Ubuntu 11.04 “Natty Narwhal” Beta 1 Is Released

Pre-releases of Natty are *not* encouraged for anyone needing a stable system or anyone who is not comfortable running into occasional, even frequent breakage. They are, however, recommended for Ubuntu developers and those who want to help in testing, reporting, and fixing bugs.


Codenamed “Natty Narwhal”, 11.04 continues Ubuntu’s proud tradition of
integrating the latest and greatest open source technologies into a
high-quality, easy-to-use Linux distribution.

Ubuntu 11.04 now combines Ubuntu Desktop Edition and Ubuntu Netbook
Edition. This edition introduces the Unity environment as the default
desktop.

Ubuntu 11.04 Netbook edition will still be produced for the ARM
platform, and the team is proud to introduce a Headless edition with
11.04 for ARM.

Ubuntu 11.04 Server has made it easier to provision servers, and reduce
power consumption.

Ubuntu 11.04 Server for EC2 is available as well, with a new kernel and
improved initialization and configuration options.

The Ubuntu 11.04 family of Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Edubuntu, Mythbuntu, and Ubuntu Studio, also reach beta status today.

In addition, they can be found at the following links:

http://releases.ubuntu.com/natty/ (Ubuntu, Ubuntu Server)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/natty/beta-1/ (Ubuntu DVD, source)
http://uec-images.ubuntu.com/releases/natty/beta-1/ (Ubuntu Server EC2)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-netbook/releases/natty/beta-1/ (Ubuntu Netbook ARM)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/netboot/11.04/beta-1/ (Ubuntu Netboot)
http://releases.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/natty/ (Kubuntu)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/releases/natty/beta-1/ (Kubuntu DVD, preinstalled ARM images)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/xubuntu/releases/natty/beta-1/ (Xubuntu)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/edubuntu/releases/natty/beta-1/ (Edubuntu)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntustudio/releases/natty/beta-1/ (Ubuntu Studio)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/mythbuntu/releases/natty/beta-1/ (Mythbuntu)

The final version of Ubuntu 11.04 is expected to be released in April 2011.

Ubuntu features
—————

Unity is now the default Ubuntu desktop session. The Unity launcher has
many new features, including drag and drop re-ordering of launcher
icons, full keyboard navigation support, launcher activation through
keyboard shortcuts, right-click context menu quick-list and switching
between running applications.

Ubuntu 11.04 comes with the latest Firefox 4.0 as standard web browser.

LibreOffice 3.3.2 has been included in 11.04 as the default office
package.

Banshee 1.9.5 is the standard music player now and has been integrated
into the sound menu.

X.org 1.10.0 and Mesa 7.10.1 are the new versions included with 11.04.

11.04 Beta 1 includes the 2.6.38-7.39 kernel which is based on the
latest mainline kernel, 2.6.38.

GNU toolchain has transitioned to be based off of gcc 4.5 for i386,
amd64, ARM omap3/omap4 and PowerPC architecture

All main packages have now been built and and are installable with
Python 2.7

dpkg 1.16.0-pre brings us up-to-date with staged changes for the
upcoming Debian 1.16.0 dpkg release, as well as pulling in the current
version of the in-progress multiarch work

Upstart has been updated to 0.9.4-1. There are a lot of new features:
its now “chroot-aware”, there is support for basic job/event
visualization, there are two new initctrl commands (show-config,
check-config), a socket bridge is now provided, the latest D-Bus version
now allows D-Bus services to be activated via Upstart, a manual job
configuration stanza, and override file support is now available.

The Ubuntu One control panel now allows selective syncing, and the
launcher icon now displays sync progress. File syncing speed has been
improved as well.

The Ubuntu Software Center now allows users to “rate & review” installed
applications, share reviews via integration with social networking
services added into Gwibber, and has other usability improvements.

Please see http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/natty/beta for details.