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On Oct 30, 2008, the Ubuntu developers team have announced the availability of the official of Ubuntu 8.10, codenamed Intrepid Ibex and is now ready for downloading.

Ubuntu 8.10  features a new version of the Gnome 2.24 which brings some new applications and a wide range of improvements for developers and end users such as support for tabs in Nautilus, a new FreeDesktop.org-compliant audio theme system, and a new screen resolution utility that can leverage XRandR.

Ubuntu 8.10 has also gained Dynamic Kernel Module Support (DKMS), a framework which will automatically rebuild kernel modules when new versions of the kernel are released. This improvement will hopefully prevent third-party drivers from breaking when kernel being updated.

The new version of NetworkManager, which included in Ubuntu 8.10, adds support for managing multiple active devices simultaneously, enabling 3G connectivity, managing PPP and PPPOE connection and managing devices with static IP configurations.

Ubuntu 8.10 introduces the “last successful boot” feature, which will allow users to boot from the last working kernel configuration by selecting a special item on the boot manager list at start-up.

The 8.10 release also has a “guest session” feature. The User Switcher panel applet now provides an extra entry for starting a Guest session. This creates a temporary password-less user account with restricted privileges: the account cannot access any users’ home directories, nor permanently store data. When the guest using the machine signs off, any personalized or identifying information on the guest account is deleted.

The next major version is Ubuntu 9.04, which is Jaunty Jackalope and is scheduled for release in April 2009.

Intrepid Ibex is available for download from the Ubuntu web site. For more information, check out the release notes and the official announcement.