A few minutes ago, the second Alpha version of the upcoming Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) operating system was made available for testing by the Ubuntu developers. As usual, we've grabbed a copy of it in order to keep you up-to-date with the latest changes in the Ubuntu 11.10 development.



What's new in Ubuntu 11.10 Alpha 2? Well, Ubuntu 11.10 Alpha 2 is now powered by the latest development version of the upcoming Linux kernel 3.0, which provides lots of new drivers and better hardware support.



Another good news is that Mozilla Thunderbird 5.0 is now the default email client, replacing Evolution Mail and Calendar. Read more about Thunderbird 5 on Ubuntu 11.10 on our in-depth article.



As expected, GNOME 3 is now default desktop environment, with Unity on top of it. This is how Ubuntu 11.10 looks at the moment. Unity is still there and has been improved, allowing users to tweak it more...



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The good news is that the desktop is accessible again, so users can create folders and access desktop settings...



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The default browser for Ubuntu 11.10 Alpha 2 is now the newly released Mozilla Firefox 5.0.

What's new in Kubuntu 11.10 Alpha 2? Well, the developers decided not to release the ISO images for Kubuntu 11.10 Alpha 2. Sorry guys! Below is a screenshot of a daily build of Kubuntu 11.10 tested on a netbook.

Kubuntu 11.10 Alpha 1 Netbook interface

What's new in Xubuntu 11.10 Alpha 2?

File roller has been replaced by XArchiver, Mousepad was replaced by Leafpad, and Evince replaced by ePDFView.

The Oneiric Ocelot Release Schedule:

June 2nd, 2011 - Alpha 1 release July

7th, 2011 - Alpha 2 release

Download Ubuntu 11.10 Alpha 2 (Oneiric Ocelot) right now from Softpedia.

Download Ubuntu Server 11.10 Alpha 2 (Oneiric Ocelot) right now from Softpedia.

Download Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud 11.10 Alpha 2 (Oneiric Ocelot) right now from Softpedia.

Download Xubuntu 11.10 Alpha 2 (Oneiric Ocelot) right now from Softpedia.

Download Edubuntu 11.10 Alpha 2 (Oneiric Ocelot) right now from Softpedia. Remember that this is an alpha release and it should NOT be installed on production machines. It is intended to be used for testing purposes only. Please report bugs to the Ubuntu Bug Tracker.