A few minutes ago, the Ubuntu development team unleashed the second alpha version of the upcoming Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) operating system, due for release in late April this year. As usual, we've downloaded a copy of it in order to keep you up-to-date with the latest changes in the Ubuntu 10.04 LTS development.

What's new in Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Alpha 2? Well, the most important feature of Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Alpha 2 is probably the inclusion of the Plymouth graphical boot manager utility from Red Hat, which replaces the old Usplash. The new Nvidia proprietary video driver 190.53 (the old 173.14.22 and 96.43.14 versions are still available and can be installed along with the new one), and Likewise Open version 5.4 are also part of this release.

The Linux kernel packages in Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Alpha 2 have been upgraded to 2.6.32-10.14, based on Linux kernel 2.6.32, and the GNOME desktop environment to version 2.29.4, which brings new features, especially to Nautilus, which now offers twin-panel functionality, called Extra Pane (see the screenshot below for details).

The twin-panel view in Nautilus

Indicator Applet Session split in two

New video editor in Ubuntu

Quadrapassel tetris clone and gbrainy brain teaser game

What's new in Kubuntu 10.04 LTS Alpha 2?

Kubuntu's new background for the login manager

Kubutu 10.04 LTS Alpha 2

Kubuntu's improved installer

Xubuntu 10.04 LTS Alpha 2

On April 29th, 2010, Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) will become the twelfth release of the Ubuntu operating system. See you again in exactly six weeks (February 25th), for the third Alpha version of the upcoming Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx).

The Lucid Lynx Release Schedule:

December 10th, 2009 - Alpha 1 release; January 14th, 2010 - Alpha 2 release; February 25th, 2010 - Alpha 3 release; March 18th, 2010 - Beta 1 release; April 8th, 2010 - Beta 2 release; April 22nd, 2010 - Release Candidate; April 29th, 2010 - Final release of Ubuntu 10.04 LTS.

Download Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Alpha 2 (Lucid Lynx) right now from Softpedia.

Download Ubuntu Netbook Remix 10.04 LTS Alpha 2 (Lucid Lynx) right now from Softpedia.

Download Ubuntu Server 10.04 LTS Alpha 2 (Lucid Lynx) right now from Softpedia.

Download Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud 10.04 LTS Alpha 2 (Lucid Lynx) right now from Softpedia.

Download Ubuntu ARM 10.04 LTS Alpha 2 (Lucid Lynx) right now from Softpedia.

Download Kubuntu 10.04 LTS Alpha 2 (Lucid Lynx) right now from Softpedia.

Download Kubuntu Netbook Remix 10.04 LTS Alpha 2 (Lucid Lynx) right now from Softpedia.

Download Xubuntu 10.04 Alpha 2 (Lucid Lynx) right now from Softpedia.

Download Edubuntu 10.04 Alpha 2 (Lucid Lynx) right now from Softpedia.

Download Mythbuntu 10.04 Alpha 2 (Lucid Lynx) 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.