“Try before you buy” is a tempting offer but when something is free to start with, that phrase is a bit less of a pull.

For Ubuntu 11.04 Canonical will be offering a ‘try before you download’ test drive of Ubuntu in the cloud. Simply by signing into the cloud website with your Single Sign On account you can spend 15 minutes poking around the stock Ubuntu desktop to see what all the fuss is� about.

Ahead of that launch, tentatively scheduled for next Tuesday, Canonical are running a ‘live open trial’ for 24 hours in order to ensure everything scales, works and runs well.

The cloud experience trial will available for 24 hours, from noon UTC on 26th of April.

All you need to take it for a spin is your Ubuntu Single Sign On account, some free time, java installed, and an input device capable of letting you click on the link below…