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The Hardy Heron Roadmap has over 130 new ideas that have been proposed thus far.  I’ve examined each one of these ideas in detail, threw out the ones that weren’t interesting to me, wrote an explanation for each, and sorted the list into three categories:

1. User Experience,
2. Networking and Security,
3. Support

Of course, the juiciest items have already made headlines, such as the new theme that is being planned… “I for one, welcome our new hopefully non-brown themed overlords!”

What about the proposed changes that don’t deserve their own headline?  Either you have to muck through that entire list, or you can simply read about it here.  You can get more information about specific items by clicking on the name of the proposal, which will take you to a page that has a little bit more information about it.  Without more from me, here we go.

Read more at fsckin w/linux

Xubuntu is a complete GNU/Linux based operating system with an Ubuntu base. It is lighter on system requirements and tends to be more efficient than Ubuntu with GNOME or KDE, since it uses the Xfce Desktop environment, which makes it ideal for old or low-end machines, thin-client networks, or for those who would like to get more performance out of their hardware.

Read more at DebianAdmin

The Ubuntu Technical Board voted yesterday to ship Ubuntu 7.10 (”Gutsy”) with Compiz enabled by default. Although Compiz has been featured in Ubuntu 7.10 Tribe prerelesases, the board has had difficulty determining whether or not it is reliable and functionally complete enough to warrant inclusion in the final release.

Compiz is a compositing window manager that includes a number of highly sophisticated visual effects like window shadows, transparency, and desktop zooming. In the Tribe prereleases, basic visual effects are enabled by default on supported hardware, and more sophisticated visual effects—like wobbling windows—can be enabled with a configuration utility. A compositing window manager was originally planned for inclusion in Ubuntu 7.04, but it was delayed because the software wasn’t considered mature enough.

Read more at arstehnica

In April the latest version of Ubuntu Linux, Feisty Fawn, was released. In this article, we are turning our attention to Kubuntu.

As regular readers will know, Ubuntu Linux has two official desktop variants – Kubuntu, which uses the KDE desktop, and Xubuntu, with the XFCE desktop.

While you can install KDE and XFCE in Ubuntu itself (and choose between desktops on login), installing Kubuntu from scratch is the best way to get a clean install without any of the Gnome desktop packages that form the main Ubuntu distribution.

• Read more: Hands on: Ubuntu Linux – Kubuntu and Xubuntu

Since its inception, the Xfce desktop environment has aimed to provide high functionality with only modest demands on system resources, with the overarching goal of leaving more facilities for the user to run applications. One of the significant changes in recent releases of Xfce 4 is the Thunar file manager, which replaces the original xffm. Thunar does a good deal to advance the goals of its parent project: it’s fast and lean, especially by today’s standards of hardware, yet it offers rich functionality. Like its namesake, Thunor, the Saxon god of thunder, Thunar is much smaller than “giants” like Konqueror and Nautilus, yet powerful in its own right. If you want some of the functionality afforded by the GUI file managers of the larger desktop environments, but with less overhead, Thunar may fit your needs.

Read more at Linux.com

Xubuntu is a complete GNU/Linux based operating system with an Ubuntu base. It is lighter on system requirements and tends to be more efficient than Ubuntu with GNOME or KDE, since it uses the Xfce Desktop environment, which makes it ideal for old or low-end machines, thin-client networks, or for those who would like to get more performance out of their hardware.

Read more at Debian Admin

Folks, allow me to introduce the Gutsy Gibbon, who will be succeeding the Feisty Fawn as the focus of our development love in a few short weeks, for release in October 2007.” - Shuttleworth

Next Ubuntu Version is 7.10 with code name Gutsy Gibbon

If you want to check ubuntu list message on this check here

Debian Admin

With Ubuntu, Kubuntu, and Xubuntu each deploying a different desktop environment (GNOME, KDE, and Xfce respectively), how do each of these distributions compare performance-wise? We have taken two systems — one with dual Intel Clovertown processors and the other an AMD Sempron — and tested out each of these distributions in some of our commonly used Linux benchmarks to see how the performance truly stacks up. In this article we will be presenting part one of our results.

Welcome to Feisty Fawn Herd 2, which will in time become Ubuntu 7.04.

Pre-releases of Feisty are *not* encouraged for anyone needing a
stable system, or anyone who is not comfortable running into
occasional, even frequent breakage. They are however recommended for
Ubuntu developers and those who want to help in testing, reporting,
and fixing bugs. Installing a milestone and then upgrading through
the release cycle should leave you with a close approximation of the
final release.

Herd 2 is the second in a series of milestone CD images that will be
released throughout the Feisty development cycle. The Herd images are
known to be reasonably free of showstopper CD build or installer bugs,
while representing current snapshots of Feisty. You can download it
here, for Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Edubuntu and Xubuntu respectively:

• Read more: Feisty Fawn Herd 2 released

I have switched to Xubuntu a few months ago coming from Kubuntu. In Kubuntu I liked the (already available) option of setting up a list of image files and have them randomly displayed as background image on the desktop. This was one of the things I have missed so far in Xfce.

Read more at HowtoForge

Automatix is a graphical interface for automating the installation of the most commonly requested applications in Debian based Linux operating systems.

Read more at DebianAdmin

The Xubuntu community is happy to announce the release of Xubuntu 6.10,
codenamed “Edgy Eft”. This release includes both installable Desktop CDs
and alternate text-mode installation CDs for several architectures.

Xubuntu is a Linux distribution for your desktop or server, with a fast
and easy install, regular releases, a tight selection of excellent
packages installed by default, every other package you can imagine
available with a few clicks.

• Read more: Xubuntu 6.10