General Improvements

Refreshed Look

A whole new default icon theme has been created for 2.4. The icons comply with the Tango style guidelines so GIMP doesn't feel out of place on any of the supported platforms. Regardless of whether you run GIMP under Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X or Linux (GNOME, KDE or Xfce), GIMP provides a polished, consistent look.

In business, as in many other things in life, it is relatively easy to plan for failure. I guess we all do it in some small way, one of the most common being the way people back up their digital personal files to guard against hardware failure or file corruption. But how does one plan for success?

Canonical jumped into the Unix distribution business in October 2004 and got into Linux server distribution in June 2006. With the launch last week of Ubuntu 7.10 for desktops and servers last week and the upcoming launch in April 2008 of a new Long Term Support variant of Ubuntu, it is reasonable to stop for a second and try to assess how well or poorly Ubuntu is doing on servers.

When I read reports on the Linux gaming industry, I can't help but wonder where the Linux gamers are at? Can we find them on the Nintendo Wii or perhaps the Playstation 3 (PS3)? After all, I have heard that PS3 actually works rather well with Yellow Dog Linux.

Some of you may have seen some recent posts around the Ubuntu Planet about the new AptURL project that is default in Ubuntu 7.10 “Gutsy”.  I wanted to make a few comments about it myself after tinkering with it a little.  I think the project and idea is pretty cool and I hope it sees some more use.

The AptURL Protocol Handler is a program that handles special URLs for installing packages. This means that special links in web pages can install software. Ubuntu 7.10 has AptURL installed by default. Installing applications does not get any easier than this:

A new release of Ubuntu has just come out, so let's put it through the paces in Virtual PC 2007! First of all, the old install problems (chronicled here) still exist.  The Ubuntu installer boots up into 24-bit color, which is not supported by Virtual PC.  If you start with the Start Ubuntu in safe graphics mode option, you will be able to see the installer screen just fine (with some ginormous icons), but unfortunately, the mouse is not recognized at all.  I really had hoped this would be fixed!

The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue #62 for the week for the week October 14th - October 21st, 2007 is now available. In this issue we cover the release of Ubuntu 7.10, upcoming Ubuntu Developer Summit for Ubuntu 8.04, Ubuntu Open Week starting Monday 22nd October, plans by Dell to ship Ubuntu 7.10 on desktops and laptops, and, as always, much much more!

Ladies and Gentlemen, Packagers and Developers, Translators and Bug Triagers, Advocates and Helpers, this week I am pleased to see another Ubuntu Open Week begin, and I am raring…no, chomping at the bit to go. It happens all this week from 3pm UTC until 10pm UTC.

In just two years, Ubuntu has become the most popular Linux distribution in the world with millions of users and a spot regularly at the top of Distrowatch. Ever wondered what all the fuss is about? How we've achieved such a great feat in such a short space of time? Here's where you can find out.

Ubuntu Open Week is a series of online workshops where you can:

OpenOffice.org Base is undoubtedly a powerful database application, but when it comes to its built-in reporting engine, words like "underpowered" and "outdated" come to mind. Fortunately, you don't have to put up with this situation any longer: with the Sun Report Builder (SRB) extension, you can add nifty reporting features based on Pentaho reporting engine -- assuming you can figure out how to use it without any help.

With the release of 7.10, many have been wondering if Dell will ship 7.10. Well, the answer to that question has been answered, according to a DesktopLinux story. Anne Camden of Dell corporate communications said:

With the release of 7.10 yesterday, it is not terribly shocked we have already started to see reviews.

With the massive amount of interest in Ubuntu, this means some of the mirrors have been a little slow. CLICK picked up on this story, remarking that it was similar to the 7.04 release period.

The release of Gutsy has broken the record for the most user on-line at the Ubuntu Forums.

I will admit to being a Linux desktop nonbeliever. It feels a bit like yesterday's battle fought with the wrong weapons: geekiness rather than ease of use. There's a chance--still a slim one, but a chance nonetheless--that Ubuntu will change that.

A while back I posted about my top 10 feature requests for Gutsy on the Ubuntu Forums. Gutsy has brought some great new features to Ubuntu many of which I did not include in my original top 10 feature requests but if I was to do it again I probably would.

Tomorrow is the launch of Ubuntu 7.10. We have taken a look at all the cool features that make 7.10 so cool, we come to the best feature of all: the community.

So why is the community the best feature?

Well, after six months of feverish development, Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon is released. An Ubuntu release is a phenomenal achievement for a worldwide network of volunteers and enthusiasts as well as the developers hired by Canonical to work on Ubuntu full-time. But, it is not just developers that contribute, but artists, translators, testers, documentation writers, bug triagers, support, QA, marketing, publicity, administration, hosting, mirroring, logging, forums, irc ops, and a range of other areas.

Canonical Ltd. announced the upcoming availability of Ubuntu 7.10 Server Edition that provides developers and businesses with a platform for development and deployment in the data centre. Ubuntu 7.10 will be available for free download on Thursday 18 October. Canonical Ltd. is the commercial sponsor of the Ubuntu project.

Ubuntu is the award-winning Linux distribution for the desktop, laptop, and server which brings together the best of open source software. Ubuntu releases a new version every six months, with a long term support ("LTS") release available every two years. The next LTS release is due in 2008.

To coincide with the Ubuntu 7.10 launch, Canonical Ltd. announced today the upcoming availability of updates to Edubuntu, Kubuntu, and Xubuntu derivatives, including advanced thin client capabilities and a KDE 4 Beta tech preview. The latest versions will be available for free download on Thursday 18 October. Canonical is the commercial sponsor of Ubuntu,

Ubuntu is the award-winning Linux distribution for the desktop, laptop, thin client and server which brings together the best of open source software every 6 months.