Canonical, and the Ubuntu developers, have announced the availability of the first alpha release of Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, code named "Lucid Lynx". The first development milestone is the first of three planned alpha releases.

Lucid Lynx Alpha 1 is based on the 2.6.32 Linux kernel and features a number of changes over the previous 9.10 release, including updated packages. Additionally, the first alpha features the removal of the HAL package, allowing the release to boot and resume from suspend even faster.

The Kubuntu release features the first beta for version 4.4 of the KDE Software Compilation (KDE SC), code-named "Kompilation". As with all development releases, use in production environments and on mission critical systems is not advised. Users testing the release are encouraged to report any bugs that they find.

Ubuntu 10.04 will also be a Long Term Support (LTS) version of the Debian-derived Linux distribution. The LTS versions of Ubuntu are supported for three years for the desktop releases and five years for server releases. The standard releases are supported for 18 months of updates for both the desktop and server versions.

More details about the release, including a list of known issues, can be found in the release notes. As usual the various desktop/laptop, server edition and Kubuntu and netbook remix versions of Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Alpha 1 are available to download from ubuntu.com. Users currently running Ubuntu 9.10 or 9.04 LTS on a desktop system can upgrade by pressing Alt+F2 and typing "update-manager -d" (without the quotes) into the command box.

Lucid Lynx is expected to be released on the 29th of April of 2010. The latest stable release of Ubuntu is version 9.10, code named "Karmic Koala", from October.

See also:

(crve)