Download and test Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Alpha 2 right now!

Feb 2, 2012 19:40 GMT  ·  By

Softpedia is the first to announce today, February 2nd, that the second and last Alpha version of the upcoming Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) operating system is now available for download. As usual, we've grabbed a copy of it in order to keep you up-to-date with the latest changes in the Ubuntu 12.04 LTS development.

What's new in Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Alpha 2? Well, the final version of Linux kernel 3.2.2 has been added to Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Alpha 2, which merges the amd64 -server and -generic kernel flavors. Not to mention that AUFS is disabled and everyone who needs it is encouraged to migrate to OverlayFS.

Mozilla Firefox 10.0 is now the default web browser and Mozilla Thunderbird 10.0 is the default email client. Moreover, the LibreOffice 3.5 Beta 2 office suite has been added.

The Unity interface received lots of improvements, configuration settings, Nautilus quicklist support, maximized windows improvements, and quicklist items accessible with one right click.

The GNOME components have been updated to latest stable 3.2.2 version, the LightDM login manager has now support for theming, and the desktop wallpapers list has four rows.

Upstart 1.4 has been implemented in this release, as well as GCC 4.6.2, Xorg Server 1.11, libxklavier and libgnome-keyring introspection, pm-utils bug fixes, power consumption tweaks, and upstream updates for Python 2.7 and Python 3.2.

Last but not least, Ubuntu Server and Ubuntu Cloud come with updated HortonWorks Hadoop, automated frameworks for OpenStack and Juju Charms, as well as a beta version of S3-backed EC2 Mirrors in all AWS Regions.

Click here to see the Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Alpha 2 screenshot tour!

Click here to see the Kubuntu 12.04 LTS Alpha 2 screenshot tour!

Click here to see the Xubuntu 12.04 LTS Alpha 2 screenshot tour!

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Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Alpha 2 - Login screen
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Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Alpha 2 - Unity desktop
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Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Alpha 2 - Unity configuration
What's new in Kubuntu 12.04 LTS Alpha 2? Well, the second Alpha version of Kubuntu 12.04 LTS is build on top of the newly released KDE Software Compilation 4.8.0 and contains KDevelop 4.3 Beta and Qt 4.8.
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Kubuntu 12.04 LTS Alpha 2
What's new in Xubuntu 12.04 LTS Alpha 2? Well, the second Alpha version of Xubuntu 12.04 LTS is still built on top of the beautiful Xfce 4.8 desktop environment and it comes with an updated version of ristretto, xfdesktop4 (with support for thumbnails and single click to open items) and xfce4-settings (includes the new touchpad/mouche dialog).
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Xubuntu 12.04 LTS Alpha 2
What's new in Lubuntu 12.04 LTS Alpha 2? Well, the second Alpha version of Lubuntu 12.04 LTS features a new software-center app optimized for Lubuntu and enable by default and a new wallpaper. Unfortunately, only the Alternate images were made available for Lubuntu 12.04 LTS Alpha 2.
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Lubuntu 12.04 LTS Alpha 2 - Image courtesy of Canonical
On April 26th, 2012, Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) will become the sixteenth release of the Ubuntu operating system. See you again in one month (March 1st), for the first Beta version of the upcoming Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin).

The Precise Pangolin Release Schedule:

December 1st, 2011 - Alpha 1 release February 2nd, 2012 - Alpha 2 release March 1st, 2012 - Beta 1 release March 29th, 2012 - Beta 2 release April 26th, 2012 - Final release of Ubuntu 12.04 LTS

Download Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Alpha 2 (Precise Pangolin) right now from Softpedia.

Download Ubuntu DVD 12.04 LTS Alpha 2 (Precise Pangolin) right now from Softpedia.

Download Ubuntu Server 12.04 LTS Alpha 2 (Precise Pangolin) right now from Softpedia.

Download Ubuntu Cloud Server 12.04 LTS Alpha 2 (Precise Pangolin) right now from Softpedia.

Download Ubuntu ARM 12.04 LTS Alpha 2 (Precise Pangolin) right now from Softpedia.

Download Ubuntu Netboot 12.04 LTS Alpha 2 (Precise Pangolin) right now from Softpedia.

Download Ubuntu Core 12.04 LTS Alpha 2 (Precise Pangolin) right now from Softpedia.

Download Kubuntu 12.04 LTS Alpha 2 (Precise Pangolin) right now from Softpedia.

Download Xubuntu 12.04 LTS Alpha 2 (Precise Pangolin) right now from Softpedia.

Download Edubuntu 12.04 LTS Alpha 2 (Precise Pangolin) right now from Softpedia.

Download Lubuntu 12.04 LTS Alpha 2 (Precise Pangolin) right now from Softpedia.

Download Mythbuntu 12.04 LTS Alpha 2 (Precise Pangolin) right now from Softpedia.

Remember that this is an alpha release and it should NOT be installed on production machines. It is intended to be used for testing purposes only. Please report bugs to the Ubuntu Bug Tracker.