Is it just me, or would everyone prefer the latest version of Ubuntu Linux to be known by its development name, Dapper Drake? Maybe not, but anyway, the official name is now Ubuntu 6.06 LTS. The 6.06 shows it was released in June 2006 while LTS stands for Long Term Support, indicating a desire to tempt a wider business audience beyond the ever-growing band of developers and enthusiasts who have made Ubuntu one of the most popular Linux distributions on the planet.

Despite this change in emphasis the software remains freely downloadable, with the LTS release available for both desktop and server deployment. Security updates are guaranteed for a minimum of five years, compared to just 18 months before, and there's commercial support available, both from sponsoring developer Canonical Ltd and third parties, further bolstering the usual community support available for any Linux distro.

So what else is new? Well just about everything, starting with a single-disk Live CD distribution which can be used to boot and try the O/S without having to install it to hard disk. Of course, once happy with what what's on offer you can then install it normally, with a new graphical install procedure instead of the text-based routine previously provided.

A different disk is needed for the server install (make sure you download the right one) with a useful pre-configured LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP) option to install and configure all of these commonly required components in one shot.

Compatibility issues can still arise but this release is much better at recognising the latest desktop gizmos, doing away with a lot of the post-install tweaking needed before. The server software also installs smoothly but the end result lacks a graphical desktop. Something that's easily rectified, but which will come as a shock to Windows die-hards unused to managing servers from the command line.

In terms of look and feel, brown remains the colour of choice but a new desktop theme and the latest Gnome software give the interface a fresh face, with a KDE implementation also available if preferred. The new Ubuntu also boots a lot quicker, has more power management features and, call me nerdy if you must, comes with a neat new "power" button to log-off, shutdown or re-boot the O/S. A small step for Ubuntu users perhaps, but compare it with Windows where you - counter-intuitively - need to go to the Start menu to stop it!

Of course there's the usual slew of .xx updates to all the bundled components, including separately tuned desktop and server kernels (both based on 2.6.15.6 if you must know) with a separate high-end kernel for servers with 8 or more processors. Plus there's an implementation for the Sun UltraSPARC T1 processors on Sun Fire T1000 and T2000 servers, adding to the x86, 64-bit Intel/AMD and PowerPC support already provided.

On the desktop, users will be pleased to find a much more up-to-date Firefox browser installed by default. Video playback facilities are also enhanced, with better power management and beefed up wireless networking being other notable changes.

An updated version of OpenOffice (2.0.2) and similarly updated Evolution e-mail client are also installed as standard. Plus there's the usual access to other open source applications which can be downloaded and installed automatically using the Debian Advanced Packaging Tool (APT).

As with the previous release, Ubuntu 6.06 LTS is a very complete and usable Linux distribution and one that's remarkably easy to get to grips with compared to some others. All of which makes it a good starting point for newcomers, but don't be fooled into thinking it's cut-down in any way. As well as appealing to the hobbyist, Ubuntu is a full Linux implementation with everything needed for business use, including automatic updates and commercial support should you need it.

A much more business-like implementation of Linux, Ubuntu 6.06 LTS retains many of the features that have made it so popular, with sensible enhancements in terms of installation, hardware support and usability. Still a very complete solution and equally suitable for both enthusiast and production use.