The final beta release of Ubuntu 10.04 has been released. While drastic changes are now a thing of the past, the beta release will bring updated packages and numerous bug fixes.

You can click here to download it. Use torrents if possible because, not only is it faster for you, but it also puts less strain on the servers.

It appears as though an early build of Windows 7 Service Pack 1 has leaked to file sharing sites over the past few days. The build, numbered 6.1.7601.16537.amd64fre.win7.100327-0053 is a recent compile from March 27 and is apparently “quick to install.” What new features this SP1 build brings is still unclear, but alleged new features include USB 3.0 support and improved Bluetooth.

A beta version of Windows 7 Service Pack 1 is expected in June, with a public release slated for September this year.

Mark Shuttleworth has announced in his blog that Ubuntu 10.10 will be using Maverick Meerkat as it’s mascot. It appears as if they are going to keep using the same naming trend they have used on previous Ubuntu releases. All names are in alphabetical order such as Jaunty Jackalope, Karmic Koala, Lucid Lynx, and now Maverick Meerkat, just to name a few. The exceptions to this are the first two releases, Warty Warthog and Hoary Hedgehog.

Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat is scheduled to be released on October 28, 2010  (10/28/10).

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Windows 7 often takes an extremely long time to shut down and close everything. This simple tweak will reduce the Wait to Kill time on applications during the shut down process, reducing the time you have to wait for Windows to shut down while having almost no adverse effects. Of course, we recommend that you close all programs and save all data before you shut down your computer to ensure that no data is lost.

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Microsoft has recently started an offer that reduces the upgrade cost from Windows 7 Starter Edition to Home Premium. The original price for this upgrade was US$79.99 but for a limited time the upgrade will be available for just US$50 – starting April 4 and lasting through until July 3. Home Premium users will also be able to upgrade to Professional during this time for US$79.99.

The upgrade should definitely be considered, especially with the US$30 off special promo making it all the more worthwhile. Windows 7 Starter lacks some main and important features available in Home Premium, including personalisation options (background switching), Aero Glass, mulit-display support and many other features.

A few weeks back I wrote about Lucid Lynx being in Alpha testing. Lucid Lynx is now in Beta 1, the first beta testing phase. Lucid Lynx is an Ubuntu distribution which will have a stable version released at the end of April. Read the rest of this entry for download links and more information.

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Today Apple has released an updated to Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard (both desktop and server editions) – 10.6.3. In this update package Snow Leopard users will be seeing a number of bugs being fixed, tweaks and the usual performance improvements. Hot on the list of these improvements include better QuickTime X compatibility, improved printing and a far better Crash Reporter that should help Apple find and fix more bugs more efficiently.

The update should be available now via Software update, or you can grab it here for the 10.6.3 desktop update or here for the 10.6.3 server update. Leopard users will also be getting a number of these fixes by a security update, also available via Software Update or the Apple download centre. See below for the full list of major updates in Mac OS X 10.6.3.

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Microsoft has released a few bits of info regarding Service Pack 1 for both Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. Windows 7 SP1 will apparently be mostly minor updates and bugfixes, a lot of which have come through Windows Update since the release of Windows 7 RTM. However, there will be an updated Remote Desktop Client using a new virtualisation method called RemoteFX.

RemoteFX will be present in Server 2008 R2 SP1 as well, alongside another virtualisation feature called Dynamic Memory which aims to “meet the increasing needs of our customers as they utilise virtualization in their environments.” A release time frame has not as yet been set for either Service Pack 1s, but when SP1 is ready it will be available for download from Windows Update and the Microsoft Download Center.

According to the latest report from Tech ARP, the first service pack for Windows 7 could be hitting us sometime in Q4 of this year. Originally Microsoft had planned for a 22 month development period for SP1, longer than the dev times for Vista and XP’s SP1s. According to the report though, MS has pushed this date forward to the last quarter of 2010 due to new bugs that need to be fixed.

For those of you using Windows Update frequently, don’t worry because these bugs will no doubt will be patched via an update. However, for businesses that may only update to a new Service Pack, they will need a release sooner rather than later. Many businesses also don’t adopt new operating systems until a Service Pack has been released to ensue that all the bugs have been squashed before they update their systems.

Have you heard people talking about Linux but had no idea what it was? Are you a full time Windows XP, Vista, or 7 user and can’t understand why anyone would want to use anything besides Windows? Or perhaps you are getting tired of dealing with the hassle that can come with Windows but you don’t know what to do about it? If you answered yes to any of these questions then this is something you should probably read. There is a lot to Linux. I will probably leave a lot out of  this article but, then again, this is not a comprehensive guide. This is just to give you a peek at Linux so you can decide if you want to try it out.

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