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Canonicals Ubuntu 6.06 LTS is an excellent Linux-based operating system—so excellent, in fact, that it not only earned eWEEK Labs Analysts Choice designation but has also become our clear favorite among Linux desktop distributions. This latest Ubuntu release, which became available in June, has won our ardor with a tight focus on desktop usability; an extremely active, helpful and organized user community; and a software installation and management framework thats unsurpassed on any OS platform. In addition to outperforming Linux rivals as a desktop OS, we found that Ubuntu is a solid choice for server deployments—provided, at least, that the sort of graphical management hand-holding that one would expect from Microsofts Windows Server or from Novells SUSE Linux Enterprise Server isnt a priority. The server variant of Ubuntu is focused on slim, headless operation. Administrators can install a graphical environment on top of Ubuntu, but server administration is a largely a command-line-driven affair. Most importantly, for enterprise desktop and server deployments alike, Ubuntu 6.06 LTS is the first iteration of this popular Linux distribution for which the Ubuntu project has pledged so-called Long Term Support (what the "LTS" in the distros name stands for): three years for the desktop package set and five years for the server variant. Each of the first three Ubuntu releases shipped with 18 months of security and bugfix updates. This term of support has been too short for many production settings, despite the alacrity with which Ubuntu handles in-place upgrades. Next Page: Free—Really