That's one Gutsy Gibbon

October 18, 2007

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Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) was released yesterday and is ready for mass consumption. You can read the press release for it here, and download it here. When you download Ubuntu you get a cd image that you burn to a disk to create a "Live CD." What this means is that you can reboot your machine with the Ubuntu disk in your drive and try it out without installing it. If you do want to install it, there's a link on the desktop to install Ubuntu. It's that easy. Linux is getting better and better on the desktop and in my opinion Ubuntu is one of the best distributions out there.

One of the first things you'll probably notice about this new version of Ubuntu is that desktop effects are enabled by default. This means you'll get "Vista-Like" or "Mac OSX-Like" visual effects when using the operating system. If you're running Ubuntu on a laptop there are improved battery and power management tools built into this version. They've also finally built multiple monitor support into this version. So, if you want to use your laptop with a projector this is now supported by default through the graphical user interface. They've event added support for the NTFS file system. This is a great boon for dual-booters. Read about all the new features here.

So, if you're looking for something different, especially if you're used to using Windows, give Ubuntu a try. If anything, just reboot with the Live CD. You can play around with it and when you're done just pull out the disk and restart your computer and you're right back to your security blanket (Windows).

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