Well, after six months of feverish development, [Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon is released](https://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/710tour).

An Ubuntu release is a phenomenal achievement for a worldwide network of volunteers and enthusiasts as well as the developers hired by Canonical to work on Ubuntu full-time. But, it is not just developers that contribute, but artists, translators, testers, documentation writers, bug triagers, support, QA, marketing, publicity, administration, hosting, mirroring, logging, forums, irc ops, and a range of other areas. We should also not forget the incredible wealth of upstream software that each Ubuntu release pulls from, and the enormous pool of software that the awesome [MOTU team](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MOTU) package and make available for each Ubuntu release. Finally, there are the tireless bunch in business development who work on support offerings, OEM deals, training, global alliances, partner programmes, ISVs and various other aspects which help take this incredible Operating System and make it attractive to businesses, vendors and professionals around the world.

Its pretty incredible really – thousands of contributors, scattered all over the world, each contribute their own expertise, and together produce a web of different cultures, abilities and skills. But they are all drawn together by a simple vision – producing an easy to use, powerful, free software Operating System that is ready for the masses, and ready to change the mechanics of the computing world. This is what Ubuntu and free software is all about.

Finally, each release is a great time for a little bit of reflection, and to observe where you think things went right and wrong. As usual, at release time I would welcome you to [send me an email](mailto:jonoATubuntuDOTcom) with constructive thoughts on me and my team’s (my team being Daniel ‘dholbach’ Holbach and Jorge ‘jcastro’ Castro) work in the community. I would also like to use this as an opportunity to say a huge *well done* and *thank-you* to everyone in the community. This is my third release, and every day I feel proud to work with such an incredible group of people who are just so enthusiastic and determined to make Ubuntu kick arse. We are getting there folks, lets *really* make Hardy kick arse. 🙂

Everyone, go celebrate for a job well done, and even if you are not an Ubuntu user, go and celebrate that free software has made another step forward. 🙂