The beta of Getting Started with Ubuntu 10.04 (aka ‘The Ubuntu Manual’) was released earlier today at exactly 0000 UTC on the 31st.
Over the last two weeks the Manual team have been working absolutely flat-out to squash over 600 bugs that were reported – many by OMG! readers themselves!
Today also sees the writing freeze – meaning translators can finally get some alone time to work on the project without strings being swapped out from under their noses all the time. The project will fork main into another branch and begin working on the Second Edition of the 10.04 release, scheduled for July. This means that the current focus still gets attention for translations, screenshots and formatting issues, but the team’s writers can begin working on additions that didn’t make it into this cycle.
With all of the above digested you’ll likely want to know the good stuff. Many new features and changes are present in this beta release including:
- English (US) edition now has screenshots
- Addition of nomenclature (conventions) to the prologue
- New glossary and index entries
- A LOT of bug fixing
- More work on the fancy website (top secret for now!)
- Incorporation of screenshots taken with Quickshot
- Announcement of upcoming audio book
Download Getting Started with Ubuntu 10.04 Beta
If you’re brave, foolish, a sadist or perhaps even all three you can get your bleeding-edge grappling paws on the beta release @ http://ubuntu-manual.org/ubuntu-manual-beta.pdf
Don’t forget, you too can help the team. If you know another language then you could translate, or lend your computer and a wee bit of your time to taking localized screenshots when Quickshot is released later today.
UMP also needs people to translate their new website (currently being tested), help find bugs, design new title pages and artwork and write content for the next release. Everything you need to know is here.
Catch us on IRC in #ubuntu-manual on freenode and come join the fun that is the Ubuntu Manual Team!