Austrailian developers have sealed the code for the next test of Ubuntu (Herd 5), a distribution of Linux which was initialy released back in October of 2006. Ubuntu is an African word for “Humanity for Others”. a phrase that fits in with the open source attitude of “Linux for Humans”. Ubuntu uses their own GUI desktop system and contains over 16,000 software components that are amazingly compressed down to fit on a single disc. The main code for Ubuntu has been finished, however no further changes will be allowed. This release candidate is scheduled to be available this Thursday, and the full version is expected to be available mid April ‘07. “Ubuntu’s Feisty release will put the spotlight on multimedia enablement and desktop effects. We expect this to be a very gratifying release for both users and developers,” said Mark Shuttleworth, founder of the Ubuntu project. “I and others do believe that 3D is an essential part of the modern desktop experience. It is difficult to buy a PC or laptop that does not include such hardware, and in terms of transistor count it’s almost as much as your CPU these days.” Ubuntu will make a great operating system for people with old hardware that they want to put back to use. The current version of Ubuntu 6.10 includes OpenOffice2.0, Firefox, Integrated Mail and Scheduling, and the Rythmbox Media Player. Additional software can also be downloaded with an integrated catalogue.

- Elias Tsang