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.

Canonical Ltd. today announced the upcoming availability of Ubuntu 7.10 Desktop Edition, further improving the desktop Linux experience. Ubuntu 7.10 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 and server which delivers the best of open source software every 6 months. Ubuntu 7.10 Desktop Edition includes advanced plug and play printing, enhanced browsing and the option of a smooth new user interface built on top of the latest enhancements to GNOME.

Canonical Ltd. announced today the upcoming availability of version 7.10 of the Ubuntu Server, Desktop, Kubuntu and Edubuntu Editions. All will be available for free download on Thursday 18 October. Canonical is the commercial sponsor of Ubuntu.

Ubuntu makes no distinction between community and enterprise editions, Ubuntu 7.10 is our best work and is available freely to all. Ubuntu has consistently ranked #1 in reviews of security update responsiveness and effectiveness. The Ubuntu platform is fully certified and supported, making it a secure choice for users looking to explore, deploy and enjoy Linux. Ubuntu 7.10 brings together the best open source and free software available in a stable, robust environment that 'just works'.

The Ubuntu team is proud to announce version 7.10 of the Ubuntu family of distributions.

Shakespeare said, “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” That may be true (although Bart Simpson once quipped, “not if you called them stink blossoms” and he may have a point). But what about visual identities? Would Batman be the same if it was done ala South Park? Or, for something a bit closer to home, would Ubuntu be the same if it looked like OSX? Sure, it would likely run the same, but would our reaction to it, and the reaction of newcomers, be the same?

As we close in on the 7.10 release, today we take a look at NTFS writing, the ability for our Ubuntu machines to write to NTFS formatted partitions, primarily those of Windows XP and Vista.

But couldn’t I do this in previous versions of Ubuntu?

Nope! What you could do was see your Windows NTFS drives but not write to them. This is useful for getting data off the computer, for such things as the awesome Migration Assistant but not much use to those who use both OSes on a regular basis.

As many of you know, the Ubuntu community is planning to release their next version Ubuntu Linux, version 7.10 (a.k.a "Gutsy Gibbon"), this Thursday. At this time, we're not yet ready to announce our product plans around Ubuntu 7.10, but I would like to share information on some of the work my engineering team has been performing with the OS.

Canonical plans on Thursday to release "Gutsy Gibbon," the Ubuntu Linux version 7.10 that the company hopes will lay the foundation for a serious push into the server and other markets six months from now.

That's when Gutsy Gibbon's sequel, "Hardy Heron," is scheduled to arrive. Gutsy Gibbon will have the usual Ubuntu support life span--18 months--but Hardy Heron will be the company's second version to feature long-term support, which lasts three years for the desktop product and five years for the server.

It has been over four months since Dell started shipping computers preloaded with Ubuntu GNU/Linux to home consumers in the United States. Lets take a moment to look at the progress that has been made so far. John Hull, manager of the Linux Engineering team in Austin was kind enough to let me interview him by e-mail. Besides commenting on the current state of affairs with Ubuntu on Dell machines, he also offers some insight in how the Linux team at Dell works and opens a small window into the future of Linux at Dell.

If you are joining us now, here is a bit of a refresher: as we close in on the 7.10 (also known as Gutsy Gibbon) release, we are taking a look at the various cool features that we are going to get as part of this new Ubuntu. We have already looked at Deskbar and Tracker, Bulletproof X and Graphical X configuration, sharing your computer with Fast User Switching, Desktop Effects with Compiz, Better Firefox plugins and Gnash and Better hardware support. Today we turn to AppArmor, the application security framework.

The BBC has an article saying all Russian schools will be running Linux by 2009. Many schools were using illegal copies of Windows and schools were being prosecuted since Russia joined the WTO. Schools will slowly be moved to Linux over a period of 3 years.

Yesterday we took a look at the new Firefox plugin work. Today we turn to one of the most vexing of questions for many Linux users: hardware support and all that it means.

Why is hardware so vexing?

Basically, there is a lot of hardware and each requires a driver. People keep making new pieces and types of hardware and people keep buying it. All this means keeping up to date is a constant struggle, although projects like the Linux Driver Project are helping change that.

I cannot tell you how many times I have found myself looking at that ugly and rather useless Xorg reconfigure screen that has never worked on Ubuntu for me. Generally, I would see something like this (not the exact image, but close) and then ask you to diagnose the problem from the x server output. This is fine for an advanced distro, but not for Ubuntu or its derivatives.

The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue #60 for the week for the week October 7th - October 13th, 2007 is now available. In this issue we cover the release candidate of Ubuntu 7.10, learning more about Ubuntu at Ubuntu Open Week, Gutsy release parties, another Ubuntu Forums interview, new MOTU team member Laurent Bigonville, and, as always, much much more!

I was just over at the OpenOffice site browsing through some of their marketing materials to see if there was anything interesting. I came across a presentation that was given on September 19th at the OpenOffice 2007 Conference. The presentation was called “OpenOffice.org 3.0 and Beyond,” and it walked through some of the most notable features that are expected to be released in the next big OpenOffice milestone.

One of the less-touted changes for Ubuntu 7.10 is the merge of the Ubuntu Studio repositories into the main ones (hosted by Canonical). This means you'll be able to install entire categories of multimedia software (audio, video, graphics) with a single command (or via Synaptic, as usual). You don't care, right?

Yesterday we took a look at Desktop Effects with Compiz. Today we turn to all the improvements for Firefox including the a better way to install plugins and the arrival of Gnash, a Free flash player.

It's always been my impression that, appearances to the contrary, Linux aficionados are no different than the rest of us. So I wasn't surprised when I saw a post on the Ubuntu Women forum, from a guy, who's wondering if there are "any good places online to meet like-minded free software women." (The "free," of course, refers to the software.)

I feel that is important for me to further analyze the benefits of open source software. In a previous post, I highlighted the cost-savings of open source and did not mention any of the other advantages that it provides. This post should provide a more balanced view of open source and the intrinsic benefits that free software provides.