The Xubuntu community is happy to announce the release of Xubuntu 6.10, codenamed “Edgy Eft”.

Xubuntu is lighter on system requirements than its better known cousins Ubuntu and Kubuntu since it uses the Xfce Desktop environment, which makes it ideal for old or low-end machines, thin-client networks, or for those who would like to get more performance out of their hardware.

Included in this new release are:

• Newer Xfce Desktop Environment (4.4 RC1) which brings trashcan support in Thunar and the panel, accessibility settings for the keyboard, and other improvements and fixes.
• New artwork for the boot splash, login screen and wallpaper.
• The more mature gxine media player replaces xfmedia.
• New printer GUI: system-config-printer from Fedora Core 6.
• Easier installation of packages with gnome-app-install.
• A calculator application and a dictionary panel plugin.
• Better support for users with motor disabilities via configurable sticky keys, mouse keys and an on-screen-keyboard application.
• Newer versions of firefox, abiword and gnumeric.
• New LTSP version on the alternate CD for setting up thin client networks.
• Other changes common to all Ubuntu variants such as the new 2.6.17 kernel, Xorg 7.1 and the upstart init system.

Xubuntu 6.10 is available for download today!

The hard-working Kubuntu team have announced the release of the glorious Kubuntu 6.10, code-named Edgy Eft.

Included in this new release of the “blue desktop” are:

• KDE 3.5.5: ease of use, contemporary functionality and outstanding graphical design.
• Digikam: advanced digital photo management in the box.
• Guidance: overhauled power management.
• Hardware Database: helping Kubuntu work on more of your computers.
• Laptop Buttons: many multimedia buttons work automatically.
• Zeroconf: easy network-based sharing by just clicking a tick-box.
• System Settings: redesigned to simplify administration.

Also included on the Kubuntu CD are additional powerful Free software for existing Microsoft Windows systems, including Firefox 2.0 and the Thunderbird email client—reclaim your inbox.

Included under the bonnet of Kubuntu 6.10 are GCC 4.1, Glibc 2.4 and the Linux 2.6.17 kernel. Read the release notes over at www.kubuntu.org.

Use Bittorrent as the fastest way to Download Kubuntu 6.10 today and spread the Freedom and power to your friends!

The Ubuntu team have been proud to announce the release of Ubuntu 6.10, codenamed Edgy Eft!

Edgy includes some cool new stuff, including:

• Tomboy: an easy-to-use and efficient note-taking tool.
• F-Spot: a photo management tool that enables tagging, photo editing and automatic uploading to on-line web management sites such as Flickr.
• GNOME 2.16: which in addition to new features such as enhanced power management, makes the GNOME desktop more secure, faster and more stable.
• Upstart: substantially faster startup and shutdown, plus bonus high-resolution graphics.
• Firefox 2.0: offering inline spell check support in web forms, easy recovery of crashed sessions, built-in phishing detectors, enhanced search engine management with built in OpenSearch support, and better support for previewing and subscribing to web feeds.
• Evolution 2.8.0: which brings new features such as vertical message
  panes.
• Proactive security features, preventing many common security vulnerabilities even before they are discovered.

Go and download Ubuntu 6.10 today, then tell the world!

Simon Law writes to say:

I have the pleasure of once again announcing Hug Day. We’re in the final weeks before Ubuntu 6.10 Edgy Eft’s release, and we’d love to have your help polishing it up.

This Wednesday, 18 October 2006, please join us in the #ubuntu-bugs IRC channel on irc.freenode.net. And learn how you can help out by reading:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuBugDay

Hope to see you there!

With a new version of Ubuntu just one month away, the Beta release for Ubuntu 6.10 (still codenamed Edgy Eft) is now available!

The following are a highlight of significant new features for the release:

• The Ubuntu desktop now features the latest GNOME 2.16, OpenOffice.org 2.0.4rc2 and Xorg 7.1.
• The Ubuntu Server edition now contains a task selection allowing easier installation for email servers, web servers and other common configurations
• For diskless thin-clients, there’s a pre-release of the upcoming LTSP 5.0. Support for local devices, printers connected to thin clients, with language and session selection from the login manager. Etherboot out-of-the-box and new network swapping support can now reduce the minimum requirements for thin clients to 32MB memory.
• For developers wanting a look under the hood, Edgy features GCC 4.1.1, glibc 2.4, a Linux 2.6.17 kernel and Upstart—the new init system.

Along with the release annoucement came the Edgy Eft Beta release notes, tailored to Kubuntu users and Ubuntu users.

If you are currently on Ubuntu 6.06 LTS (“dapper drake”) and want to help test the new Edgy Beta, there are instructions on how to upgrade from Ubuntu 6.06 LTS Dapper to Edgy Beta in order to help with the testing.

If you are interested in helping out with reporting and triaging bugs, then please install or upgrade to help all the developers out with feedback on the new Edgy Beta today!

Download your copy of of an Edgy Beta, it’s a single CD download to get you started:

• Ubuntu, GNOME-based
• Kubuntu, KDE-based
• Edubuntu, ideal for schools and thin-clients
• Xubuntu will be available soon

As of just a few hours ago, Edgy Eft Knot-2 has been released for testers. Knot 2 is the second in a series of milestone CD images that will be released throughout the Edgy development cycle, ultimately becoming Ubuntu 6.10.

While this development version (codenamed Edgy Eft) is highly recommended for Ubuntu developers and those who want to participate in testing, reporting, and fixing bugs; anyone not comfortable with helping to debug such issues is advised to wait until later in the release cycle to assist.

As well as the feature highlights on our main site, the post to the ubuntu-devel-announce list has all the technical details. There are instructions for downloading images for Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Edubuntu and Xubuntu from the online mirror network.

If you’re up for the challenge, grab the latest cutting edge preview of your favorite distribution and help to improve Ubuntu today!

Edgy now has automatic crash reporting which helps developers to track down crashes more efficiently:

• It intercepts crashes when they happen the first time, sparing sleepless nights for anyone trying to reproduce the crash.
• The reports contain detailed information about the affected program, assisting developers tracking down the problem. Is this goodbye to bug report ping-pong?

In time, crash reports will be attached to bug reports.

Suggestions, bug reports, and other feedback is welcome! Please use our bug tracker to report issues, or send an email to the developer mailing list with ideas for new features for the tool.

[Discuss Edgy crash reporting in the forums]

sabdfl has declared that the version of Ubuntu past 6.06 will be named “Edgy Eft”. Usually referred to as “Dapper+1”, edgy is expected to be a little more … edgy:

So dream a little about Xen for virtualisation, Xgl/AIGLX and other wonderful wobbly window bits, the goodness of Network Manager, a first flirt with multiarch support for true mixed 32-bit and 64-bit computing on AMD64, the interesting possibilities of the SMART package manager… and other pieces of infrastructure which have appeared tantalisingly on the horizon.

The release is still expected sometime in October in 2006. But don’t throw away those shiny Dapper servers just yet, the work invested so far will be around for a long time to come, so if you are concerned about being stuck in a release treadmill sabdfl goes on to say:

We can afford to take some risks with Dapper+1, because Dapper has turned out so well. We have a great answer for people who need super-solid and super-predictable results: Dapper is still fresh, will continue to work on modern hardware for some time, and has plenty of legs in its support cycle left to run.

[Discuss]