Canonical releases Ubuntu 10.04 LTS release candidate

Two weeks after the release of the second beta, the Ubuntu developers have announced the availability of a release candidate (RC) for what will become Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, code named "Lucid Lynx". According to Ubuntu Release Manager Steve Langasek, the developers consider the latest development preview "to be complete, stable, and suitable for testing by any user."

Ubuntu's new "Light" look. The Ubuntu 10.04 LTS release candidate is based on the 2.6.32.11 Linux kernel and features a number of bug fixes over the previous development versions and promises "even-faster boot speeds". As with the previous releases, the deprecated HAL package has been removed to improve Ubuntu's boot and resume from suspend times, the open source Nouveau video driver is used by default for NVIDIA graphics hardware and the likewise-open package has been updated to version 5.4, a major new version that provides Active Directory authentication and server support for Linux. The Kubuntu release includes version 2.3.0 of the open Amarok source music player and features the latest 4.4 release of the KDE Software Compilation (KDE SC), code-named "Caikaku".

As with all development releases, use in production environments and on mission critical systems is not advised. Users testing the release are encouraged to report any bugs that they find. Ubuntu 10.04 will also be a Long Term Support (LTS) version of the Debian-derived Linux distribution. The LTS versions of Ubuntu are supported for three years for the desktop releases and five years for server releases. The standard releases are supported for 18 months of updates for both the desktop and server versions.

More details about the release, including a list of known issues, can be found in the preliminary release notes and the official release announcement. Ubuntu 10.04 LTS is available to download in the various desktop / laptop, server, cloud, Kubuntu and netbook editions. Users currently running Ubuntu 9.10 on a desktop system can upgrade by pressing Alt+F2 and typing "update-manager -d" (without the quotes) into the command box.

Lucid Lynx is scheduled to be released on the 29th of April of 2010. The latest stable release of Ubuntu is version 9.10, code named "Karmic Koala", from the end of October, 2009.

See also:

• Ubuntu 10.04 drops Yahoo search as default, a report from The H.
• Ubuntu's new look, a report from The H.

(crve)