In the wake of the release of Intrepid Ibex aka Ubuntu 8.10 Canonical has started to brag just a bit with the success of the Linux-based operating system. As stated by Canonical's director of business development Chris Kenyon, Ubuntu's user base has passed the 8 million mark - "In terms of numbers we're very confident this is an 8 million plus user base of active users. That is a hard thing to count and there are lots of issues about methodology for counting but I have seen nothing that sheds doubts on that."

Still not planning on making a quick buck from Ubuntu, Canonical is quite hopeful that improvements included in the desktop and server version of Ubuntu 8.10 will help increase user base. Good luck with all that.