14 DAY TRIAL // Ubuntu GNOME has been announced as an Official Ubuntu flavor almost a month ago, and now they have just launched their first official Beta version.
The developers of Ubuntu GNOME have arrived late in the game and didn’t get a chance to make a release when the first beta came out.
Getting on board the Ubuntu train meant that some compromises had to be done, in order to keep the distribution in line with the others.
“In coordination with the Ubuntu Desktop Team, we have decided to stick with GNOME 3.6 for Ubuntu 13.04,” reads the official announcement.
This doesn’t mean that users will not be able to test the new and improved GNOME 3.8 in Ubuntu. A GNOME 3 PPA is available and the installation is quite simple. Just enter the following commands in terminal near you:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3 sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
As a side note from the developers, users have to do a dist-upgrade instead of a regular upgrade or else GDM or GNOME Shell won't run after upgrading.
Some of the default apps have changed since Ubuntu Remix became Ubuntu GNOME. The differences are not all that important, but they need to be mentioned anyway.
Highlights of Ubuntu GNOME 13.04 Beta 2 (Raring Ringtail):
• Mozilla Firefox replaced GNOME Web (better known as Epiphany); • Ubuntu Software Center and Update Manager have replaced GNOME Software (gnome-packagekit); • LibreOffice has replaced Abiword and Gnumeric; • All the other known apps from the previous version are available for download, but they are not provided in the default install; • The distribution also features GRUB 2.0 and supports UEFI boot.
A complete list of changes can be found in the official announcement.
Download Ubuntu GNOME 13.04 Beta 2 right now from Softpedia. Remember that this is a Beta release and it should NOT be installed on production machines. It is intended to be used for testing purposes only.