Source: BetaNews (original coverage, January 2017)
Background: Why Developer Education Matters for Ubuntu
Linux’s longevity and reach are not the result of any single contributor — they stem from a broad, collaborative community of developers, sysadmins, and users. For a distribution like Ubuntu to keep growing, Canonical must continuously attract and educate new developers. That means lowering the barrier to entry and providing high-quality, practical learning resources.
In January 2017, Canonical addressed this directly by launching Ubuntu Tutorials, a structured platform built on top of Google’s open-source Codelab framework. The platform is specifically aimed at programmers, developers, and DevOps engineers — not end users looking to learn the desktop.
What Are Ubuntu Tutorials?
Ubuntu Tutorials are topic-specific, practical walkthroughs designed to give developers hands-on experience in a particular domain. Canonical described the format as similar to pair programming — guided, interactive, and focused — but something you can work through independently at your own pace.
According to Canonical, the tutorials cover development and DevOps activities on Ubuntu machines, servers, and devices. The goal is to move beyond passive documentation and give engineers a repeatable, step-by-step process they can follow and apply immediately.
Key Features of Each Tutorial
Canonical outlined several structural features built into every tutorial on the platform:
- Clear summary: A detailed overview of what you will learn before you begin, so you can assess relevance quickly.
- Difficulty level: Each tutorial is labeled by complexity, helping learners identify the right starting point.
- Estimated completion time: Time estimates are provided per step and for the tutorial as a whole, making it easier to fit learning into a real work schedule.
- “Where to go from here” step: Every tutorial ends with guidance pointing to related topics, follow-on tutorials, or further reading — keeping the learning path continuous.
Offline Access via Snap
One notable feature is offline availability. Canonical packaged the tutorials as a Snap, allowing developers to install the full tutorial content locally and work through exercises without an internet connection. The Snap version mirrors the same content and underlying technology as the web-based version at tutorials.ubuntu.com.
This is particularly useful for developers working in air-gapped environments, traveling, or operating in locations with unreliable connectivity.
Built on Google’s Codelab Framework
Ubuntu Tutorials are built on top of Google’s open-source Codelab tooling, the same framework Google uses for its own developer tutorials. This gives the platform a consistent, well-tested user experience and allows Canonical to focus effort on content rather than building a custom tutorial engine from scratch.
Community Contributions Welcome
Consistent with the collaborative nature of open source, Canonical is not building the tutorial library alone. The company opened the platform to community contributions and published detailed authoring guidelines for anyone interested in writing tutorials for tutorials.ubuntu.com.
If you were looking to contribute at the time of launch, Canonical shared a contributor guidelines document covering the standards and format expected of tutorial authors.
Why This Matters for DevOps Engineers
For DevOps teams already running Ubuntu on servers or building on Ubuntu-based images in CI/CD pipelines, Ubuntu Tutorials provide a practical resource for onboarding team members or standardizing how your team approaches common tasks. Because the tutorials cover server and device workflows — not just desktop usage — the content is directly applicable to real infrastructure work.
The platform represents Canonical’s broader strategy of making Ubuntu the default choice for developers by investing in tooling, documentation, and education around the developer experience.