Ubuntu “Gutsy Gibbon” Nears Completion
The final release candidate for Ubuntu’s next revision, Gutsy Gibbon, is now available for download. If all goes according to plan, there shouldn’t be any more changes to Gutsy before the official release next week.
If you just can’t wait to get your hands on the new Ubuntu, the release candidate should be stable enough for a trial run. I downloaded and installed a copy last night and while I’ve had some trouble connecting to the repositories, the system itself has been perfectly stable.
Gutsy Gibbon has some notable new features that make it a worthwhile upgrade — there’s easier access to restricted drivers and codecs, support for WPA wifi networks out of the box, a new way to manage Firefox extensions and, my personal favorite, an easy way to create a PDF printer. The ability to print PDFs from any app is something I sorely miss when I switch from the Mac to any other OS, but Gutsy has that covered.
Also included with Gutsy are the latest versions of Firefox, Open Office and all the other free, open source apps that Ubuntu ships with. The latest version of Gnome improves its drag-and-drop support and the Compiz whiz-bang desktop effects that were experimental (and a little buggy) in Feisty Fawn are now much easier to enable and use (Compiz gurus, there’s no need to worry, you can still access the amazingly detailed configuration interface if you like, but it’s no longer a necessity).
Other noteworthy new features/additions include a much faster desktop search tool, fast user switching, and the AppArmor security framework, which I haven’t really had a chance to explore yet.
I’ll be testing Gutsy over the weekend so look for a full review around the time of the final release on October 18. In the mean time, grab yourself a copy of the release candidate and check out the new features. Upgrade instructions can be found here.
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