The latest release at the time of this post is Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon, released on October 18, 2007. This release introduced some new features. Compiz Fusion was enabled by default, which is a major step up from the previous release, Feisty Fawn, which included these Desktop Effects that were working for the most part fine, but did not perform all that well at times. While you were able to install Beryl, an ancestor of Compiz Fusion, you didn't get that experience out of the box. Now with Ubuntu 7.10, you can enjoy that experience out of the box, provided that you have a capable computer for Compiz Fusion to run on. That brings me to another feature. It will detect what your current computer setup is, and either leave the settings enabled, or disable Compiz Fusion altogether.
Besides that, the usual updated software was available. It included OpenOffice.org 2.3, Firefox 2.0, GNOME 2.20, KDE 3.5.8, and Linux 2.6.22. It featured an integrated desktop search tool that could remotely remind you of Apple's Spotlight search tool in Mac OS X. This new release makes it easier to get proprietary codecs to get your mp3 files working, but they also customize Firefox to allow you to either choose from Adobe's Flash Player for Linux, or Gnash, a free and open source plugin designed to play Flash files, like YouTube videos.
If you like to use the Canonical commercial repositories in previous releases, you'll be happy to know that the commercial repository has been renamed the partner repository. It includes the usual Opera, RealPlayer, etc. However, Canonical recently partnered with Parallels to bring you Parallels Workstation for Linux, at a cost.
However, I did find some downsides when I tried to use it on my laptop. This is really specific to my laptop, a Compaq Presario v3020US, so your results may vary. The Wi-Fi works right out of the box, thanks to my laptop have a Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG wireless card, which works in most of the major distributions. My sound, however, did not work at all out of the box, and to this day, I still don't know why. Other Linux distributions like Fedora, Mandriva, and Arch Linux have no trouble with my sound card, why Ubuntu. Apparently this is a bug with the ALSA sound system, and will hopefully be fixed in the next release, Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron.
All in all, I actually really love Ubuntu. It does a pretty good job with doing stuff I like to do. Your results may vary though. Try it out for yourself. You can get Ubuntu at http://www.ubuntu.com/, however, you must download an ISO file which is about 700MB in size. With my cable connection, the download still took me about 15 to 20 minutes. That will be slower with a DSL connection. If you have a dial-up connection, well, start the download when you go to bed, and hope you have it in the morning. You can also order free Ubuntu CDs from http://shipit.ubuntu.com/, but that will take about 6-10 weeks. If you don't mind paying a little bit (less than $15), you can order it from Amazon. You help the Ubuntu community (and this blog ahem), by purchasing a DVD that contains the Live CD and the alternate installer for you advanced Ubuntu-lovers out there.
Get Ubuntu DVD from Amazon
Get Kubuntu DVD from Amazon
2 comments:
I find that the quickest way to download Ubuntu is to use Bittorrent. It also helps keep Canonical's server costs down, and you can spread the love by letting it upload after you've finished.
I agree with you on that. I would recommend uTorrent as a BitTorrent client on Windows if you like downloading ISO images. I help out with seeding torrents for open source software when I don't really use the computer.
I should discuss that when I talk about the 8.04 release in a few months. Thanks for the reminder about BitTorrent.
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