Ubuntu documentation

The official documentation is the authoritative source of information for Ubuntu users.

Where can I find all of the documentation?

A full reference table of Ubuntu documentation can be found at docs.ubuntu.com.

How is the documentation different from the wiki?

Documentation

Engineering teams at Canonical are primarily responsible for maintaining the documentation, an effort that is usually driven by a dedicated technical author. Community contributions to the documentation are welcome but contributors require some technical knowledge of the tooling required. The documentation is focused on ensuring that people can use the software effectively. Teams are careful not to include documentation that is niche, difficult-to-maintain, or that places significant emphasis on third-party software. It's important to note that for the engineers and authors involved, the documentation is a professional responsibility that aligns closely with Ubuntu release cycles.

Wiki

The wiki is a community-led effort. It aims to offer a low barrier-to-entry for a range of contributors who want to publish interesting or useful information about Ubuntu. The wiki does not have any significant technical problems tooling requirements for new editors. The content itself doesn't have to be technical in nature. The range of content that can be included is broader in scope than a typical documentation set. For example, it's fine to publish about tools or workflows that are not officially supported or that go in-depth about third-party or custom solutions. It's also OK to add pages about one specific Ubuntu platform or multiple Ubuntu platforms. Just because the wiki is a community-led effort doesn't mean that Canonical staff cannot help to maintain and grow the wiki, as they are Ubuntu users and contributors too.

Summary

The wiki and the docs have overlapping but distinct roles.


	Docs	Wiki
Maintenance responsibility	Engineering team	Ubuntu community
Contribution model	Fork → branch → commit → pull request → merge	Edit → save
Automated checks	Spelling, linting, broken links	Spam
Language	MyST-flavored markdown or ReStructured text	WYSIWYG or wikitext
Inclusion criteria	Necessary to support Ubuntu users	Potentially interesting to Ubuntu community
Software used	Sphinx, Read the Docs, GitHub	MediaWiki

What if a page ends up in the wrong place?

This will happen and it's nothing to panic about.

When it does happen, we should try to find a right home for the page and avoid duplication.

Migration of content from documentation to wiki or wiki to documentation will naturally occurring over time.