The newest release of Ubuntu GNU/Linux codenamed "Gutsy Gibbon" was released today. You can download it or request a CD, which Canonical will ship to you completely free of charge.

"What is Ubuntu?" you ask. Okay, maybe you didn't ask, but for argument's sake, let's just say you did.

Simply, Ubuntu is a Linux distribution, that is, an operating system based on the stable and powerful Linux kernel. It is bundled and carefully integrated with GNOME as a graphical desktop environment using a custom theme called Human and other tools such as OpenOffice, Firefox, GIMP, and Rhythmbox. The Ubuntu project is governed by a philosophy "that aims to spread and bring the benefits of software to all parts of the world." This philosophy is evidenced in their motto, "Linux for Human Beings" based on the African word ubuntu, which can be roughly translated as "humanity toward others."

"Why use Ubuntu?" you ask. You don't ask? Come on, work with me here.

Fast, reliable, and secure. No viruses or spyware! Because of the reliability of the Linux kernel and since you don't have to restart after installing updates, your computer can run for months without ever needing a reboot. Linux is optimized to effectively use system resources resulting in a fast and smooth computing experience on both older and newer computers.

Active development. A new version of Ubuntu is released every six months. Check out these 10 Rocking Features new to the Gutsy Gibbon release.

Mind-blowing eye candy. Gutsy Gibbon comes bundled with Compiz Fusion. Ubuntu beats both Windows and Mac hands-down in the graphics and eye candy department. Neither come close to Ubuntu in this area.

Number one reason to use Ubuntu: Respects your freedom. Whether you realize it or not, if you use Windows or Mac, you are surrendering your freedom to Microsoft and Apple. Their operating systems are intentionally designed to restrict your freedom. You can break free of their totalitarian grip. You don't have to be Microsoft or Apple's bitch. Ubuntu respects your freedom.

"But isn't Linux hard to install and use?" you ask. Hey, there is a good chance you actually asked this.

Not anymore! Ubuntu's philosophy is that your computer should just work. They have created interfaces that someone with little computer knowledge can use quickly and easily with little to no configuration while also providing tools for more advanced users to completely customize their experience and perform powerful operations. It comes with everything you need to surf the internet, check your email, instant message, create documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, listen to music, watch videos, and more.

To install, you just insert the CD and restart your computer. You'll be greeted by a full-featured Ubuntu operating system that boots from the CD. This allows you to ensure Ubuntu works with your hardware and lets you explore Ubuntu to see how you like it. When you are ready to reclaim your liberty, double-click the install icon on the desktop. It will ask you a few simple questions and within ten to fifteen minutes Ubuntu will be installed on your computer.

Gutsy Gibbon has been out for less than 24 hours and the news and reviews are already starting to pour in from almost every tech and computer related blog out there.

• Slashdot
  
  
• Ars Technica
  
  
• OSNews
  
  
• Lunapark6
  
  

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  I'll cut to the chase and say from the start that Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy) Desktop Edition is simply the best desktop operating system that I have ever used.

  
  
  Don't just take my word for how easy Ubuntu is to install. According to this reviewer, he installed Gusty Gibbon in seven clicks!
  
  

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  While the installed default applications are good, you certainly will want to install more applications. Whenever you do decided to do so, the procedure is so simple that its actually easier than anything available in Windows or OS X.

  
  
  This is one area Ubuntu really has made great strides in. You can't beat the search-point-click method of installing new software that is guaranteed to work in Ubuntu.
  
  
• Wired
  
  

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  This latest release, dubbed "Gutsy Gibbon," proves that Ubuntu Linux can compete with and, in some cases, trump Windows as an everyday desktop system when it comes to pure usability.
  
  Gamers and hardcore media hounds may still feel left out -- DVDs were a little bit tricky, and the lack of support for popular games, a long-time Linux gripe, is still evident here -- but we found playing music and watching movies in the new Ubuntu to be every bit as pleasant as it is under OS X or Windows.
  
  Gutsy Gibbon is certainly easier to install and set up than Windows Vista, and it's very close to matching Mac OS X when it comes to making things "just work" out of the box. Wi-Fi, printing, my digital camera and even my iPod all worked immediately after installation -- no drivers or other software required.

  
  
  And it only feels right to mention alongside Linux matching and in some cases trumping Windows and Mac that Linux is free. Oh, and more on how easy it is to install:
  
  

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  If you choose to dual boot with Windows, you can tell Ubuntu to import all your settings and files. This is what most new Ubuntu users will be doing, so I tried it. Including the importing, installation took under 20 minutes.

  
  
  

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  When it comes to finding and installing applications, the Add/Remove Programs feature in Ubuntu surpasses both Windows and Mac OS X. Ubuntu will also inform you any time there are updates available -- something that just isn't possible on Windows or a Mac without a third-party utility.

  
  
  Lunapark6 mentioned this as well, but I thought it was worth repeating--especially since installing software used to be considered one of the more difficult aspects of Linux and one of the biggest hurdles to its adoption. Ubuntu didn't just put a band-aid on the situation; they cleared the hurdle and made it easier to install software in Linux than Windows or Mac OS X!
  
  
• Lifehacker
  
  Lifehacker did something a little different with their review by taking a look at the alternate versions of Ubuntu: Kubuntu, Xubuntu, and Edubuntu that all released new versions today as well.
  
  
• FOSSwire

No, you are not seeing double. I have a separate instance of Ubuntu running within Ubuntu. The second instance is running in VirtualBox, a free virtualizer for Linux, Mac, and Windows. A virtualizer emulates a computer so that an OS can run within another OS without dual booting.

Of course, the virtualized OS runs slower than it would if actually installed. A program running on a CPU trying to emulate a CPU is going to have more overhead than just running the OS on the CPU. The benefit is that you can run more than one OS at the same time.

Running Ubuntu within Ubuntu is sort of pointless. Ubuntu was the only OS I had downloaded at the time. VirtualBox might be a great option for those of you wanting to get out of the proprietary grips of Microsoft and Apple but afraid to leave behind some programs that only run in those OSes. I'm going to try running Windows XP and Mac OS X within Ubuntu soon and let you know how my tests go.

A few days ago I installed Virtualbox on my Macbook Pro. I haven't installed an operating system in it yet.

I have both VirtualBox and QEMU installed, but I've found VirtualBox to be much easier to use (and supposedly it is at least partially based on the QEMU source code). Here it is. I successfully got Windows XP working in VirtualBox on Ubuntu. VirtualBox looks extremely ugly in Linux. I don't know what GUI tool kit they used. It doesn't look like GTK or Qt. How does it look in Mac OS X?

Why? Just to prove that I could. I really have no desire to use Windows. I installed VirtualBox so I could test out other OSes and Linux distros (like FreeBSD, OpenSolaris, and OpenSUSE) I've been wanting to try but thought resizing and reformatting partitions sounded like too much trouble for on OS I just wanted to mess around with for a couple of hours. After the novelty has worn off, I'll probably delete the Windows image.

Compared to my Gutsy Gibbon virtualization experiment, Windows XP ran surprisingly smooth. Where Gutsy Gibbon running within a virtualized environment was sluggish, I could hardly tell I wasn't using a native install of XP. I configured VirtualBox to allocate 512 MB of RAM (the same that I did for Gutsy Gibbon) for the Windows XP guest OS. Since I have 1 GB of RAM, that left the Ubuntu host OS with 512 MB to work with as well. The more RAM you have, the more successful you are going to be at virtualization. Currently VirtualBox only emulates a video card with 8 MB of on board memory. That may have been one of the causes of Gutsy's poor performance because of its new eye candy.

I configured VirtualBox to allocate a 10 GB virtual hard drive for Windows XP. Instead of shutting down, I had VirtualBox save the current state of the guest OS. When I launched it again, it picked up exactly where I left off with the same windows open. Of course, you can shut down, and VirtualBox will emulate the computer powering down, but then you'll have to wait through the start up sequence the next time you go to use the OS. VirtualBox even allows you to save snapshots of multiple states and you can return to that state at any time.

I'll probably keep Windows around for a few days, but then I'll probably delete it freeing up those 10 GB for playing around with other OSes.

Good news! At least I hope it is good news:

Sun Microsystems has bought VirtualBox

Virtualization still has a long way to go to be both user-friendly and fast enough to be useful. Sun has been buying up open source projects (MySQL) and starting open source projects of their own (OpenSolaris) like crazy lately. Now they've bought what I regard as the best open source virtualization solution available. A major corporation that is committed to open source throwing its weight behind an already good virtualization solution could make Windows/Mac on Linux (and vice versa) even simpler very soon!

Here's an interesting tidbit Wikipedia says about Sun and Open Source:

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A report prepared for the EU by UNU-MERIT stated that Sun is the largest corporate contributor to open source movements in the world. According to this report, Sun's open source contributions exceed the combined total of the next five largest commercial contributors.