Ubuntu 7.10 is Gutsy: Will Have Compiz By Default

The Ubuntu Technical Board has voted in favor of having Compiz Fusion enabled by default in Ubuntu 7.10 “Gutsy Gibbon”. Compiz has been enabled since work on Ubuntu 7.10 started, but it was not certain if it would make the final release.

“I’m fairly certain I understand who the people are who would be disappointed by disabling it,” said Zimmerman. “However, I don’t feel that I have a good understanding of the people who are affected by the problems.” Not enabling Compiz by default would “disappoint a lot of community members and result in a lot of bad press,” Zimmerman noted, but enabling it would “result in functional problems for some users.”

I agree that deciding against Compiz would be disappointing for many Ubuntu users, including myself. Today I installed Ubuntu 7.10 Tribe 5 on a laptop and it worked flawlessly. After enabling the Nvidia driver in the Restricted Manager and rebooting, Ubuntu turned on Compiz. Now that Compiz by default is going ahead, Ubuntu Gutsy will certainly be living up to its name.