Ubuntu was always all free bought them a lot of credit with the community. Ubuntu has always had an ear to the aesthetic of their audience, like in 2010, when they released their October Maverick Meerkat version two weeks early just so they could claim it appeared on 10/10/10, a date that corresponded to the binary form of the number 42, which is "The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything" in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

These days Ubuntu is looking and sounding a lot more corporate. You might even say they sound more like Red Hat, except they aren't like Red Hat. They still give their whole distribution away for free without a lot of restrictive licensing gymnastics. They don't seem to mind when other developers take their code and adapt it into other distros. And they still put out a sensible, stable Linux that provides everything most users need without feeling cluttered. If you want a lighter version, try Lubuntu or Xubuntu, and if you're looking for a different look and feel, try one of the other Ubuntu "flavors" based on alternative desktops. (The KDE-based Kubuntu is included on this month's DVD.)

I want to celebrate Ubuntu and thank them for the care and excellence they've brought to the Linux community through the years. And a special nod to Brian, who was right 20 years ago: They really were going places. Good insight Brian…I guess that's why you're the publisher….

Joe Casad, Editor in Chief