Ubuntu 8.04 LTS

<p><em>Editor's note:</em> This is an amended version of the original review, following further testing. </p><p> The Ubuntu update machine remains locked to its six-monthly cycle, more or less, with the release of Hardy Heron, officially labelled <a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/products/whatisubuntu/804features/">Ubuntu 8.04</a>. With such regular spurts of evolution, there's far more in common with the last version &mdash; <a href="http://reviews.zdnet.co.uk/software/os/0,1000001098,39290510,00.htm">Gutsy Gibbon (Ubuntu 7.10)</a> &mdash; than there is different. 8.04 is a Long Term Support (LTS) release, so parent company <a href="http://www.canonical.com/">Canonical</a> is promising support for three years on desktops and five on servers. The last LTS release was <a href="http://reviews.zdnet.co.uk/software/os/0,1000001098,39273360,00.htm">6.06</a>, nearly two years ago: we are still running that release as a domestic media file server, where it's currently clocked up 150 days of uptime. </p>