Canonical releases Ubuntu 10.10 Alpha 2

Canonical and the Ubuntu developers have issued the second alpha of Ubuntu 10.10, code-named "Maverick Meerkat". This development milestone is the second of three planned alpha releases, which will be followed by a beta and a release candidate.

Ubuntu 10.10 Alpha 2 is based on the 2.6.35-rc3 Linux kernel and features version 2.31 of the GNOME desktop environment – the latest development snapshot that will eventually become GNOME 3.0. Other changes include the addition of support for installing to the Btrfs filesystem in Ubuntu's alternative and server CD installer, and a number of package updates. The Kubuntu release features the first release candidate for version 4.5 of the KDE Software Compilation (KDE SC), code-named "Coppu".

As with all development releases, use in production environments and on mission critical systems is not advised. Users testing the release are encouraged to provide feedback and report any bugs that they encounter.

More details about the second alpha, including a list of known issues, can be found in the official release announcement and release notes. A list of planned features and changes for version 10.10 of Ubuntu is available on the Blueprints for Maverick page. Ubuntu 10.10 Alpha 2 is available to download from the project's web site. Users currently running Ubuntu 10.04 LTS on a desktop system can upgrade by pressing Alt+F2 and typing "update-manager -d" (without the quotes) into the command box.

The final version of Maverick Meerkat is expected 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:

• Ubuntu Developer Week announced, a report from The H.
• Ubuntu developers set application line up for 10.10, a report from The H.
• What's new in Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, a feature from The H.

(crve)