A list of new features expected in Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon

Ubuntu is on a roll to create the best Linux distribution targeted at the lay person ever. And a number of user friendly features are expected to be included in the yet to be released Gutsy Gibbon (stable version) which is expected some time in October this year.

Some of the new features are as follows :

1. Latest version of Gnome - It is well known that Ubuntu is a Gnome centric Linux distribution. True, they have Kubuntu for the KDE users among us. But in my honest opinion, Ubuntu is much more polished than Kubuntu. Not surprisingly, Gutsy Gibbon will ship with Gnome ver 2.19.90.
2. Graphical configuration tool for X - I do not have any problem editing the xorg.conf file using a text editor. It is well commented and is easy to understand. But there are numerous people who would prefer a GUI tool to edit this file and are more at home with the point and click method. Gutsy Gibbon is expected to include a GUI tool for these set of users thus making Ubuntu even more user friendly.
3. Firefox extension is to be apt-enabled - That is right and while you are reading this make sure to call it Ubufox because that is the name given to Firefox in Ubuntu. While it is quite easy to visit addons.mozilla.org and install all your favorite extensions, having another way to install and keep track of all your Firefox (aka Ubufox) extensions is really nice.
4. Creates a virtual PDF printer by default - Now I find this a very good step to user friendliness. Consider this, from now on, you will be able to create PDF documents from within almost any applications, be they Gimp, text editors, word processors or even a web browser. More over, printers are now automatically, fully configured by merely plugging them in and turning them on.
   

Fig: Print to PDF dialog box

You can download an alpha release of Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon tribe 5 and give it a trial run.