14 DAY TRIAL // Kubuntu 14.04 LTS Beta 2 (Trusty Tahr) has been released by its developers and comes with a long list of improvements, which are quite interesting because the previous development version also featured numerous fixes.
Kubuntu14.04 LTS Beta 1 (Trusty Tahr) is based on KDE Plasma 4.13 Beta 1, and this means that the final version will likely be based on the final build of KDE 4.13. This is actually very good news because the KDE 4.13 branch has a ton of new features that will be very well received by the community.
“The KDE Applications and Platform 4.13 Beta 1 release is in need of testing to get an excellent 4.13 final release to be included in Kubuntu 14.04. General improvements through the applications and libraries await,” reads the official announcement.
It's difficult to enumerate all the changes from one version to another, but we can go through the major ones. For example, Mozilla Firefox 28 will now be used as the default web browser, Muon 2.2 Alpha 1 has been implemented and will eventually replace Ubuntu Software Center, and the new Driver Manager has replaced the old Additional Drivers application.
This new Driver Manager application is very important because it allows users to install and select the right driver and comes with more than one supported driver, including the proprietary drivers for AMD and NVIDIA.
Smaller changes also made their way into Kubuntu 14.04 LTS Beta 2 (Trusty Tahr). For example, the Plugins in Gwenview can now be installed on-demand from inside the application, the touchpad configuration tools now include many configuration options, KDE Telepathy 0.8 Beta 1 now has a meta contact support for grouping the same contact across different IM networks, the localization configuration has received numerous changes, and the Plasma Network Manager has been updated to version 0.9.3.3.
With all these new components that are not yet stable you might experience some small problems, but they will most likely get fixed way before the final version becomes available for download.
Check the official announcement for more details about this release. Download Kubuntu14.04 LTS Beta 2 (Trusty Tahr) right now from Softpedia.
Remember that this is a development version and it should NOT be installed on production machines. It is intended for testing purposes only.
The final version of Kubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr) is expected to arrive on April 17 and will feature three years of support.