14 DAY TRIAL // While everybody is enjoying Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope), the new release of the Ubuntu operating system, somewhere deep in the Ubuntu headquarters the developers are working hard to bring us all the new stuff that happens in the Linux world today. Therefore we proudly announce that the first alpha release of Ubuntu 9.10, dubbed Karmic Koala, which is scheduled for release in late October this year, was uploaded a few minutes ago on the official mirrors. As usual, we've downloaded a copy of it, and we intend to keep you up to date with the latest changes in the Ubuntu 9.10 development.
As the development team did not prepare a Live CD for this first alpha version of Ubuntu 9.10, we had to install the Alternate edition. As you can see from the screenshots below, there's nothing new on the surface... the same wallpaper, same GNOME version as in Ubuntu 9.04. We've noticed that the "About Ubuntu" entry from the System menu dissapeared. Under the hood, some of the packages were updated, while most are the same builds as the ones in Jaunty Jackalope.
The kernel packages are at version 2.6.30-5.6, based on Linux kernel 2.6.30 RC5, and OpenOffice.org was updated to version 3.1.0. In Ubuntu 9.10, HAL (the Hardware Abstraction Layer) will be replaced by the new DeviceKit-power and udev-extras, for power management and Fn key maps on laptops. Last but not least, in order to repair the "Intel issues" from Ubuntu 9.04, the Intel video driver will be switched from the old (but stable) EXA acceleration method to the new (still in development) UXA acceleration method. Oh, and EXT3 is still the default filesystem and GCC 4.4 is now the default compiler.
On the other hand, Kubuntu is built on top of the KDE 4.2.2 desktop environment and Xubuntu is using Xfce 4.6.
The system is fast as usual, with no major problems at the moment, except for the fact that the video drivers don't work, yet. As always, we did not expect something exciting from the first, and not even from the next two or three alpha versions of Ubuntu. Probably starting with the fifth or sixth alpha we will see some big changes, like that professional theme everyone is still waiting for, and which Mark Shuttleworth promised us.
On October 29th, Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) will be the eleventh release of the Ubuntu operating system. However, until then, we have another version that should attract our attention and invade our computers, Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope). See you again in about one month, on June 11, for the second Alpha release of the upcoming Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala).
The Karmic Koala Release Schedule:
May 14th, 2009 - Alpha 1 release
June 11th, 2009 - Alpha 2 release
July 23rd, 2009 - Alpha 3 release
August 13th, 2009 - Alpha 4 release
September 3rd, 2009 - Alpha 5 release
September 17th, 2009 - Alpha 6 release
October 1st, 2009 - Beta release
October 22nd, 2009 - Release Candidate
October 29th, 2009 - Final release of Ubuntu 9.10
Download Ubuntu 9.10 Alpha 1 (Karmic Koala) right now from Softpedia.
Download Ubuntu Server 9.10 Alpha 1 (Karmic Koala) right now from Softpedia.
Download Ubuntu Netbook Remix 9.10 Alpha 1 (Karmic Koala) right now from Softpedia.
Download Kubuntu 9.10 Alpha 1 (Karmic Koala) right now from Softpedia.
Download Xubuntu 9.10 Alpha 1 (Karmic Koala) 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.