In a utility model, resources such as storage, bandwidth and computer processing time are charged for based upon how much you actually use over a given time period.
This differs from more traditional models of web hosting where the web site owner purchases or leases a single server or space on a shared server irrespective and is charged a fixed fee.
Any text, images, video or audio which is added to a web site by one of the web sites visitors is considered to be User Generated Content (UGC). UGC is extremely important on many web sites nowadays as it provides a number of benefits.
On the down side, it can require a lot of monitoring in order to ensure that the web site is not abused.
YouTube is an example of a User Generated Content web site. YouTube simply provide a framework for all of the videos. They do not actually create any video themselves. All of the content of the YouTube website is created and uploaded by its users.
Other examples of User Generated Content include the comments on a blog or newspaper web site, questions and discussions on forums and bulletin boards, items for sale on eBay.
Ubuntu is a free operating system for laptop, desktop and server computers. It is free and part of the Linux family of operating systems. An operating system is the software that runs your computer. Other popular operating systems include Windows XP, Windows Vista other Apple Mac OS X.
This is a screen shot of Ubuntu when it is first installed.
New releases are made approximately every 6 months. It costs nothing to upgrade. At the time of writing the latest release was 7.10 nicknamed, Gutsy Gibbon. The first number indicates the year of the realease, the second number is for the month.
The name Ubuntu is pronounced "ooboontoo" and is a Zulu word that means humanity towards others. The Ubuntu project was set up by Canonical Ltd, a company owned by the South African billionaire entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth.
Although Linux only accounts for about 1.5% of personal computers in use, it's popularity is set to rise and Dell and some high street stores now offer computers with Ubuntu pre-installed rather than Windows.
PC World placed Ubuntu 100 number 16 on their Greatest Products of 2007 list. It was the highest ranked free product.
No, not everyone's favourite international courier, but an Uninterruptible Power Supply. UPS are used to protect computer equipment and data from damage when the regular electricity supply fails.
UPS can be used to protect individual pieces of computer equipment or entire data centres. They work like a battery back up and give people enough time to either safely switch off equipment or switch to an alternative power source.
User is a common term for someone who uses your web site or your software.
It can be quite a clinical term and doesn't really reflect the true nature of your relationship with the user. Depending on what type of web site you run, better terms could be: