Today is the 10th day of the 10th month of year ’10. Canonical, today released Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat), sidestepping its usual Thursday release. Go to ubuntu.com to give it a spin. As usual, you can download it for free and burn it on a CD. It has all the great features that we are used to, plus a couple of cool new ones. Remember that you can always use the ISO to try out all the features in the new release without installing it.

The new Ubiquity installer has been redesigned to be easier to use and it also installs drivers and download updates even as it is installing the OS.  Their new service, Ubuntu One offers 2 GB of free “personal cloud” space to users, and also provides sharing and syncing options . A beta for the Microsoft Windows client is set to begin soon.

The server edition of Ubuntu 10.10 is touted as “the default open-source choice for cloud computing.” You can also try Ubuntu 10.10 server on Amazon EC2 for an hour, free.