Ubuntu 10.10 to get a new installer

Ubuntu 10.10 will feature a new installer. The next major release of Ubuntu, version 10.10 code-named "Maverick Meerkat", will feature a brand new installer. In an interview, Evan Dandrea, Software Engineer on the Foundations Team at Canonical and creator of the Migration Assistant functionality in the Ubuntu installer (Ubiquity), says that the revamped installer will make it even easier for users, even Linux beginners, to install the popular distribution onto their systems.

According to Dandrea, "some major pieces [of] infrastructure will be added or changed to support things like running installation tasks in parallel and the GeoNames place name service [for automatic localisation]." While not a complete rewrite, the upcoming Ubuntu 10.10 installer will feature a large number of visible changes, from the partitioning page to the Account set-up, aimed at making installation of Ubuntu as quick and painless as possible. The developer also says that, like in Windows and Mac OS X, a new Wireless Network Selection page will be implemented in the new installer.

The final version of Maverick Meerkat is scheduled to be released on October 10th, 2010 (10/10/10). The latest stable version of Ubuntu is version 10.04, a long term support (LTS) release, code-named "Lucid Lynx", from April of this year.

See also:

• Canonical start closed beta test of "The Ubuntu Font", a report from The H.
• Canonical releases Ubuntu 10.10 Alpha 2, a report from The H.
• First details of developments in Ubuntu 10.10, a report from The H.

(crve)