Back in the days of computer yore (1970s & early 1980s), software wasn't a commodity. People didn't patent and copyright the code they created and no one worried about paying for it. Most software was shared and improved freely among the many software programmers without any reserve. Fast forward to the future and you see a world where software is mostly commercial with closed source software being the norm. However, there are still many people and businesses continuing the tradition of creating and sharing software freely. The software that is created by this community is called open source software. It is a common mistake to think that this community is still a bunch of 'geeks' that just tool around with software for fun. This would be a mistake. The open source software platform is utilized all the time by major businesses. This has resulted in some great and powerful applications to be developed. In 1991 a man named Linus Trovalds started developing an operating system called Linux. He uploaded the files that made up the operating system on an FTP server at the Helsinki University of Technology to share with others so that it could be developed faster. As the project continued to be developed, other tools that were necessary for the operating system to be fully functional were included with the linux package. Many of these tools were licensed under the GNU General Public License which effectively meant that if linux was to be licensed with these tools included, it would need to be licensed under the GNU GPL as well. It was decided to do so, and this ensured that linux would remain open source software (this is the purpose of the GNU GPL). Since then, linux has spread around the globe and become one of the greatest success stories of the open source movement. Because of this massive popularity, linux has been split into many different projects (called distributions) that were created for varying purposes. One of those disributions, called Ubuntu (which means "Humanity to others" in Bantu), has become wildly popular. The purpose of this particular distribution is to create a user-friendly version of linux that can compete with other popular operating systems.

The main purpose of Roflboom.com is to review software for Ubuntu. There are also other side projects such as reviewing the compatibility of computers (that we have access to) with Ubuntu, and reviewing the new versions of Ubuntu that are released every six months.

Roflboom.com was founded on September 24, 2009 as a project for an advanced web design class. On January 22, 2010 the class will be completed but this website will continue to run for the foreseeable future.