Ubuntu 9.04 is getting closer and closer to the final release and we thought that it would be nice to give you guys a sneak peek at some of the upcoming features. The new version of Ubuntu will be released in less than two months, on April 23rd, and it will be dubbed Jaunty Jackalope.

One of these new features was introduced with tonight's updates and it is a brand new login screen a.k.a. GDM (GNOME Display Manager) theme, which is black and has a nice Ubuntu logo in the right bottom corner. The new login screen is entitled "Human" and it was created by Kenneth Wimer and Mat Tomaszewski for Canonical.

Later edit: The login screen was slightly modified on March 19th. Therefore we've replaced the screenshots with the new design!

Ubuntu 9.04's new login screen!

Ubuntu 9.04's new login screen - the Options menu

The new login screen theme in GDM's preferences tool

Talking about new features... here's another sneak peek at the revamped "Where are you?" step of the Ubiquity installer...

Last but not least, here's a screenshot of the new notification system implemented last week in Ubuntu 9.04...

Ubuntu 9.04 Alpha (Daily Build 20090221) showcasing the new notifications.

This is NOT the default look of Ubuntu 9.04. The theme and wallpaper are third-party!

For the Jaunty Jackalope, the development team will focus their efforts to fulfill certain tasks that are intended to make Ubuntu 9.04 the reflection of the most efficient understanding of the open source ensemble. One of these is the boot time decrease, mostly when the OS is tailored to a specific device, but also in the standard case. This decrease has also been made possible thanks to the evolutionary EXT4 file system.

Among other new features in Ubuntu 9.04 is the famous GNOME 2.26 desktop environment, which brings lots and lots of improvements in many areas, such as Evolution, GNOME Control Center, GNOME Media, GNOME Power Manager, etc. Ubuntu 9.04's kernel will be based on the latest version of Linux kernel 2.6.28, which will offer support for many new devices. Moreover, applications such as OpenOffice.org 3.0.1, The GIMP 2.6.6, Mozilla Firefox 3.0.7 and Thunderbird 2.0.0.21, Transmission 1.51 Pidgin 2.5.5 will also be present in the final release of Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope).

Don't forget to visit our website on Friday for the usual Ubuntu 9.04 Alpha 5 Screenshot Tour, where we will unveil more of Jaunty's new features.