It was named last week and will make the first tentative footsteps into the world in early December – but what do we know about the Lucid Lynx so far?
The Lynx’s Lair
What kind of desktop will the Lynx be calling home? Gnome 3.0 will be out by the time the Lynx is calling, however Ubuntu 10.04 will remain using Gnome 2.0 for it’s Desktop Environment. This is partly because it will be a LTS Release (supported for _ years as opposed to normal releases ) years) and Gnome 3.0 will, likely, be just too buggy to be such a crucial part of a crucial release.
A Shiny New Coat?
So the Lynx will be sticking to what it’s knows, but what will it look like? Karmic Koala will be coming with a refined and polished semi-new look, but what will the Lynx look like?
It’s stylish and sleek, the bow-tie-adorned James Bond of the feline set, so you can bet we’ll make sure it’ dressed for the occasion.
~ Mark Shuttleworth
So more new artwork? Hurrah! Given Ubuntu’s look has started maturing in Karmic Koala, it’ll be exciting to see what the Lucid team come up with!
Stealth
Speed is an essential ingredient in the attack of a lynx, and speed remains our goal.
~ Mark Shuttleworth
The time it takes to boot Ubuntu has gotten progressively shorter with each release of Ubuntu since Hardy and the devs are keen to keep improving it yet still.
The road to a 10 Second boot – time was started in Karmic and this will remain the aim with Lucid. The feline moniker-ed release will also continue to benefit from Upstart – a startup service designed to replace the init daemon which controls how and when services and tasks start up during the boot process.
Features
Feature wise don’t expect to see too much that you haven’t seen before as the Lynx’s focus will be on stabilising, bug-fixing and refining the current code base to ensure a truly rock-solid release for those who depend on LTS releases.
We will be more conservative in the new code we bring into Ubuntu during the development cycle, and we will run a longer test period.
~ Mark Shuttleworth
Bigger, better software centre
One area that will be certainly be improved on during Lucid’s reign will be the Ubuntu Software Centre.
The currently planned features and inclusions for the Software Centre in Lucid are: –
- Replacing Synaptic Package Manager, Software Sources, GDebi and Update Manager with an expanded version of the Ubuntu Software Centre.
- Ability to install non-GUI software from within the centre: fonts, scripts, database software, etc.
- A ‘collapsed view’ interface for displaying updates.
- Ability to handle errors and conflicts.
- Establishing a new rating and review system
Which all sounds good to me – It’d be so great to be able to install fonts through it too!
Karmic’s Leftovers
Sadly, whether due to time or bugs, several user-interface improvements targeted for Karmic have to be carried over to Lucid.
The biggest of these will be the full Wine integration into Ubuntu proposed for Karmic. This will insert installed Windows app into the appropriate gnome menus and allow easy install or removal of Windows software from the Software Centre itself.
Gwibber won’t be making it into Karmic as a default application as first proposed either, however it may have another shot by the time Lucid swings around. This is vital if Ubuntu want to continue pushing their ‘Social From the Start‘ mantra.
Banshee may finally become the default Music Player after what seems like years of speculation.
So…
Of course, this list is merely the first few titbits and sound bites we know. The true prep and decisions are still yet to be made; there are no blueprints or checklists as of yet, but you can be sure you’ll read about them here first as and when!
Lucid In Summary: –
- Stick using Gnome 2.0
- ‘Sleek and stylish’ new theme.
- Harnessing the power of Upstart
- Few new ‘features’
- Stable
- Bigger better Software Centre replacing, well, everything.
- User Interface Improvements
- Implement features that weren’t able to make it into Karmic (Wine Integration, Gwibber, etc)
What are you hoping to see, find or find gone in Lucid Lynx?