The first beta of the Utopic Unicorn (to become 14.10) has now been released!
This beta features images for Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Ubuntu GNOME, UbuntuKylin, Xubuntu and the Ubuntu Cloud images.
Pre-releases of the Utopic Unicorn 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 flavor developers and those who want to help in testing, reporting and fixing bugs as we work towards getting this release ready.
Beta 1 includes a number of software updates that are ready for wider testing. This is quite an early set of images, so you should expect some bugs.
While these Beta 1 images have been tested and work, except as noted in the release notes, Ubuntu developers are continuing to improve the Utopic Unicorn. In particular, once newer daily images are available, system installation bugs identified in the Beta 1 installer should be verified against the current daily image before being reported in Launchpad. Using an obsolete image to re-report bugs that have already been fixed wastes your time and the time of developers who are busy trying to make 14.10 the best Ubuntu release yet. Always ensure your system is up to date before reporting bugs.
Kubuntu
Kubuntu is the KDE based flavour of Ubuntu. It uses the Plasma desktop and includes a wide selection of tools from the KDE project.
Kubuntu development is now focussing on the next generation of KDE Software, Plasma 5. This is not yet stable enough for everyday use, so our default option is the trusted Plasma 4 desktop. A tech preview of Plasma 5 is available for those who want to try out the future.
The Beta-1 images can be downloaded at:
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/releases/utopic/beta-1/
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu-plasma5/releases/utopic/beta-1/
More information on Kubuntu Beta-1 can be found here:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UtopicUnicorn/Beta1/Kubuntu
Lubuntu
Lubuntu is a flavor of Ubuntu based on LXDE and focused on providing a very lightweight distribution.
Lubuntu development is currently focused on the transition away from GTK+ to the Qt framework. This is not stable enough for everyday use, so the focus this version is on fixing bugs.
The Beta 1 images can be downloaded at:
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/lubuntu/releases/utopic/beta-1/
Ubuntu GNOME
Ubuntu GNOME is a flavor of Ubuntu featuring the GNOME desktop environment.
The Beta-1 images can be downloaded at:
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-gnome/releases/utopic/beta-1/
More information on Ubuntu GNOME Beta-1 can be found here:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UtopicUnicorn/Beta1/UbuntuGNOME
UbuntuKylin
UbuntuKylin is a flavor of Ubuntu that is more suitable for Chinese users.
The Beta-1 images can be downloaded at:
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntukylin/releases/utopic/beta-1/
More information on UbuntuKylin Beta-1 can be found here:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Ubuntu%20Kylin/1410-beta-1-ReleaseNote
Xubuntu
Xubuntu is a flavor of Ubuntu shipping with the XFCE desktop environment.
The Beta-1 images can be downloaded at:
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/xubuntu/releases/utopic/beta-1/
More information on Xubuntu Beta-1 can be found here:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UtopicUnicorn/Beta1/Xubuntu
Ubuntu Cloud
These images can be run on Amazon EC2, Openstack, SmartOS and many other clouds. Beta-1 images have been published to Windows Azure and Amazon EC2.
http://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/releases/utopic/beta-1/
Regular daily images for Ubuntu Cloud can be found at:
http://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/daily/server/
Daily Images
Regular daily images for Ubuntu can be found at: http://cdimage.ubuntu.com
If you’re interested in following the changes as we further develop Utopic, we suggest that you subscribe to the ubuntu-devel-announce list. This is a low-traffic list (a few posts a week) carrying announcements of approved specifications, policy changes, beta releases and other interesting events.
http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel-announce
A big thank you to the developers and testers for their efforts to pull together this Beta release!
Originally posted to the ubuntu-devel-announce mailing list on Thu Aug 28 21:04:39 UTC 2014 by Stéphane Graber