[jakec]

The Ubuntu Linux team is planning to release a beta of Gutsy Gibbon (7.10), the latest version of its OS tomorrow. Progress on the latest release looks promising.

Ubuntu 7.10 will ship with the latest edition of the GNOME desktop, 2.20, released last week. Kubuntu 7.10 will ship with KDE 3.5.7, and should also include packages of KDE 4.0 rc 2 for optional side-by-side installation.

The developers are aiming for Ubuntu to be one of the first distributions to ship the newly merged Compiz and Beryl projects (compcomm/OpenCompositing); and enable it as the default window manager on systems with a supported combination of hardware and drivers. Systems which do not support compositing, or those with it disabled by user option, will use the existing metacity window manager. See: Tectonic: Tectonic

[CalcProgrammer1]

Hopefully this version will include support out-of-the-(well, you get the point, it doesn't come in a box)-box for ATi's 8.41.7 (and newer) Radeon drivers. I'd love to get the OpenCompositing thing running on my PC, but until it supports the new drivers (I'm NOT reinstalling XGl, that was the biggest pain ever), it probably won't run on my Radeon X1600Pro card.

Also, hopefully it will be able to run on more hardware than the previous Ubuntu 7.04 Desktop Effects thing, my Rage Mobility should be able to handle a full-screen 3d cube, even if nothing else (if it can render Euphoria screensaver at 1600x1200 smoothly, it should be able to handle an 8 vertex cube, don't ya think?). I'd like some decent effects on my semi-capable laptop.