Get ready for Gutsy Gibbon

I have really enjoyed testing the upcoming release of Ubuntu, Gutsy Gibbon, which will become the 7.10 release on October 18. I have been testing primarily the Kubuntu variation, but I have tried Ubuntu as well. Both are doing extremely well. The differences depend on whether you prefer using GNOME, the desktop that comes with Ubuntu, or KDE, the desktop that comes with Kubuntu. There is a XFCE variation as well called Xubuntu, an Educational variation called Edubuntu, and there is a Christian Edition called Ubuntu CE. The latter of these tracks release 7.04, but I expect an update again once 7.10 is released.

I started heavily testing around the fourth Alpha release, Tribe 4, and, in effect, upgraded right into Tribe 5, proving the rolling upgrades work fine. I have also installed Tribe 5, and have been using it since.

Have not verified that Tribe 6 is out; it may be there or should be soon. Based on my experiences with the Alpha release, by the time this distribution is released, the majority of features should work well. I have not encountered any problems, except with Xubuntu, and I filed a bug report on that, so it ought to get fixed in time for release.

If you are not a tester you can wait for the release, but I recommend trying it out; locate issues, report them, and give them a chance to get fixed so that the release is as solid as it possibly can be. I like it already.