In case you missed the flurry of release announcements, Ubuntu 7.10 (sometimes known to its friends as Gutsy Gibbon) has been released (the little “7.10 is here” image on the left might have also tipped you off).

Anway, check out the following announcement for the news:

• Ubuntu 7.10
• Desktop edition
• Server edition
• Ubuntu family

As per usual, 7.10 will be supported for 18 months on both desktops and servers. Users requiring a longer support lifetime on servers may choose to continue using Ubuntu 6.06 LTS, with security support until 2011, rather than upgrade to or install 7.10.

And, as usual, Ubuntu 7.10 is also the basis for new 7.10 releases of Kubuntu, Xubuntu and Edubuntu.

Helping Shape Ubuntu

If you would like to help shape Ubuntu, take a look at the list of ways you can participate.

Developers should consider attending the upcoming Ubuntu Developer Summit in Cambridge, Massachusetts (US) starting 29 October. More information is available at the UDS-Boston page.

Tomorrow is the launch of Ubuntu 7.10. We have taken a look at all the cool features that make 7.10 so cool, we come to the best feature of all: the community.

So why is the community the best feature?

Without a community and a rocking one like we have, none of the very cool features we have showcased we even be possible. The community is in nearly every country in the world and has probably carried Ubuntu to every continent (I say probably because I have seen no “Ubuntu in Antartica” thread ).

So how do I join this awesome community you speak of?

Well, it is actually pretty simple. One excellent place to start is your local Ubuntu group, also known as a LoCo. Check the list for one near you. They might even be running something to celebrate the 7.10 release. At the distro level there are tonnes of teams that need help, from the documentation and marketing teams, to the Universe developers, MOTU. We here at the Fridge are always looking for more writers, so if you fancy writing for us, check out our wiki page.

But to make things even easier, next week is Open Week, where all the various movers and shakers in the Ubuntu community run sessions on IRC to tell you how you can help them with whatever bit of the distro or community they help out with.

Look forward to seeing you there!

As we close in on the 7.10 release, today we take a look at NTFS writing, the ability for our Ubuntu machines to write to NTFS formatted partitions, primarily those of Windows XP and Vista.

But couldn’t I do this in previous versions of Ubuntu?

Nope! What you could do was see your Windows NTFS drives but not write to them. This is useful for getting data off the computer, for such things as the awesome Migration Assistant but not much use to those who use both OSes on a regular basis.

So how I use it?

Install Ubuntu. One your desktop there should a little icon labelled something like “sda1”. Open it up just like any other folder and drag your files to it. Take a look:

Now, having said that, have some care when you are deleting stuff. You can easily delete a system critical file, as you have permissions to everything on the drive.

See you tomorrow, for one last edition of 10 Rocking Features in 10 Days!

If you are joining us now, here is a bit of a refresher: as we close in on the 7.10 (also known as Gutsy Gibbon) release, we are taking a look at the various cool features that we are going to get as part of this new Ubuntu. We have already looked at Deskbar and Tracker, Bulletproof X and Graphical X configuration, sharing your computer with Fast User Switching, Desktop Effects with Compiz, Better Firefox plugins and Gnash and Better hardware support. Today we turn to AppArmor, the application security framework.

So what does AppArmor do?

AppArmor helps you keep your computer secure by restricting what certain applications can do. This means that if somebody discovers a new way to exploit protected software, AppArmor helps reduce the risk by limiting access to resources defined in the application profile.

So what sort of profiles are currently enabled in Gutsy

Currently 7.10 ships with the framework and all the application tools, although only CUPS (the printing tool) has a profile enforced by default. The plan for Ubuntu 8.04 (called Hardy Heron in it’s development cycle) is to have a larger set of profiles enabled.

However, there is a beta profiles package in the universe component cunningly named apparmor-profiles. These profiles are in what is called “complain” mode, which warns the user that an application is doing something wrong without actually stopping it. The complain mode contrasts with the “enforce” mode, which does exactly that.

So how do I make an AppArmor profile?

If you are an end user or a sysadmin that wants to help out with the development of Ubuntu or AppArmor or merely needs to create a profile for an application they use, it is fairly easy. AppArmor builds in easy tools to profile applications and create profiles. A great tutorial to get started can be found on the AppArmor page on the help wiki.

So will this break my system?

Nope! One of the key reasons this is being rolled across two releases (the framework in 7.10, the profiles in 8.04) is to eliminate such issues.

What if I screw with AppArmor and it goes boink?

Hey, there is an answer for that too. AppArmor builds in a cool little utility called aa-logprof to help fix AppAmor and get you a working system again. You can read more about aa-logprof on the AppArmor page too.

Got any shiny pictures of AppArmor in action?

Nope. AppArmor is designed to be one of those silent things that you never notice.

If you want to read more about AppArmor, aside from the Ubuntu Help page, you can also try the OpenSuse page on AppArmor

See you all tomorrow!

Yesterday we took a look at the new Firefox plugin work. Today we turn to one of the most vexing of questions for many Linux users: hardware support and all that it means.

Why is hardware so vexing?

Basically, there is a lot of hardware and each requires a driver. People keep making new pieces and types of hardware and people keep buying it. All this means keeping up to date is a constant struggle, although projects like the Linux Driver Project are helping change that.

So I have a shiny new piece of hardware, how do I make it work?

For the most part, hardware auto-detection has just worked for many Ubuntu releases. In fact, Ubuntu 4.10 (Warty Warthog) was the first major distro to ship with the so-called Utopia stack, which allowed autodetection of many pieces of hardware via HAL.

However there have been a few types of commonly used hardware causing problems on linux desktops: printers, video cards, winmodems (also called software modems) and wireless cards.

So what is this about printers?

With Ubuntu 7.10, the addition of system-config-printer has meant that the kind of auto-detection common with USB sticks and other similar kinds of hardware now comes to printers. Just plug in your printer and watch it work:

And now what about winmodems and wireless cards?

With the addition of the Restricted Drivers Manager in Ubuntu 7.04, you could easily enable and disable the restricted or non-free drivers for those pesky video cards from ATI and Nvidia, as well as those of us stuck with Atheros wireless cards.

Now with 7.10, that one click goodness has been extended to Broadcom wireless cards and Winmodems, allowing you to install the firmware for these cards, although you will need an existing network connection to do this.

When you first start your computers, the Restricted Drivers Manager will tell you if you have any hardware that might require such drivers:

That’s all for today. See you tomorrow when we talk about Apparmor. Until then!

Yesterday we took a look at Desktop Effects with Compiz. Today we turn to all the improvements for Firefox including the a better way to install plugins and the arrival of Gnash, a Free flash player.

So what is this new way to install plugins?

One of the most powerful features of Firefox is all the amazing plugins available for it. However, sometimes those plugins don’t work with the version of Firefox you may have. To solve that problem, the Ubuntu developers have created a list of high-quality tested plugins that can be easily installed in Ubuntu 7.10.

To get access to those plugins, go to Tools > Add-ons and then click on the “Get Ubuntu Addons” in the lower right:

Click on that and then you will see a screen like below:

Search for your plugin and click to install. The best part about all of this? All of these plugins are installed via the same way as all the other software on your system, meaning all the usual tools such as Add/Remove, Synaptic and plain old apt-get will work as well.

So I get the plugin thing. What did I hear about Gnash?

Gnash is a Free Flash plugin, designed to help liberate Flash from the clutches of non-free software. For those you who run x86 (also called i386 or simply Intel), you have been able to enjoy the non-free Adobe plugin for quite some time. But for those on amd64 (also called x86-64 or 64 bit), PowerPC (old Apple computers, new Power.org IBM servers) and SPARC have been stuck. There were many hacks and workarounds, but they were just that, hacks.

That has all changed with the arrival of Gnash (and also Swfdec, another project to create a Free Flash plugin). Both of these projects have recently reached a major milestone: being able to play YouTube videos.

So if you want to try out Gnash, just select when you click to install the Flash plugin and choose it from the screen that pops up:

Anyway, that is all for today. Come back tomorrow when we cram two sessions into one and talk about better drivers, including restricted drivers and printers. Until then!

Yesterday we took a look at all the handy new features of X in Ubuntu 7.10 and today we turn to Fast User Switching which allows you to easily share your computer with others

What is Fast User Switching?

Having different people access your computer using separate user accounts is one way to keep your computer safer. It’s convenient too because different people’s settings can be stored separately. But if you find it annoying to have to keep logging off and logging in all the time to switch user, then Fast User Switching is the feature for you!

In a nutshell, Fast User Switching allows multiple users to switch quickly while staying logged in.

So how do I use it?

Well, first you need at least one other user on your computers. If you are uncertain about how to do that, please refer to this excellent wikipage on it or for the more visually inclined, there is a screencast (which also covers how to switch new users).

Once you have your users, it is pretty simple. On the upper panel, click on your name and you will see a list like this:

Choose the other user and you will get to a login screen. When they are done and logout, you are back to your screensaver. Unlock the screen and you are back on your desktop. It is that easy.

And yes, tomorrow, we will cover Desktop Effects with Compiz Fusion, as promised. Until then!

Yesterday we kicked this whole thing off and took a look at Deskbar and Tracker. Today we turn our attention to X, the graphical subsystem of any Ubuntu (or Linux or Unix machine). As any existing Ubuntu user knows, not only do you need to configure X, but breakages can happen. Thankfully with Ubuntu 7.10, there comes a few new features to help out with these problems, including better auto detection and configuration, Bulletproof X and graphical X config, for those times when you really to play with something. But first, some explanations

So what is X?

X, or X windowing system, is “a networking and display protocol which provides windowing on bitmap displays”, according to Wikipedia. It is also the basis of 99% of the GUIs on Linux and Unix systems such as Ubuntu.

So what is this “autoconfiguration” stuff?

Thanks to the awesome work of all the X.org developers, Ubuntu 7.10 now is able to detect your video hardware and monitor better, meaning in most instances, everything should just work. But what about those times that it doesn’t?

So I can config this graphically, right?

With 7.10, yes! The new displayconfig-gtk, written primarily by Sebastien Heinlein and based off the KDE systemconfig work, allows you to easily change the resolution, add another monitor, change your driver and more. Take a peek:

Saving your broken X.conf with BulletProofX

Of course, not everything can always be roses and champagne. Sometimes things break, including X. Like most software, X reads off a configuration file to determine how to start up, including what monitor(s) and video card(s) you have. If this file gets corrupted, things can break, very very badly:

But hey, all is not doom and gloom any more. With 7.10, you are no longer given a useless and arcane error dialog, you are now shown displayconfig-gtk to allow you to fix that broken config and get back on your feet:

If you want to read a bit more, check out the X.org maintainer for Ubuntu, Bryce Harrington’s, article on BulletproofX

Tomorrow, it’s off to explore all the new shiny with Desktop Effects, as brought to you by Compiz Fusion. Until then!

As we close in on the release of Ubuntu 7.10, codenamed Gutsy Gibbon during the development cycle, we thought we would tell you a little bit about some of the new features and improvements that make the release exciting. So over the next ten days, we will talk about one rocking feature each day until the 18th of October, when Ubuntu 7.10 goes live.

So what is in store for you with 7.10? We’ll be looking at the following features:

• Starting today, desktop search via Tracker and Deskbar
• Improved usability for configuring the graphic environment, with features such as Bulletproof-X and Graphical X configuration
• Spectacular desktop visual effects by default, brought to you by Compiz-Fusion
• Improvements in Firefox plugins, including Gnash installed by default
• Fast User Switching for those with shared machines
• Printer auto-detection
• Better handling of non-free drivers (including firmware installation)
• Improved security with AppArmor
• Easier access to your files on Windows with NTFS writing

Desktop search with Tracker and Deskbar

As any of you know, once you use a computer for longer than 5 minutes, you start collecting files, a lot of files. Finding them can be difficult, especially as hard drives get bigger and the urge to keep everything grows. Thankfully, Ubuntu 7.10 has a solution for this, with the inclusion of an indexing program called Tracker and an easy way to access that data, via Deskbar.



So what does Tracker do?

Tracker does to your local files, including your documents, music, etc, what Google does for websites: it searches through the full text (and any tags) and compiles them into a giant database, for easy searching. So, if you are looking for all documents on the computer that contain a single word, such as “Ubuntu” or “music”, tracker already knows where they are and can show them to you in a blink of an eye.

So how do I actually search for my stuff?

Well, having your computer know where stuff is is only half the battle; you need to be able to tell the computer what you are looking for. This is where Deskbar comes in - a powerful, single place to not only tell Tracker what exactly you are looking for, you can also launch applications for it, run commands in a terminal and much more.

For example, if you are searching for your music, open up Deskbar by clicking on the icon (as below) or by hitting F11. Then type in “music” and off you go.



Search is not the only thing Deskbar can do. You can also launch applications be searching either on the application name or the actual executable name, look up a word in the dictionary, and if you configure it correctly, search your bookmarks, history, Google or Yahoo. And if that isn’t enough for you and you have a bit of programming skill, you can always extend Deskbar with your own plugin (to find out more about this, check out Deskbar’s page on live.gnome.org).

Tomorrow we are off to visit the new X.org stuff, including BulletproofX and the new graphical config. Until then!

Adding the Ubuntu countdown timer to your website is easy! Just copy and paste the following lines into your webpage and each day the image will update showing the days remaining before the release.

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.ubuntu.com/files/countdown/dist/display.js"></script>
<noscript><img id="countdownimage" src="http://www.ubuntu.com/files/countdown/dist/710countdown_default.png" width="199" height="164" alt="Ubuntu 7.10 - Coming soon"></noscript>

Here is what you’ll see: