First released three years ago, Ubuntu has managed to permanently alter the Linux scene. Before Ubuntu grabbed the Linux world by storm, Linux was plagued by the stigmatic notion of being only for the geekiest of the geeks. Ubuntu’s undying focus on usability and ease of installation changed all that, and Gutsy Gibbon, the latest release, is the best yet at demonstrating this commitment.

Major New Features:

• GNOME 2.20
  • GNOME is the essence of Ubuntu’s Graphical User Interface (GUI), and version 2.20 introduces a long list of new features – some of which are actually pretty impressive. Thanks to this newest version of GNOME, Ubuntu will now feature: integrated desktop search, enhanced image browsing, simplified system preferences, better power management and laptop battery monitoring. One of the neatest features that I’ve seen so far has to do with the Evolution e-mail client (which is part of GNOME): if Ubuntu finds keywords in your e-mail suggesting that there should be an attachment appended to the message, it will automatically check to see if this is actually the case. If it can’t find the attachment, it’ll warn you before you send it off by mistake. It’s little things like this that often stand out the most.

• 3D DESKTOP EFFECTS
  • If you’ve done some research on Linux lately, you’ve probably come across a few videos that show off some very impressive 3D visuals. It may not increase your productivity, but the integration of Compiz Fusion into Gutsy is sure to please many. If you have a slower system, however, there is no need to worry. The developers have thought this through, and if your system doesn’t have the graphical horsepower to take advantage of the beautiful, but taxing, aesthetics of Compiz Fusion, your system will automatically fall back onto the standard 2D desktop environment.

• FAST USER SWITCHING
  • If your Linux box also happens to be the family PC that’s used by just about everyone who walks into the house, then you might be pleased to hear that with this latest version of Ubuntu you will be able to switch between different users without having to repeatedly log out and re-enter your username and password. The security provided by passwords will still be there, but you won’t have to jump through nearly as many hoops to switch from one account to the next.

• BETTER SCREEN CONFIGURATION
  • Anyone who’s installed Linux on a variety of machines knows that it’s not always a hassle-free experiences. Fortunately, the Ubuntu developers know this and they’ve taken the time to try to correct the most common issues. Gutsy Gibbon comes equipped with a decent variety of drivers, including those for ATI, nVidia, and Intel graphics chips. In addition to proper support for the most popular cards, Gutsy is also far more intelligent when is comes to detecting multiple monitors and the like. On top of this, a lot of the configuration options and settings needed to properly set up a display (or two) have been taken out of the terminal and put into a user-friendly dialog box. However, let me tell you from personal experience that things still aren’t a 100% perfect; if you happen to have a rather obscure setup like I do (with two off-brand displays that connected to a PC via different interfaces), you might still have a little trouble getting it all to work seamlessly.

• FULLY AUTOMATED PRINTER INSTALLATION
  • This one is as simple as it sounds: plug the printer in, let Ubuntu detect and configure it, and your ready to go…

• COMPLETE NTFS SUPPORT
  • Practically every major operating system has its own file system: Windows prefers NTFS, Apple like HFS+, while Linux has EXT3. This creates an inherent problem. What if you want to take a file off of one system and put it on another to work on? In previous Ubuntu distros, you could read files from an NTFS system to edit them, but you couldn’t write them back onto their original drive. Once again, Gutsy Gibbon comes to the rescue. Thanks to the integration of the NTFS-3g Project into Ubuntu, version 7.10 now fully supports both reading as well as writing.

• BETTER POWER MANAGEMENT
  • Linux and laptops is either hit or miss; it either works or it doesn’t. One major source of frustration for some users is that Ubuntu might not properly interface with the hardware present in the machine. This can be especially troublesome when the hardware in question is the battery and its management. Gibbon’s new Linux kernel promises to go easy on both the battery as well as the user’s lap.

• HARD DISK ENCRYPTION
  • Data security is very important these days. Whether you work for the government or maintain a simple blog, having your data securely tucked away (and backed-up) is extremely important, and the Ubuntu guys know this. That’s why they’re offering an alternate system installer that will allow you to set up Ubuntu so that the entire disk is encrypted. Unfortunately, this will only protect you if your system is off. For some more hardcore protection, check out TrueCrypt.

Overall, Gutsy Gibbon is yet another solid step forward for Ubuntu. As others have already noted, Gibbon does a far better job of being ready to use right out of the box (so to speak), than Windows. If you’ve never used a Linux system before, then let me honestly say that Gibbon is the perfect stepping stone; it’s just as user-friendly as most Windows operating systems, and yet it doesn’t relinquish any of the power that Linux is known for.