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10-IntrepidIbexIt's that time of the year again, leaves are turning orange and brown in the northern hemisphere, and a new Ubuntu is on the verge of being released, namely Intrepid Ibex, bringing new features. This release brings the long awaited (and often postponed) new theme “NewHuman”; while not being the default selection, it finally gives Ubuntu a dark, modern, but still usable, new look - appealing to those looking for a fancy yet aesthetic theme.  Intrepid Ibex includes the newest release of GNOME, 2.24. Nautilus, the default file browser, has a lot of improvements which include tabs - as you probably already know from your web browser.  Tabs not only help you save a lot of screen real estate, they help you in organizing your files - by not having to open several Nautilus windows. Another feature that users are noticing and beginning to like, is the new eject button integrated in the Places column in the sidebar. Right next to the icons of your CD/DVD drives a small eject icon is shown which will, of course, eject your optical media.  While this isn't a feature you would sell your grandmother for, it is part of a notable improvement of the general usability of the desktop for several simple tasks. Deskbar, an applet for your Panel, now allows you to quickly write updates to the micro-blogging services of Twitter and Identi.ca, and Wikipedia searching.  Last but not least, on the GNOME side of the improvements, stands the new screen resolution dialog, utilizing the recent XrandR 1.2 specifications of X.Org, drastically improving, some might say 'fixing', the way of handling multihead setups. This leads to X.Org 7.4. The latest stable build of the ubiquitous X Windows System improves support for all major hot-pluggable devices such as mice, keyboards and graphics tablets. In the past, many were struggling with its configuration, and the mere mention of xorg.conf made the strongest of men cry. This dark age has finally come to an end, as the newest release of X.Org allows the great majority of users - those without esoteric input devices nor screen resolutions - to run Ubuntu without an xorg.conf at all. This especially helps those on computers with multiple users, as Person A can simply plug in her tablet, and Person B her gaming mouse, without having to change anything. But, there are other new features: for multi-user environments, one of the most prominent being the inclusion of the ecryptfs-utilities, offering you an easy way to create private encrypted folders in the users' home directory. Ubuntu has supported LVM+LUKS encryption for entire partitions for a long time already, but this had a major drawback in areas like speed, setup and the lack of per-user encrypted content. Everything is encrypted by a single password which has to be entered at every boot. The new approach gives you a more user centered solution with a not-too-hard installation:
Of course there are other scenarios where encrypting data comes in handy - other than hiding files from family members or work mates. Encrypting sensitive data on mobile computers like Note- and Netbooks is one of them. Overall, I think great emphasis was placed on the experience and additional functionality for the mobile user, which includes the new guest session function that is easily accessible through the User Switcher panel applet. It creates a temporary user account, with no password, which has no access to home directories nor internal storage devices. It's a great feature if you just want to lend your notebook to someone for some quick email checking or web surfing. Surfing the web on the go, using and setting up 3G connections, and switching between these and wireless networks, was a major pain in the past, and Intrepid overcomes these issues with the addition of the latest stable version of Network Manager, 0.7, which now manages common 3G scenarios such as finally introducing system wide settings. Until now, you had to be logged into your account to establish any connections using Network Manager. The new functionality now enables you to get a connection right after the service is started on boot. This really helps those just needing a quick terminal session rather than a whole desktop environment, but it doesn't only see improvements in handling today's mobility - options to manage PPP/PPPOE and route management were also added. In short, you could say that Ubuntu has made a great leap forward. When you look at its features that the ordinary user of today's computerized world needs for everyday life, paired with its easy access and usability, this release marks the first step in Ubuntu's future. Upgrading from 8.04 To upgrade from 8.04, press Alt+F2 and type:
into the command box. Update Manager should open up and tell you: New distribution release '8.10' is available. Click Upgrade and follow the on-screen instructions. --- ISOs and torrents are available at: |