One week from now Apple will release the next version of its long-awaited OS X operating system, codenamed “Leopard”. More than 300 new features are promised, including Time Machine, an archiving and back-up facility that allows users to restore files or file versions to a previous state.

But Leopard is not the only new operating system version appearing. I have been testing the latest version of one of the most popular Linux desktop “distributions” – Ubuntu (www.ubuntu.com), which became available for free download yesterday. Like Leopard, Ubuntu 7.10 had a codename during development: “Gutsy Gibbon.” And, like other versions of Linux, Ubuntu is a community-developed and supported project that launched in 2004 and updated every six months. It is sponsored by Canonical (www.canonical.com), which has a simple, yet lofty, goal: “To be the most widely used Linux system and the centre of a global open-source software ecosystem.”