Ubuntu 15.04 (Vivid Vervet) is getting closer to the official release in April and the developers have announced that feature freeze is now in effect for this distro.

This is a regular step that is taken in the Ubuntu development cycle and it usually means that the gates are closed for the addition of new features, although exceptions can be made if they are sufficiently important. This is more of a guideline that's meant to hurry up the devs so they can land what they need as quickly as possible.

The fact that the distro has reached this particular point also means that we are getting closer to the first Beta release that is scheduled to take place on February 26. Ubuntu itself won't be a part of that release, but that doesn't really matter. The daily build is upgraded all the time and there is no practical need for a Beta release.

Developers will start focusing on bugs

After the Feature Freeze will come into effect, devs will usually start fixing bugs and other issues that have been introduced in the current development cycle and they will continue to do this for another months or so.

"As of about 12 hours ago, Feature Freeze is in effect for Vivid (15.04), leading up to the release in April. Don't fret if you have One Last Feature to get uploaded, and don't panic and upload it untested today just to try to beat the clock. We would rather see a feature freeze exception bug and a well-tested upload than something rushed to beat a deadline. That said, the vast majority of people should be winding down new feature development now and focusing on bug fixes and polish to make 15.04 yet another great release come April," wrote Scott Kitterman.

You can download the daily build of Ubuntu 15.04 (Vivid Vervet) and give it a try. It's still under development, but that only makes it more interesting. Please don't use a production machine.