14 DAY TRIAL // Canonical is still working hard on the next major release of the Ubuntu Linux operating system, Ubuntu 17.10 (Artful Aardvark), and they've just released today the second and last Alpha development snapshot for this cycle.
The Ubuntu 17.10 Alpha 2 comes one month after the first Alpha, and it's here to show the community the progress Ubuntu developers made so far for the Artful Aardvark release, due on October 19, 2017. It's available only for opt-in flavors, including Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Ubuntu MATE, Ubuntu Budgie, and Ubuntu Kylin.
Ubuntu itself only participates on the Final Beta release, which is expected to land this fall on September 28, along with the rest of the official Ubuntu flavors, hopefully shipping with the latest GNOME 3.26 desktop environment and the Linux 4.13 kernel, which still didn't land in the Ubuntu 17.10 repositories.
Ubuntu 17.10 Alpha 2 is still based on the Linux 4.11 kernel that's used in the current stable release, Ubuntu 17.04 (Zesty Zapus), but there are a lot of internal updates, such as Python 3 support as default, GNOME's GDM (GNOME Display Manager) as default login manager instead of LightDM, and hardware-accelerated video playback.
Here's what's new for Ubuntu 17.10 Alpha 2 opt-in flavors
As for the Ubuntu 17.10 Alpha 2 flavors, it looks like Kubuntu 17.10 Alpha 2 is using the latest KDE Plasma 5.10 desktop environment and KDE Frameworks 5.36.0, as well as the deprecated KDE Applications 16.12.3 software suite, all built against Qt 5.7.1 as Qt 5.9 LTS did not make its way into the stable repositories.
Among the third-party apps included in Kubuntu 17.10 Alpha 2, as well as the rest of the Ubuntu 17.10 Alpha 2 opt-in flavors, we can mention the LibreOffice 5.3.4 office suite and Mozilla Firefox 50.1.0 web browser. However, lots of known problems and some older bugs remain unpatched in this release, so go out and test it.
While it didn't participate in the first Ubuntu 17.10 Alpha release, the Ubuntu Budgie 17.10 operating system is now present in the Alpha 2 milestone with a lot of improvements for Budgie-welcome, support for the Nautilus 3.24 file manager, gThumb as default image viewer, and customizable date and time display.
Following on the footsteps of Ubuntu, Ubuntu Budgie also drops the lightdm-gtk-greeter login screen in favor of slick-greeter though it no longer supports guest sessions. Of course, Ubuntu Budgie 17.10 Alpha 2 imports all the latest Budgie desktop environment goodies from upstream.
For Ubuntu MATE, this Alpha 2 is also the first development release for the Ubuntu 17.10 (Artful Aardvark) cycle, and it looks like the upcoming distro will ship with revamped panel layouts, much-improved Global Menu, full Super key support, Heads-Up Display (HUD), better support for indicators, and some MATE Tweak enahcements.
Lastly, Lubuntu Next 17.10 Alpha 2 features latest QupZilla as default web browser. If you want to test them out, you can download the Kubuntu 17.10 Alpha 2, Lubuntu 17.10 Alpha 2, Ubuntu Budgie 17.10 Alpha 2, Ubuntu MATE 17.10 Alpha 2, and Ubuntu Kylin 17.10 Alpha 2 64-bit or 32-bit Live ISO images right now through our website.
Don't forget to report bugs if you encounter any, and please try to keep in mind at all times that these are pre-release versions and they should not be used on production machines. Ubuntu 17.10 (Artful Aardvark) Beta 1 is expected to arrive next month, on August 31, but still for opt-in flavors, hopefully more of them this time.