Ubuntu 11.10 has been released and the usual buildup of excitement in the Ubuntu community is evident in terms of articles and reviews around the same popping up all over the place. Ubuntu Manual team has taken this opportunity to release an installation guide for Ubuntu 11.10. As Ubuntu installations are becoming more and more easier (as with any other GNU/Linux installations) I hope more people are going to try out and switch to Ubuntu (or one of the many GNU/Linux distros).

I went through the installation steps for 11.10 and I see that the process has been simplified much more than what it used to be. Most entry level users should comfortably be able to download and install Ubuntu on their systems if they have sufficient free space in their systems and a very basic understanding of their system. Also it looks like the Ubuntu Team has paid a lot of attention to attract existing Windows users to try out Ubuntu. To think of it, the Windows user base is the target market for Ubuntu, not existing GNU/Linux users and it makes perfect business sense.

Mark Shuttleworth had mentioned, earlier this year, that Canonical is shooting for a very ambitious target of 200 million Ubuntu users by 2015. From the way the installation steps have been tuned and by the way the user interface is tilting more and more towards mobile devices Ubuntu seems to be moving aggressively towards that target.

Anyway another October/April has arrived and Canonical has delivered on its promise of the new Ubuntu release like clockwork. Only time will tell the real impact of Ubuntu in converting non-GNU/Linux users into new-GNU/Linux users. Good luck Canonical/Ubuntu. Let us wait and watch and do our little bit to help promote GNU/Linux in whatever ways we can.