I'm excited. I mean really excited. Excited to the point that I can hardly think. I'm talking six-year-old trying to go to sleep on Christmas Eve excited. But before I get to why, let's take a trip back to 1999.

I have been a big supporter of Ubuntu over the last few years and I have been using Ubuntu for many, many releases. I turned several friends onto Linux using Ubuntu and one of them has been quite excited about the operating system. Over the past year or so the Linux fan boys have been pushing eye candy on Ubuntu touting it as ahead of both Microsoft and Apple's desktop operating systems.

I don't know about you, but i'm damn excited about the upcoming version of Ubuntu, so it better deliver! Aside from a new Ubiquity slideshow for new users, what specific things are there to look forward to?

Over a short period of time, three major operating system releases will take place. From Apple, Mac OS X 10.6 (also known as Snow Leopard) will ship on August 28,2009. From Microsoft, Windows 7 has already been released to manufacturers, with general retail availability set for October of this year. Representing Linux, Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) is also slated for an October 2009 release.

It seems as if Linux gamers are indeed really excited for having new games on Linux, well, "really excited" may still be an understatement. About 24 hours ago we talked about Heroes of Newerth, a game being developed by S2 Games, was coming to Linux and we were able to hand out beta invitations to begin playing the game immediately as part of their closed testing process.

Today we have a technological cage match involving two operating systems, both UNIX- based, both mature, both with passionate detractors and even more passionate defenders, and both released just a week apart.

With the release of Ubuntu 9.04 about 2 months out, Mark Shuttleworth will be announcing the codename of Ubuntu 9.10 fairly soon. This gets the community excited, as historically, Ubuntu releases have had entertaining codenames with interesting patterns.

There is plenty of stuff to get excited about in the comming release of Ubuntu, Karmic Koala. What has been confirmed is...

The Linux world is all excited about Ubuntu's new look but surely there are more important things that need to be done to make Ubuntu more appealing?