We've already told you earlier that today is the release day for the Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) Final Beta operating system, along with the Beta 2 builds of the opt-in flavors.

This is the first-ever public Beta build of Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus), despite the fact that Canonical calls it "Final Beta," as some of the opt-in flavors had already been participating in the Alpha, Alpha 2, and Beta 1 milestones. Unfortunately, Edubuntu won't be released as part of Xenial Xerus.

As part of today's Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) Final Beta release, users can download and test the Beta 2 builds of the Ubuntu MATE 16.04 LTS, Xubuntu 16.04 LTS, Ubuntu Kylin 16.04 LTS, Lubuntu 16.04 LTS, Ubuntu Studio 16.04 LTS, Kubuntu 16.04 LTS, Ubuntu Core 16.04 LTS, Ubuntu GNOME 16.04 LTS, and Ubuntu Server 16.04 LTS.

Please click any of the links above to see what new features have landed for each of the opt-in Ubuntu flavors for the Final Beta (a.k.a. Beta 2) milestone. As for the Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Final Beta, we've listed below some of its highlights and, of course, all the download links.

"The beta images are known to be reasonably free of showstopper CD build or installer bugs, while representing a very recent snapshot of 16.04 that should be representative of the features intended to ship with the final release expected on April 21st, 2016," said Adam Conrad, software engineer at Canonical.

What's new in Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Final Beta

Release highlights of Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) Final Beta include the latest, long-term supported Linux kernel 4.4.6, the ability to move the Unity Launcher to the bottom of the screen, though, the option remains hidden, for now. Then, there are LibreOffice 5.1.1, GNOME Software as the default package manager, and GNOME Calendar.

We also have a screenshot tour if you want to see what it looks like. The development cycle of the Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) operating system has ended with this Final Beta build, and we're now waiting for the final release to come out on April 21, 2016. There might be a Release Candidate (RC) milestone sometime around the date of April 14, but it won't be publicized.

Do not upgrade from Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

Many users have asked us if they need to reinstall the OS when the final release of Ubuntu 16.04 LTS gets out if they adopt the Beta, and the answer is no. You can jump into the Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Beta right now, and when the final version comes out, all you need to do is make sure your system is up to date.

However, please be aware that all the Beta 2 flavors are affected by an issue that does not allow users to upgrade from the current long-term supported release, Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr). So do NOT upgrade from Ubuntu 14.04 LTS to Ubuntu 16.04 LTS right now!

"In some cases, attempts to install to a hard drive that already contains a swap partition may fail in the partitioning phase. If you encounter this, the simplest workaround is to boot to the live session, start a terminal (Ctrl-Alt-T) and type 'sudo swapoff -a'. You can then start the installation from the icon on the desktop and it should proceed successfully," the Ubuntu developers have explained.

Download Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Final Beta right now from Softpedia.