Introduction
The Ubuntu developers are moving very quickly to bring you the absolute latest and greatest software the Open Source Community has to offer. This is the Ubuntu 7.04 Beta and it comes packed with a whole host of excellent new features including the released GNOME 2.18, the 2.6.20 kernel and much more.
Note: This is still an beta release. Do not install it on production machines. The final stable version will be released in April 2007.
Contents
- Migrate your data
- New Games: Sudoku and Chess
- Your disk in ring view
- Simpler Multimedia
- Networking Improvements
- Kernel
- Artwork
- Help Center
- Desktop Effects
- Xorg 7.2
- Better bug reporting
- Download Beta
- Reporting Bugs & Testing
- Participate in Ubuntu
- More Information
- Feedback
Migrate your data
Built into the installer is the new migration-assistant, which helps you move your data from your old OS into Ubuntu. And not just from a single user, migration-assistant will allow you to take data from multiple users and put them in the correct user account on Ubuntu.
How to Test
Forewarned: Since Migration Assistant and the new partition manager are unstable, it is crucial that you back up any and all data before testing. Please report bugs to https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/migration-assistant/+bugs
New Games: Sudoku and Chess
With a change of maintainers in gnome-games, the pleas for new and more exciting games was heard. After two surveys, one to figure out which game to remove and another to determine to which one to add, two winners emerged: gnome-sudoku and glchess. Both of these games have now been added to gnome-games 2.17 and you can find them under Applications > Games > Chess or Sudoku.
Chess, GNOME style
Sudoku, GNOME style
Your disk in ring view
One of the new tools that came with Ubuntu 6.10 was the Disk Usage Analyzer. With this new version, you can easily view your disk usage stastics in a more intuitive manner.
Disk analyzer
Simpler Multimedia
Easy Codec Installation has been implemented in Feisty Fawn Herd 3, When trying to play media files, Ubuntu will try to install the necessary codecs automatically, and start playing the desired file.
Networking Improvements
New in Feisty is Network Manager, a simple way to find and connect to wireless and wired networks.
New Zeroconf support makes it easy to network desktop computers without needing servers to assign IP addresses or names.
Kernel
Feisty's kernel is VMI enabled, for improved performance when running on VMware hypervisors. VMI paravirtualization can be enabled in VMware Workstation 6.0 beta http://www.vmware.com/products/beta/ws/.
Artwork
For Feisty all new artwork is trickling in, including a new background image, and a usplash image that has more 'bling'.
Help Center
In order to make Help more accessible, a brand new Help Center with a easier to use interface that is more stylish.
Desktop Effects
Graphical Desktop Effects will be made extremely accessible, with one click activation in the system menu.
Xorg 7.2
Keeping in step with the cutting edge mentality, X11R7.2, the third release of the modular X Window system, is utilized in this and future Feisty releases. X11R7.2 comes with significant stability and correctness fixes, including improved autoconfiguration heuristics, enhanced support for GL-based compositing managers such as Compiz and Beryl, and improved support for PCI systems with multiple domains. It also incorporates the new, more extensible XACE security policy framework.
Better bug reporting
Since this is an alpha release not all system applications are stable, and to help testers file bug reports the latest release of apport is included.
Download Beta
Get it while it's hot. ISOs and torrents are available at:
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http://releases.ubuntu.com/releases/kubuntu/feisty/ (Kubuntu)
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http://releases.ubuntu.com/releases/edubuntu/feisty/ (Edubuntu)
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http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/xubuntu/releases/feisty/beta/ (Xubuntu)
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http://releases.ubuntu.com/releases/ports/feisty/ (PowerPC, IA-64, SPARC)
Reporting Bugs & Testing
Feisty Fawn has bugs! (I bet you're not surprised). Your comments, bug reports, patches and suggestions will help fix bugs and improve future releases. After reading https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs please report bugs through Malone.
If you want to help out with those bugs, the Bug Squad team in Launchpad is always looking for help.
If you plan to do an installation of Feisty Beta, be sure to head to [Testing]. With just a few minutes of time at your hands, you can really help to improve Ubuntu. We have two different tests; one takes just a short while, but the other is more thorough.
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Testing/Current - Simply note how your installation went
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Testing/Short - the short test
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Testing/Long - the longer test
Participate in Ubuntu
If you would like to help shape Ubuntu, take a look at the list of ways you can participate at
More Information
You can find out more about Ubuntu on our website and wiki.
To sign up for future Ubuntu development announcements, please subscribe to Ubuntu's development announcement list at:
Feedback
This document is maintained by the Ubuntu Marketing Team. Please feel free to contact us regarding any concerns or suggestions by either sending an email to ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com or by using any of the other methods on the Ubuntu Marketing Team wiki page.



