<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"> </head> <body text="#000000" bgcolor="#ffffff"> THE LATEST OUTING of Canonical's Linux distribution Ubuntu shows that the firm is on the right track to make it the default choice of Linux for those thinking of making the switch from Windows. Following on from one of the year's biggest operating system launches, <a href="http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/review/1653815/ubuntu-linux-1004-lucid-lynx" target="_blank" title="Ubuntu 10.04 review">Ubuntu 10.04</a>, this latest <a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/get-ubuntu/download" target="_blank" title="Ubuntu 10.10 beta">10.10 beta</a> is somewhat more sedate, almost lacking in the visual novelty that its predecessor had. While 10.04 was a Long Term Support release (LTS), 10.10 will be a standard release that comes with 18 months of updates. Not only are LTS releases more infrequent, the longer life and more consistent branding and support of 10.04 will mean that 10.10 and later releases until the next LTS version will always be the act that followed The Beatles. The latest 10.10 beta shows that Canonical is sticking to its plan of refining Ubuntu into a polished product that will rival not Microsoft's Windows 7 but Apple's Mac OS X Snow Leopard. Linux distributions have focused far too long on the inner workings of the operating system rather than the interface presented to the user. As a kernel, Linux has been more than a match for Windows' NT or OS X's Mach kernels, but an operating system isn't completely defined by its underlying kernel and 10.10 pays much needed attention to the upper layers. [More...] <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/review/1735553/ubuntu-1010-beta-preview">http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/review/1735553/ubuntu-1010-beta-preview</a> <pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">-- "So where's the Cannes Film Festival being held this year?" Christina Aquilera </pre> </body> </html>