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The Intrepid Ibex has made its date of arrival, typical of the Ubuntu team’s ability to hold themselves to their promise of an announced release date. Ubuntu 8.10‘s changes are mostly under the skin, similar to the recent release of Mandriva 2009.0, for example.

The most significant update relates to the way in which wireless networks and HSDPA or 3G modems are recognized and managed. The new network management tools are able to pick up wireless network signals more reliably, and ease the connections to such networks considerably. The same can be said for 3G modem support, which has suffered from manual interventions and user frustration due to the lack of GUI interfaces for critical settings required by those devices.

GNOME fans will be happy to have access to release 2.24 which has been included. Unfortunately, the Ubuntu team has decided not to include OpenOffice 3.0 by default. That’s a pity. I recommend you download and install OpenOffice 3.0 as soon as your system is up and running – would have been great to have had this in the distribution already. The new GNOME brings with it improvements to file management and better support for multiple monitors and display adapters.

As with all other modern Linux releases, the provision of a safe harbour for guest accounts is also available in 8.10. That permits a guest to use your system without gaining access to your files and applications. Of course, system settings cannot be altered by the guest user.

An interesting addition is an application to create a copy of the operating system on a USB thumb drive. This mobile-version-on-a-stick can be used to take your existing desktop environment from one system to another, or to install a new copy of the OS on a friend’s system.

Get the Intrepid Ibex here.