After the release of Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon on 18th October, Dell will pre-load it on their selected desktops and notebooks. Even Michael Dell is expected to personally use it.

Canonical CTO Matt Zimmerman said Ubuntu 7.10 would feature several core enhancements for desktop and server users. Here are three features that Gutsy Gibbon will have on the desktop:

￭ a 3D interface included by default (Compiz Fusion)
￭ laptop power profiling
￭ GNOME 2.20
￭ New Features for Firefox
￭ Fast user switching
￭ multi-monitor configuration
￭ Profile-based Authentication Configuration

For the server, Ubuntu 7.10 will come equipped with:

￭ one-step server recipes
￭ Proactive security with AppArmor
￭ simplicity as on the desktop machines.

When Michael Dell himself started using this Linux distribution, Ubuntu moved into the spotlight of Dell Computers. After this, Dell announced that they will create PCs with Ubuntu pre-installed, which led to a growing interest in their systems from the Linux community. If Ubuntu keeps on with the positive news, it could become soon a mainstream operating system. If things go well, Dell will invest more money in their Ubuntu machines and it could lead in time to a money increase in their accounts.

I am very curious what Dell's next move will be. After 18th this month we will have on our machines a new version of Ubuntu and hopefully it will be successful on Dell's computers. The choice of installing this Linux distribution on their PCs was taken after a survey about Linux PCs that took place in March. More than 100,000 persons participated at it. However, if you have a computer from another producer, the ShipIt service from Ubuntu has started taking pre-orders for the Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon release.

The systems with Ubuntu pre-installed start their pricing around $600, while a PC that has a 22-inch LCD, 320 GB hard disk, a 256MB video card and 2GB of RAM and more other things costs $1400.

You can download the Beta version of Ubuntu 7.10 (for testing purposes only) right now from Softpedia.

You can download Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn right now from Softpedia.

You can download Kubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn right now from Softpedia.

You can download Xubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn right now from Softpedia.

You can download Edubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn right now from Softpedia.