Ubuntu 10.04 Alpha 3 Released – What’s new?

By , Published February 25, 2010

The third and final Alpha of the Lucid development cycle has been released this evening – but what can you expect to find inside?

alpha3header
Music Store
Although the music store is scheduled to land in Alpha 3 most signs point to it being kept underwraps for a few more days. Factor this in with the postponed “big” announcement which would have likely touched upon the Canonical/7Digital partnership and all roads lead to ‘not yet’-ville.


Plymouth
Pretty much everyone should now see a Plymouth powered boot screen during boot up as the open-source Nouveau driver has now been included – and enabled – by default for Nvidia users. ATi and Intel users already have KMS support.

Note: Nouveau does not support 3D effects so installing the official NVidia driver is recommended. You will still be able see Plymouth during boot up thanks to the vgafb16 module

Fast love
Talking of boot you’ll, once again, notice big improvements to the duration of booting and shutting down thanks to the on-going work of the Ubuntu Foundations team.

Software Centre
If Alpha 3 is your first hop aboard the Lucid train then you’ll notice a stack of improvements to the Software Centre including PPA views and a new ‘Featured’ category.

Selection_013
Netbook Desktop, Desktop Netbook… What?!
A Netbook UI session is to be included for Desktop users and, likewise, an easy to switch to ‘Desktop mode’ will be included for Ubuntu Netbook users.

Netbook users without compositing/ARM users will find a shiny new “2D” launcher provided in place.

Notification Area
The biggest changes come in the notification area. In the 'MeMenu' you now find a text entry box to allow you to update your Twitter account with needing to open an application. Your Empathy status is also set from here via the new funky icons.

twitter

The messaging menu now has icons and no descriptions, making it far easier to use. We discussed that in a little more detail in this post.

mmm

Gwibber
Default social networking application ‘Gwibber’ has gone all tweetdeck since the last Alpha release, supporting multiple, configurable panes and some awesome UI improvements. Certainly one of the highlights of Alpha 3.

…And the rest
All the latest bug fixes, security updates, application revisions and kernel updates are present in Alpha 3.

Download
You can download Ubuntu 10.04 Alpha 3 @ ubuntu.com/testing/lucid/alpha3

If you’re currently using Alpha 2 and have installed all updates then you as good as have Alpha 3

Thanks to om26er
Article originally appeared on omgubuntu.co.uk

Related posts:

  1. Lubuntu Alpha 2 Released; Gets New Bootsplash, Artwork, File Manager
  2. Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Alpha 2 Released
  3. What’s Coming In Lucid Alpha 2?
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  • http://seifsallam.co.cc/ Seif Sallam

    So still no Light oriented theme yet

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      That wouldn’t have arrived today, even if the announcement had gone ahead as planned.

      • http://seifsallam.co.cc/ Seif Sallam

        I know i just hoped that i would see it.

      • http://seifsallam.co.cc/ Seif Sallam

        I know i just hoped that i would see it.

      • http://livinginagoogleworld.blogspot.com/ Jonathan Frederickson

        The Ubuntu logo in this alpha is grey though – was that in the earlier alphas or is that a hint of things to come? I didn’t bother installing the ones before…

      • http://livinginagoogleworld.blogspot.com/ Jonathan Frederickson

        The Ubuntu logo in this alpha is grey though – was that in the earlier alphas or is that a hint of things to come? I didn’t bother installing the ones before…

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      That wouldn’t have arrived today, even if the announcement had gone ahead as planned.

    • 6205

      keep dreaming :)

    • Anonymous

      For the meanwhile I made this for you:

      https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Artwork/Incoming/Lucid/Human-Kmod

      Bugfree and lighter ;)

      :)

  • Mohan

    It’s up, the link is working. http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/lucid/alpha-3/

    EDIT: But looks like not all the images have been uploaded to the server yet.

  • Mohan

    It’s up, the link is working. http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/lucid/alpha-3/

    EDIT: But looks like not all the images have been uploaded to the server yet.

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      Good spot!

      • Mohan

        Thanks, looks like they are all up now. Downloading the torrent right now.

      • Mohan

        Thanks, looks like they are all up now. Downloading the torrent right now.

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      Good spot!

  • silenti324

    I believe that Mark will give his usual denial and the theme will still be Human for Lucid….lol

    • daas88

      most likely.

    • Anonymous

      I hope the (ubuntu 10.04) has a new theme!

      • silenti324

        I think we’ll know something on 4 March, with UserInterfaceFreeze

        • Anonymous

          (I think we’ll know something on 4 March, with UserInterfaceFreeze )

          thanks man ! 8-)

  • silenti324

    I believe that Mark will give his usual denial and the theme will still be Human for Lucid….lol

  • http://livinginagoogleworld.blogspot.com/ Jonathan Frederickson

    The download link for the netbook version is down, but if there’s an easy switch between the two it shouldn’t matter. :P

  • http://livinginagoogleworld.blogspot.com/ Jonathan Frederickson

    The download link for the netbook version is down, but if there’s an easy switch between the two it shouldn’t matter. :P

  • Anonymous

    OMG !! the boot time is impressive !!

    • Anonymous

      :-)

      • Matthew

        What I’m really impressed by is the systems that Phoronix used to test. I heard “10-second boot time”, but thought, “Not on my 5-year old bargain laptop”. It looks like they got 20 seconds on a similar system to mine, which is great!

        • Anonymous

          15 second boot ( ubuntu 10.04 64 bit )
          my pc »
          Core 2 Quad Q8200

          4 gb ram 800 mhz

          nvidia 8800 gt

          hd 500 gb sata 2

      • Matthew

        What I’m really impressed by is the systems that Phoronix used to test. I heard “10-second boot time”, but thought, “Not on my 5-year old bargain laptop”. It looks like they got 20 seconds on a similar system to mine, which is great!

      • Anonymous

        :-)

    • Anonymous

      :-)

  • Anonymous

    OMG !! the boot time is impressive !!

  • Anonymous

    I always liked the ubuntu-netbook (remix) application launcher and have tried so much to get it on the desktop properly. Now I am happy :)
    So, I don’t think this was the ‘good-news-rumour’. Where is it?

  • Anonymous

    I always liked the ubuntu-netbook (remix) application launcher and have tried so much to get it on the desktop properly. Now I am happy :)
    So, I don’t think this was the ‘good-news-rumour’. Where is it?

  • MexicanUser

    Will I be able to update my Facebook status via “MeMenu” or only twitter?
    Will the “MeMenu” have some Facebook support? (e.g. telling me when someone posted about a picture or new notifications)

    • http://twitter.com/natewiebe13 Nate Wiebe

      It supports the broadcast accounts which are the ones supported by gwibber. As of right now, the MeMenu updates on twitter, facebook, flickr, statusnet, qaiku, friendfeed, digg, and identica. I havent tried all of them yet, but i assume they would all be updated.

      • MexicanUser

        Yay! Thanks for the information!

  • MexicanUser

    Will I be able to update my Facebook status via “MeMenu” or only twitter?
    Will the “MeMenu” have some Facebook support? (e.g. telling me when someone posted about a picture or new notifications)

  • Matthew

    Your download link reads “10.01″ instead of “10.04″. Just a heads-up!

  • Anonymous

    So what happen to the big announcement thing :S

  • Anonymous

    Will the software centre in Lucid also have the update-manager bundled in, or is that expected in Lucid+1?

  • sushir

    And what’s on the table for Kubuntu?

    • http://orkutcidio.deliriocoletivo.org Peterson Espaçoporto

      I dream of something like “OMG! Kubuntu!” =S Perhaps one day…

      • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

        I should recruit a Kubuntu Korespondent perhaps? =P

        • http://orkutcidio.deliriocoletivo.org Peterson Espaçoporto

          That would awesomely reach awesome levels of awesomeness =D

          • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

            It’s something i’d really love to do. I’ve tried covering KDE stuff in the past but it’s very difficult to spot new things, make informed opinions when it is not my default DE. Change an icon in gnome and i’ll notice, change an entire application in KDE and i won’t.

            The same goes for Xubuntu – Lubuntu less so as we’re covering that pretty well so far. I’ll get on to it!

  • Emlun

    My installer gets stuck after step 2, the forward-button is grayed out :( Very fast boot-time though..

    • https://launchpad.net/~ev Evan

      Please boot into the “Try or Install Ubuntu” option, run the installer until you get to the point where you can no longer proceed, and then run `ubuntu-bug ubiquity`.

      Alpha 3 fixed a number of installer bugs, so please try with that CD.

      Thanks!

  • http://twitter.com/Heimpjuh Heimen Stoffels

    Looks really good :)

    But eh… “You can download Ubuntu 10.01″
    I thought it was 10.04? ;-)

  • http://livinginagoogleworld.blogspot.com/ Jonathan Frederickson

    What’s this about a quick switch between the desktop and netbook editions? I’m not seeing it.

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      Nor am i… Not everything ‘planned’ for an alpha/beta makes it in in time. I’m sure it’ll drop along in an update soon enough.

      • Anonymous

        Any news on this? I’ve always wanted to try the launcher but don’t have a netbook…

        • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

          You can try it on Lucid anyway – sudo apt-get install netbook-launcher or to try the 2D “ARM” version sudo apt-get install netbook-launcher-efl

          run using ‘netbook-launcher’ or ‘netbook-launcher-efl’

          It’s probably only worth trying the EFL version on a desktop simply because it rocks.

        • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

          You can try it on Lucid anyway – sudo apt-get install netbook-launcher or to try the 2D “ARM” version sudo apt-get install netbook-launcher-efl

          run using ‘netbook-launcher’ or ‘netbook-launcher-efl’

          It’s probably only worth trying the EFL version on a desktop simply because it rocks.

      • Anonymous

        Any news on this? I’ve always wanted to try the launcher but don’t have a netbook…

  • Anonymous

    i think you forgot some links.

    “a little more detail in this post.”

  • Anonymous

    “You can download Ubuntu 10.01 Alpha 3 @ ubuntu.com/testing/lucid/alpha3″

    Cough, it’s 10.04 – but I’m sure you knew that :)

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      I think it shows that i was part way through making burgers whilst typing this post up in the kitchen (!)

      • Anonymous

        Burgers > Ubuntu?

        Tsk tsk. Tough choice though.

      • Anonymous

        Burgers > Ubuntu?

        Tsk tsk. Tough choice though.

  • Anonymous

    Downloading! I can’t wait to install this on my new ultra-portable notebook.

    This Win 7 thing is so bloated and complicated. I hate this new taskbar, oh man I miss my docky!!!!

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      +1 Docky ftw!

    • Anonymous

      I actually think the taskbar is the UI improvement in windows 7; I really like the shortcuts you get by right-clicking a program that is pinned on the taskbar and I would like it if gnome had something similar. I know Docky also has extra functions when right-clicking but it’s not the same since Docky is a third party app and other devs have to make their programs work with it (and many don’t do it since it’s not a native gnome feature).

      anyway, Lucid is shaping up to be a very good release. I’m eager to finally being able to install the latest release on my laptop and play with all the new things. I’m really looking forward to the memenu; I can’t wait to try that out.

      • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

        I’ve found the memenu to be addictive…. being able to tweet so easily is a power few should have =P

      • daas88

        I thought devs had to make their software compatible with the new windows 7 taskbar to make the “pin to xxxxx” work. I use windows 7 regularly and not all programs work with the jumplists yet…

        • Anonymous

          True; I actually tried to say that but I wasn’t very clear. My point was that since the taskbar is a native feature of windows 7 more devs make their programs compatible with it than with Docky. This is because not everyone that uses Ubuntu has Docky installed and some devs may think it’s not worth the extra effort to develop something not that many people will use.
          Still the amount of programs having docky integration has been pretty big and I’m loving it so far. In fact it is the first dock I’ve ever used and I’ve been using it since back when it was integrated on Do.

          That was the point I was trying to get through and also the fact that win7, although it’s more of a resource hog than ubuntu, has some pretty cool features on its own; the new taskbar being one of them.

          • daas88

            If you put it that way then i have to agree^^
            But ubuntu is getting its own cool features too, such as the Me menu supporting twitter, facebook, IM accounts; the free 2gb of storage in the cloud, etc, and you get all that in a default installation :D

          • Anonymous

            oh yeah, don’t get me wrong I’m an Ubuntu fan first and foremost; I’ve been using Ubuntu as my main OS for the last 4 years and that’s not going to change anytime soon. I’ve also installed Ubuntu on many of my friend’s computers in all those years. The thing is that I recently received a new laptop as a gift and it came with Windows 7 and I was pleasantly surprised with how good it is (compared to other MS OS’s).

            I still think Ubuntu is a better OS overall but I do recognize win7 is pretty good too. So whenever I say that there’s a good feature in win7 that doesn’t mean that I think it’s better than Ubuntu, it just means that it has a good feature. I believe it’s healthy to recognize the strengths/weaknesses of other products and also to try out as many products as you can; that way one can have a more objective view of things (and I say “more” because one can never be truly objective).

  • http://mpt.net.nz/ mpt

    Neither. There will be more integration between the two, but I expect they’ll remain separate programs.

  • http://mpt.net.nz/ mpt

    Neither. There will be more integration between the two, but I expect they’ll remain separate programs.

  • lol

    “You will still be able see Plymouth during boot up thanks to the vgafb16 module”

    Holy crap thats awesome !!

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      That’s not an understatement! I was pretty stoked to learn about that – took me by surprise!

  • http://www.banglahacks.com/ aero

    Thanks for the news. I am start to upgrading.

  • dei

    Sadly the vgafb16-module isn’t working properly yet so you only see some ascii status-bars instead of plymouth.
    So lets hope the Bug https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/plymouth/+bug/526892 will be fixed until release.

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      you’ve just saved me a re-install! I assumed it was working but only I couldn’t see it.

      I really shouldn’t be so meek sometimes.

  • https://launchpad.net/~davidnielsen David Nielsen

    Actually, Nouveau does support 3D. You have to enable the xorg-edgers ppa (read the warning first) and then on supported nvidia cards you have 3D support.

    I have it running on current Lucid, along with the rgba support just to test. I can provide screenshots if so desired.

    http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1416185

    The hardware in question is an Acer Aspire Revo r3610 which comes with nvidia ION (9400M), similar success stories can be found in the same post for other cards.

    • daas88

      How is it working? i will definitely use the official driver, but i’m curious

      • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

        I know that Nouveau does support 3D – but not in the version included by default in Lucid (which is what this post is about) ;)

      • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

        I’ve heard it runs okay – don’t expect miracles and you’ll likely be impressed!

      • https://launchpad.net/~davidnielsen David Nielsen

        For me it is very stable, there are no visual glitches in use. Compiz runs nicely as does gnome-shell (and thus mutter). You can use the rgba patches without a problem (see the screenshot in the forum thread).

        It is not the fastest thing in the world but then again it is very fresh code and is very likely to be optimized as it progresses. It does run fast enough to provide a smooth compiz experience on my machine. On different hardware I know that Adamw over on the Fedora side has Quake 3 and TA:Spring running using this driver.

        It might not work on your setup and you should definitely understand how to recover from a system where X fails to come up and know how to use ppa-purge just in case. That being said we have a number of success stories already.

        Also remember when you use the xorg-edgers ppa that these are daily builds, while it works today, that might change tomorrow. It is useful to have good bug reporting skills handy.

        • daas88

          I’m glad to hear that in a near future we can have our nvidia cards fully working from a fresh install.
          Noveau seems to be evolving very fast, i remember that less than a year ago i saw a post at phoronix where they said it was still too raw and was only for experimental purposes. Now it made nv obsolete and even has 3d working. That deserves an OMG!

  • cm

    hey when is the Lynx mascot coming to OMG? I mean I love Mr. Koala but I’m excited to see the lynx traveling around the world and through outer space to bring us each new update!!

    • daas88

      he’s right, it’s about time ^^

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