1. The Ubuntu Code of Conduct

The Ubuntu Linux distribution is named after an African philosophical principle which holds that the betterment of the individual and community are interconnected. This philosophy is at the core of Ubuntu development and is formalized in the Ubuntu code of conduct, a simple set of rules that Ubuntu members commit to follow. Although the contents of the code of conduct are well within the boundaries of common sense, having a codified standard encourages respectful and considerate collaboration, making Ubuntu more inclusive and welcoming to new contributors.

The code of conduct was recently updated to boost its clarity and expressiveness. Benjamin Mako Hill, one of the original authors of the code, wrote about its conception in a blog entry today.

"On my first day working for the company that would become Canonical, I talked with Mark Shuttleworth about some ideas for community governance. Partially in reaction to some harsh behavior in other free software projects we'd worked on, Mark and I agreed that some sort of explicit standard for behavior in Ubuntu would be a good thing. Over lunch of what was my literally first day working on Ubuntu, I wrote a draft of code of conduct that was essentially the version that Ubuntu has used until today," he wrote. "The code has become a sort of constitution of our community and a widely enforced standard. People treat the code as a reflection of what 'Ubuntu'—both the concept and our project—stands for."