Ubuntu 10.04 beta now available for download (screenshot tour)

[A Guy]

With the final release of Ubuntu 10.04 due in just under a month, things appear to be right on schedule at Canonical. Yesterday the Lucid beta download page went live and eager testers rapidly descended upon the mirrors.

Watching Lucid evolve has been exciting. It's clear that Canonical is intent on creating a version of Ubuntu which can appeal to a broader base of computer users with a more select set of default programs, new visuals, built-in easy access to social networks via Gwibber, and loads of other improvements.

One key addition to the beta is Wubi. If you're not familiar with it, Wubi is a Windows program which allows you to install Ubuntu on the same drive as your Windows install. It's an extremely simple way to take Ubuntu for a test drive -- or make it a permanent fixture on your system.

If you give Ubuntu 10.04 a try at this point, it's important to remember that you will encounter glitches. There's still plenty of work to do (and bugs to squash) at this point. Wubi, for example, was able to install 10.04 and modify my Windows boot menu, but GRUB failed to load and I couldn't boot into Ubuntu.

Overall, however, the Lucid beta feels fast, it's very usable, and I can definitely see myself using 10.04 as my primary OS. Will the computing masses feel the same way? Probably not, but there's no doubt that the improvements in Lucid will help increase in Ubuntu's market share.

You can download the Ubuntu 10.04 beta and try it out for yourself -- or have a look at some screenshots in the gallery

http://www.downloadsquad.com/2010/03...reenshot-tour/

A Guy

[NinjaRicer]

Oh, Jesus. Ubuntu is becoming so... graphical.

Update: Just fired it up in VMWare, and there is just one thing I have to say. It's very nice looking, I'll give it that. But, the buttons (close, minimize, expand) seem so much like OS X.

[estrangeredgenius]

The final stable version will be released on April 29, 2010.

[hellnoire]

I noticed that NinjaRicer... it's why I'll be using XFCE via Xubuntu or LXDE via Lubuntu, because the normal GNOME interface is becoming too Mac-y for my liking. KDE is a joke.... if you've got the CPU to run it at a decent rate, chances are good it's an i7... and you haven't downloaded the newest update to 'upgrade performance' to suck even more of your CPU's power.

[kv777]

can someone have openbox in ubuntu or crunchbang(current version) is the only way.i ask this because the future releases of crunchbang are said to be based on debian rather than ubuntu.

[hellnoire]

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReplaceMetacityWithOpenbox
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Openbox

Some useful links

[Alboguy]

kristin70 is downloading it...were gona have a look at it for sure.

[hellnoire]

Seems to have a bug when you try updating the installer...

[brayden]

God damn! I see what you mean! and they use Yahoo! now? This is just depressing.

Finally finished installing in VMware, and now that i reboot i find that i hate the user interface beyond belief. Without a doubt it is the worst ever, i wouldnt' be surprised if Apple went after Canonical, majority of the icons are stolen from macs and the way the buttons are on the windows and that stupid purple effect on all their wallpapers. all that's missing is a silver toolbar and Safari.

There are much less games and apps. Before there were heaps of games that were quite fun and a good selection of messaging apps etc. but with all this emphasis on UI they can barely fit anything in now. Only like one IM client, one browser, a video editor that is a rip off of windows movie maker. one accessibility option and nothing in System or Administration. I'd be surprised if i could find terminal in this pile of nothing. There's no GIMP anymore! just openoffice drawing and fspot. There's that damn oversimplistic Ubuntu Software Centre which of course is just a parody of Apple's Appstore, only free and on a desktop.

I can't believe this, this is low, this is just not right. Canonical have trashed ubuntu. never using it again as long sa it's going to be a damn Apple knockoff.

[Alboguy]

You made me pessimist brayden. I think I'm gonna stick on Linux Mint for a long time...