It’s already been 6 months since the last release–time flies in the Linux community. Ubuntu, in 10 days, will reach it’s 7.10 milestone, introducing a boat load of updates. Most notably, in my opinion is NTFS-3g support. Finally, I can use my Windows external drive interchangeably and actually be able to write to it with Ubuntu! There’s plenty of great updates making this a very worthwhile download for you readers that want the stability and security of Linux with the ease of access of a Mac.
Compiz Fusion is now integrated providing cool new 3D Desktop effects. Some Linux proponents often have disdain for use of 3D elements in a desktop environment because of the increased resource usage it demands. Honestly though; who uses Ubuntu in a high resource stress environment? Personally, I feel the 3D components make a huge leap in functionality and productivity. Besides, if you don’t like it, you can turn it off.
A new Desktop Search system has also been added, making it much easier to search various actions and file locations. Firefox’s plugin wizard has also been updated and now you can open Ubuntu’s Application Installer through Firefox to show all installed and available plugins for Firefox.
Finally, an updated Screen And Graphics Preferences window! Now you can pick which display driver to use and you can even set up a secondary display. More screens means more workspace which means more productivity. I just hope it has support for Nvidia’s 8x graphics chipset– my fanless 8800 is dieing to push some Ubuntu through it. Printers now install automatically and a new framework called AppArmor has been introduced. Yet another great security feature that makes Ubuntu much better than Mac and Windows operating systems. AppArmor limits the resources an application is allowed to access and can be used to provide an added layer of protection against undiscovered security vulnerabilities in applications.
For those of you looking at a Mac but cringing at the extortionist prices and for those looking at Windows but weary of the viruses, spyware and malware that infest it; perhaps you should give Ubuntu a try. It’s free, what have you got to lose? Go now and download an ISO or order an installation CD for Ubuntu.
