Ubuntu 8.04 Alpha 5 Available Now

The fifth alpha release of the upcoming Ubuntu 8.04 (codename Hardy Heron) has been released a few hours ago. It comes with new applications, such as the popular Transmission (as the default BitTorrent client), the awesome Brasero (as the default CD/DVD burning tool), a brand new firewall, the latest and greatest 2.6.24.2 Linux kernel and many many more:"The Ubuntu developers are moving very quickly to bring you the absolute latest and greatest software the Open Source Community has to offer. Hardy Heron Alpha 5 is the fifth alpha release of Ubuntu 8.04, and with this new alpha release comes a whole host of excellent new features." The following new components are part of this fifth alpha release of Ubuntu 8.04 LTS:

· Xorg 7.3 · Linux kernel 2.6.24-8.14 (based on the 2.6.24.2 kernel) · PulseAudio · PolicyKit · Firefox 3 Beta 3 · GNOME 2.21.4

And introducing, for the first time in Ubuntu (by popular demand), the following applications:

· Transmission - is now the default BitTorrent client in Ubuntu, mostly used by Mac OS X users, and it replaced the old Gnome BitTorrent downloader.

· Vinagre - a brand new default VNC client, set to replace the old xvnc4viewer.

· Brasero - just replaced Serpentine and it will be the default CD/DVD burning tool in Ubuntu 8.04 LTS!

· World Clock and Weather - are the new functions provided by the GNOME panel clock applet in Alpha 5.

· GVFS - a new virtual filesystem abstraction layer, which just replaced the old GnomeVFS, is now used by Nautilus as its backend. This is yet another dream that becomes reality, as it will display the amount of data transferred, remaining time and actual data transfer rate, functions that were missing from Ubuntu's file transfer window.

· GNOME System Monitor - has a re-designed "Resources" tab, with Cairo graphs that scale and scroll smoothly, and brand new widgets.

· KVM - is now officially maintained within in the Ubuntu kernel. Moreover, libvirt and virt-manager have been adapted to Ubuntu, which offer an easy way to create and manage guests out of the box. The kernel also includes the virtio modifications which should greatly improve guest I/O access.

· ufw - a new firewall tool designed to make administering a firewall easier for end-users, while not getting in the way of network administrators. However, ufw is a command-line firewall and we think that it will not be embraced by all users!

· umenu - just replaced WinFOSS and the Windows open source software. umenu is a simple launcher that offers you the following possibilities:

· install Ubuntu from Windows using Wubi; · install Ubuntu on a partition without having to make their CD-ROM the first boot device; · find out more about Ubuntu.

Known issues in Alpha 5:

· The kernel in Alpha 5 is unable to access CD-ROM devices in some configurations, which means some users who were previously able to install Ubuntu will not be able to install this alpha from CD media. As a workaround, users can boot the installer with the additional "all_generic_ide" boot option. · Video problems have been reported with the 64-bit (amd64) version of Edubuntu desktop. As a workaround, users can manually specify a video resolution at the boot menu. · Users with an older ATI Radeon graphics card might have video problems. As a workaround, you can boot the livecd with a failsafe mode, and after installation add 'Option "AGPMode" "4"' to the "Device" -section of your /etc/X11/xorg.conf. · Due to the switch to GVFS, which is not feature complete, the "Network" item in the Places menu doesn't work, and Nautilus can behave erratically, especially in trash operations. Refrain from operating on valuable files with this version. · The desktop launcher for Firefox does not work in Alpha 5, as a consequence of the change from Firefox 2 to Firefox 3. The fix for this issue is in progress. As a workaround, Firefox can be launched from the Applications -> Internet menu. · Printing from Firefox beta 3 does not work. Investigation of this problem is ongoing. · Problems running Wubi, the Windows Ubuntu installer, with the 64-bit (amd64) version of Ubuntu have been reported. As a workaround, users should run Wubi from the i386 CD images. · Suspend (to ram) and hibernation do not work in a Wubi installation. Even if such options are still enabled, avoid using them. · When running Wubi from a Kubuntu CD, the KDE desktop will crash and the user will be left with just an X cursor, however the install will continue and it will reboot automatically upon completion.

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

Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Release Schedule:

30 November 2007 - Alpha 1 release 21 December 2007 - Alpha 2 release 10 January 2008 - Alpha 3 release 2 February 2008 - Alpha 4 release 23 February 2008 - Alpha 5 release 6 March 2008 - Alpha 6 release 27 March 2008 - Beta release 17 April 2008 - Release Candidate 24 April 2008 - Final release of Ubuntu 8.04 LTS

About Ubuntu:

Ubuntu is a Linux distribution for your desktop or server, with a fast and easy install, regular releases, a tight selection of excellent packages installed by default, every other package you can imagine available from the network and professional technical support from Canonical Ltd and hundreds of other companies around the world.

Ubuntu 8.04 Alpha 5 Available Now

Download and test it!