There are no good independent measurements of market share between the various distributions of desktop Linux, and that is leading to a continued back-and-forth between rivals. In the latest installment, Fedora leader Max Spevack takes a shot at Ubuntu leader Mark Shuttleworth.

People seem to have quite high expectations of Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy), and to be honest, I don’t think they’ll be disappointed. Gutsy seems to be shaping up to be the best Ubuntu release ever, and it’s due for release next Thursday (18 October).There’s one particular aspect of Gutsy that I think is more important than most, and that is that it allows you to choose your level of freedom. I’d even go as far to say that this is an historic Linux distribution release, because of that.

Most people like it, many others don’t, the fact is that Ubuntu is the king of Linux distributions right now - and for some very good reasons. Below I will attempt to identify those reasons that made Ubuntu the most popular distribution and explain why its success was “inevitable”.

The Ubuntu team is proud to announce the Release Candidate for version 7.10 of Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Edubuntu, Gobuntu, and Xubuntu codenamed "Gutsy Gibbon". The Release Candidate includes installable live Desktop CDs, server images, alternate text-mode installation CDs, and an upgrade wizard for users of the current stable release.

Jono Bacon, the Ubuntu Community Manager, has announced Ubuntu Open Week, a week full of 42 free IRC tutorial sessions designed to help people join the Ubuntu community easily. It takes place from Mon 22nd Oct - Sat 27th Oct in #ubuntu-classroom on Freenode (IRC Server).

Canonical, the company that supports Ubuntu Linux, is trying to work out a deal with hardware vendors such as Dell to make Ubuntu available preinstalled on servers.

Canonical's ShipIt service will be distributing free copies of Ubuntu's latest version, 7.10, when it becomes available later this month. You've got nothing to lose, why not try Ubuntu?

The Ubuntu team is proud to announce the beta release of Ubuntu 7.10 and its variants, Kubuntu, Edubuntu and Xubuntu. Codenamed "Gutsy Gibbon", 7.10 continues Ubuntu's proud tradition of integrating the latest and greatest open source technologies into a high-quality, easy-to-use Linux distribution.