There has been a lot of excitement regarding the development of the latest release of Ubuntu, code named "Dapper Drake" (release 6.06). Having spent several months writing "Moving to Ubuntu Linux" (my new book, based on Dapper Drake), I can honestly say that the excitement is justified. This is great Linux distribution, polished, and professional. In fact, Kubuntu 6.06 is now what I am running on my notebook.

I'm particularly fond of the new live CD because you can install your K/Ubuntu system directly from the live distro. No need for two disks to do the job. Just click the Install icon on the desktop and away you go.

You can download Ubuntu by visiting http://www.ubuntu.com. The Kubuntu release of Dapper Drake 6.06 is available from http://www.kubuntu.com. If you don't want have broadband access, you can still get your release by using the ShipIt service. Ubuntu (and Kubuntu) will ship you free CDs (yes, that's FREE as in Gratis as in Beer). Not only will you get your free Ubuntu or Kubuntu disks, but Canonical will send you a whole batch of them so you can hand them out to friends and family.

Just visit the appropriate ShipIt site and sign up.

Ubuntu : http://shipit.ubuntu.com

Kubuntu : http://shipit.kubuntu.com

Once last thing. When you are done installing K/Ubuntu, check out the following site to get all those extras you are going to want. That includes all those lovely multimedia codecs that allow you to play those annoying proprietary formats such as MP3, WMV, and so on. It also makes it dead simple to install Flash and Java support. What is that site, you ask?

EasyUbuntu : http://easyubuntu.freecontrib.org/

<weasel words>Users in the United States will want to read the fine print about the legalities regarding certain codecs and their associated patents.</weasel words>

Enjoy!  And take care out there.