A few minutes ago, the Ubuntu development team unleashed the fourth alpha version of the upcoming Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) operating system, which is scheduled for release in late October this year. As usual, we've downloaded a copy of it in order to keep you up to date with the latest changes in the Ubuntu 9.10 development.
What's new in Ubuntu 9.10 Alpha 4? Well... the good news in this release is that
Firefox 3.5 replaced the old Firefox 3.0 as the default web browser! The actual version of Mozilla Firefox in Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) Alpha 4 is 3.5.2.
| Firefox 3.5.2 on Ubuntu 9.10 Alpha 4 |
Another interesting addition in this release is the
Palimpsest Disk Utility software, available under the
Applications -> System Tools menu. The Disk Utility is a S.M.A.R.T. testing/monitoring tool, showing you the temperature and uptime of the driver, and also a partition management tool that allows you to mark as bootable, delete or label a hard disk partition. Palimpsest Disk Utility is created by Red Hat.
| Palimpsest Disk Utility on Ubuntu 9.10 Alpha 4 |
| Palimpsest Disk Utility on Ubuntu 9.10 Alpha 4 |
| Palimpsest Disk Utility on Ubuntu 9.10 Alpha 4 |
The
Ubuntu installer (Ubiquity) now has a "Quit" button during all the installation steps, a "Continue Testing" button on the 'installation finished' window, the time zone selection items have been changed a little and the menu entry contains the name of the distributions (e.g. Install Ubuntu 9.10). Moreover, the "
About Ubuntu" entry is back in the System menu.
Starting with this alpha, the
Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (UEC) was also introduced. With a preconfigured AMI, you can instantly try out the Karmic Koala Alpha 4 server instantly on Amazon EC2, but now, with Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud, you have the possibility to download an image and place it into your very own cloud!
Last but not least, the kernel packages are at version 2.6.31-5.24, based on
Linux kernel 2.6.31 RC5, and the Kernel Mode Setting is now enabled by default for Intel graphics. The
GNOME 2.27.5 is also present and the
iSCSI installation has been improved (the iscsi=true boot parameter is no longer required).
What's new in Kubuntu and Xubuntu 9.10 Alpha 4? Kubuntu 9.10 Alpha 4 contains the newly released KDE 4.3.0 desktop environment and the following applications and features:
· Arora Web Browser (replaces Konqueror)
· Amarok 2.1.1
· KPackageKit 0.4.1.1
· K3b 1.66.0 (alpha 2)
· QtCurve 0.65.2
· kcm-gtk 0.5.2
· KDE microblogging Plasma widget
· Message Indicator
| Kubuntu 9.10 Alpha 4 with the KDE 4.3.0 desktop |
Kubuntu 9.10 Alpha 4 also introduces a
revamped installer. Take a look at the screenshot below to see it!
| The revamped installer in Kubuntu 9.10 Alpha 4 |
On the other hand, Xubuntu 9.10 Alpha 4 is built on top of the lightweight XFCE 4.6.1 desktop environment and includes a few updated applications.
On October 29th, Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) will become the eleventh release of the Ubuntu operating system. However, until then, we have another version that should catch our attention and invade our computers, Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope). See you again on September 3rd, for the fifth 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 4 (Karmic Koala) right now from
Softpedia.
Download Ubuntu Server 9.10 Alpha 4 (Karmic Koala) right now from
Softpedia.
Download Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud 9.10 Alpha 4 (Karmic Koala) right now from
Softpedia.
Download Ubuntu Netbook Remix 9.10 Alpha 4 (Karmic Koala) right now from
Softpedia.
Download Kubuntu 9.10 Alpha 4 (Karmic Koala) right now from
Softpedia.
Download Kubuntu Netbook Remix 9.10 Alpha 4 (Karmic Koala) right now from
Softpedia.
Download Xubuntu 9.10 Alpha 4 (Karmic Koala) right now from
Softpedia.
Download Ubuntu Studio 9.10 Alpha 4 (Karmic Koala) right now from
Softpedia.
Download Mythbuntu 9.10 Alpha 4 (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.
