Happy Gutsy Gibbon day! October 18th marks the release of the latest version of the free Linux based Ubuntu distribution. I’m providing the a direct link to the X86 version of the bittorrent images here – as of this writing it’s a little difficult to get the disk any other way due to load.

I’ve been using the 7.10 (Gutsy) Beta/RC for about a month now and find it to be very stable and usable.

Perhaps one of the most exciting new features of this version is the inclusion of Compiz Fusion by default, with Halloween close at hand think of this as a little candy for your eyes! If you are unfamiliar with the Compiz/Beryl/Fusion saga, suffice it to say the new combine efforts of the Fusion team are looking great and it’s nice to see them being included in major distros – Leopard/Vista visuals have nothing on Compiz Fusion.

At any rate this latest release of Ubuntu is a wonderful starting point for those who might be looking to experiment with Linux, and a must have for existing Feisty (7.04) users.