14 DAY TRIAL // The second Alpha images of the upcoming Ubuntu 14.10 (Utopic Unicorn) Linux distribution are now available for download and testing.
Not all the Ubuntu flavors are actively participating in this latest series. The ones that released new Alpha versions are Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Ubuntu GNOME, UbuntuKylin, and Ubuntu Cloud. As you can see for yourself, Xubuntu hasn't made an appearance.
Canonical has stopped releasing Alpha versions for its operating system for some time now, and only a few of the flavors have decided to keep doing this kind of releases. The Ubuntu development cycle is following a rolling release model, the system is being updated on a daily basis, and it doesn't need any kind of intermediary versions.
The last Beta in the series is the only release window that will also see a proper Ubuntu 14.10 version, but that's about it.
“Pre-releases of the Utopic Unicorn are *not* encouraged for anyone needing a stable system or anyone who is not comfortable running into occasional, even frequent breakage. They are, however, recommended for Ubuntu flavor developers and those who want to help in testing, reporting and fixing bugs as we work towards getting this release ready.”
“Alpha 2 includes a number of software updates that are ready for wider testing. This is quite an early set of images, so you should expect some bugs. In particular, once newer daily images are available, system installation bugs identified in the Alpha 2 installer should be verified against the current daily image before being reported in Launchpad,” reads the official announcement from Canonical.
You have to keep in mind that Ubuntu 14.10 (Utopic Unicorn) will be supported for a period of only nine months and it will be the host of numerous and important changes. If you're not interested in trying something new, you might want to keep Ubuntu 14.04 LTS in place.
A long-term support version might not be the best place to introduce a new feature, so the devs need a testing ground for all kinds of technologies and new packages. For example, this is just the kind of version for the introduction of a new display manager like Mir or for a new version of Unity.
In fact, you can download the 14.10 Alpha 2 images for Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Ubuntu GNOME, Ubuntu Kylin, and Cloud from Softpedia and Canonical, respectively.
Remember that this is a development version and it should NOT be installed on production machines. It is intended for testing purposes only.