Countdown to Ubuntu Hardy Heron 8.04

Ubuntu is undoubtedly the most popular Linux distribution. It's meteoric rise has made Linux accessible to normal users.
With computer manufacturers like Dell offering Ubuntu pre-installed on their Laptops and desktops, Ubuntu is destined to rise further.
The 8.04 or the Hardy Heron release of Ubuntu is a LTS Release, which makes its very attractive for users who look for a stable release, with very few bugs and Long Term Support (read three years) for it. This release is also touted to catapault Ubuntu in the commercial business server and desktop environment.



Counter:

Lets check some of the features which make Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron a great release.

1. Latest Firefox 3 (Beta 5). Though in Beta, Ubuntu devs have extinsively tested and and found to be very stable on Ubuntu.
   
2. Enhanced F-spot photo manager. F-spot enables downloading of photos from digital cameras and mobile phones. It also aloows the users to perform basic editing functions like removing red-eye, crop etc, manage the photos, print photos, tag them and to upload them to various web sites like Flickr.
   
3. Latest version of Gnome 2.22.1 along with latest Nautilus.
   
4. Policy Kit. Ubuntu devs have integrated Policy Kit with the "Network", "Users and Groups", "Services", "clock applet", "gnome-mount" and "Time and Date" tools; enabling tighter ocntrol over user acces levels.
   
5. Basero DVD burning application. This is by far the best Gnome DVD burner.
   
6. Transmission bit torrent Client. Thanfully we are free from the very basic gnome-bittorrent client.
   
7. Would clock applet
8. Totem with capabilities to play from youtube and digital TV brodcasts.
   
9. Wubi installer. This will be a great boon to Windows users who want to install Ubuntu from the comfort of their Windows environment.
10. Latest Xorg server and Pulse Aduio and finally
11. Long Term Support for three years.

Not just Ubuntu, but also its KDE cousing Kubuntu has great features. Unlike Ubuntu, Kubuntu does not come as LTS.
Kubuntu comes in two flavous

1. Based upon KDE 3.X. This is the latest version of the KDE stable branch 3.X and will enjoy support from Canonical for 18 months.
   
2. Based on Cutting edge KDE 4.0. KDE 4.0 is the active development branch of KDE, however, it is still not considered production ready. People are hoping that KDE 4.1 will be a stable release. For the enthusiasts who would love the cutting edge feel, Kubuntu offer a KDE 4.0 based edition too.

LTS or not, users are waiting eagerly for both the Ubuntu variants.
I am one of them :).