We're drawing ever closer to the full release of Ubuntu 7.04 (known lovingly as "Feisty Fawn"), and if you're one of those spirited early adopter types, the Beta release is now available.

Proud papa of Ubuntu, tech mogul Mark Shuttleworth said recently, "Ubuntu's Feisty release will put the spotlight on multimedia enablement and desktop effects. We expect this to be a very gratifying release for both users and developers." Many of the Ubuntu 7 goals are aimed squarely at competing with Mac OS while running on off-the-shelf PC hardware.

Ubuntu's rigid development and release schedule means this Beta signals a one month warning for the fully supported final version.