Features of Ubuntu

Officially released on October 18th 2007, Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon starring Gnome 2.20, offers numerous upgrades and new features that are sure to enhance your desktop environment. New features for Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon include:

Enabled by default, Compiz Fusion brings improved usability and visual appeal to the desktop. If your hardware is capable of running Compiz, Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon will automatically detect this. If your hardware is not capable it will revert back to normal desktop. The user can also add additional effect by going to System-Preferences-Appearance and selecting the Visual Effects tab.

Deskbar

Included in the default configuration, Deskbar is just a quicker source to everyday desktop needs like opening bookmarks, searching, communication and more. Deskbar's integration with other application and the Ubuntu operating system is unmatched making it a valuable asset for desktop productivity.

Tracker

Ubuntu 7.10 includes a faster way to locate your documents. The Tracker indexer allows you to search for photos, music, videos, chat logs, and more quickly and easily. Use the Tracker indexer in the search dialog, file selector, nautilus, or the Deskbar applet.

Quick User Switching

Now users can switch between sessions without entering username and password many times. This saves time for stations that have more than one user on them.

Firefox Plugin Finder

The web browsing tool Firefox has been updated with new improvements including a plugin finder wizard, a feature that allows users to search and install packaged plugins with ease. Web browsing with Firefox offers users a feature rich environment and integrated security support.

Dynamic Screen Configuration

The X Resize and Rotate Extension (xrandr), is now supported by several drivers for Ati, nVidia, and Intelgraphics chips. This support provides dynamic monitor detection, resizing and rotating of video output giving you easy support for projectors and external monitors. Updating X configuration is recommended if you've connected this hardware previously with MergedFB/Xinerama.

Graphic Configuration Tool for X

Now you don't have to use the terminal to configure the driver you want to use with your graphic card, change the default resolution for all users or change the monitors refresh rate. Video and monitor settings are easily adjusted with a new GUI. Also cards that allow Xinerama mode allow for dual screen setup.

Automatic Printer Install

After installing Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon users can simply plug printers into the computer and turn them on. Another time saving user friendly feature that makes setup that much easier.

Handling of Non-Free Device Drivers

Drivers that require non-free firmware or other packages to operate can now be taken care of by the restricted-manager. With a secondary internet connection and very little effort users can find and install firmware for wireless cards with Broadband chipsets, and many winmodems commonly used in laptops. If the restricted-manager finds any hardware that has an available restricted driver a notification window will populate on the screen.

NTFS Writing

By integrating the NTFS-3g project, Gutsy Gibbon now supports reading and writing of windows NTFS partitions. Previous Ubuntu versions including read only, this feature is huge step for windows document and file sharing.

Improved Power Consumption

Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon offers the latest Linux kernel that features dynticks. This feature allows the processor to use less power and make less heat. A huge improvement for laptops due to heat and battery life issues, the power conservation is passed on to desktops alike giving them a quiter and cooler environment.

AppArmor

AppArmor attempts to protect processes on the server or desktop from security threats. AppArmor enforces limits on what processes can access on the system. It attempts to restrict processes to those resources that the process requires to function only. AppArmor will not only define the system resources a program can access , it will also determine the privileges with which it can access those resources. To protect applications you will need to set up a security profile for each application that you want to protect.

When you have many software applications on a system you have the risk of hosting software flaws that you are not aware of. These software flaws provide avenues of access for attackers to compromise your system. Exploits that are discovered and on the same day that they are used to crack a system by an attacker are called zero-day exploits. AppArmor provides protection against these kinds of attacks by protecting against known and unknown vulnerabilities.
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Added Installation Profiles

The deployment of common server configurations just got a little easier with Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon. In addition to the existing pre-configured installation options, LAMP and DNS, now Mail Server, File Server, Print Server, and Database Server have been added to the Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon Server CD.