Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Precise Pangolin Beta 1 Released

donadony writes with news about what will become the next LTS release of Ubuntu. From the article: "It's time to take another look at what is happening with the development of Ubuntu 12.04. As it stands, the first Beta of Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Precise Pangolin has been released. I just updated my own system. What changed since Alpha? Not much, really. In fact, there's really nothing groundbreaking or any new features added. Unity has been updated to version 5.4.0 which also sees the introduction of the new HUD feature. HUD still apparently has many outstanding bugs, but developers maintain that all bugs will be ironed out before Ubuntu 12.04 goes gold. Also added were recommendations to Ubuntu software center, and a new tool called 'privacy' and other small new features."

Too early, wrong server

[JRiddell]

Hi, I'm the release driver for Beta 1.

Ubuntu Beta 1 is not released yet and will not be released until posted to ubuntu-announce [ubuntu.com]. Until then we might pull the images if we find problems.

This slashdot story is also weirdly linking to the wrong server for Ubuntu, cdimage has only DVDs and other obscure images for Ubuntu, almost everyone will want the CDs. You can find the link to those on the release announcement when it is posted.

Re:AND it's no longer relevant.

[emblemparade]

The funding amounted to paying one single Canonical employee to work specifically on Kubuntu.

Kubuntu is remaining an official Ubuntu variant and will continue to be updated by the community. Moreover, bugs to the KDE package (which is part of the main repository) will continue to be fixed by anyone at Canonical, and patches will continue to be sent upstream.

The "drop funding" issue has been blown out of proportion.

Re:AND it's no longer relevant.

[JRiddell]

Please stay with us. I will be making an announcement soon which will explain how Kubuntu will continue after 12.04 just as it did for 11.10 (when Canonical also did not fund anyone to work on it).

Re:10.10 updates will expire

[David Gerard]

ALWAYS INSTALL XUBUNTU CLEANLY, not over an existing GNOME3/Unity infestation. Unity messes with various GTK+ settings in your config and shit won't work right.

Re:AND it's no longer relevant.

[g2devi]

I'm on 11.10 now after stalling at 10.10 until about a month ago. I figured GNOME 2.0 is on the way out so I'd eventually have to get used to some other environment.

I gave Unity a shot, but it was too slow. Unity 2D is pretty snappy and not too bad, but it's really meant only for people who run one application at a time. I don't so it was always getting in my way. I couldn't stand Kubuntu and Lubuntu felt awkward.

But Xubuntu is most definitely a viable option even if it is a step down from GNOME 2.x.

I would have settled on XFCE, but discovered to my surprise that GNOME Shell with extensions gives you 95% of everything GNOME 2.0 did and has almost the same look and feel. It's what I'm using now and I'd rather move to Debian than give it up (if Ubuntu stopped supporting it).

So I'd suggest to take the plunge and upgrade. You have at least two viable options awaiting you.

Re:AND it's no longer relevant.

[mug funky]

all due respect, i am running 10.10 netbook remix (first test of unity), and i currently have 3 browsers open, 3 terminals, a photo-editing app (darktable is pretty damn good these days) which i compile myself, plus skype, and occasionally dosbox'd doom2 and carmageddon.

the interface will get out of your way if you hit f11.

just sayin'. unity is certainly not perfect, but i use the sidebar more often than not. some stuff i'll launch from a terminal.

Kubuntu and KDE

[JRiddell]

Here is the announcement from Kubuntu [kubuntu.org] that confirms we will carry on for 12.04 and thereafter just as we did before. There are other sponsors of Kubuntu besides Canonical and a thriving contributor community.

Re:AND it's no longer relevant.

[IronHalik]

How come you refer to single people who like Unity, and you say 'we' when referring to those who don't? As far as I can tell, from Ubuntu IRC channels, people who are so troubled by Unity are in minority. Very loud minority.

If you don't like it, there's XFCE for you - it has been branded as the 'proper' DE by Torvalds himself.

For me, Unity allows for less clutter, faster access to files and software, more real estate. What it could do, is use Mutter instead of Compiz - it's faster and less bloated. (Gnome-shell uses it)

Re:AND it's no longer relevant.

[Anonymous Coward]

Doom 2 in dosbox? You're doing it wrong. Check out a modern source port like GZDoom / ZDoom or even Skulltag.

Re:10.10 updates will expire

[rubycodez]

bullshit, it's a pain in the ass.

remove the .gconf* and .gnome directories in your home directories or your xfce stuff will be partially fucked by GNOME3

then

sudo apt-get remove adium-theme-ubuntu apg appmenu-gtk appmenu-gtk3 appmenu-qt at-spi2-core bamfdaemon banshee banshee-extension-soundmenu banshee-extension-ubuntuonemusicstore baobab binfmt-support bluez-gstreamer branding-ubuntu brasero brasero-cdrkit brasero-common checkbox checkbox-gtk cli-common compiz compiz-core compiz-gnome compiz-plugins-default compiz-plugins-main-default compizconfig-backend-gconf deja-dup duplicity dvd+rw-tools empathy empathy-common eog evolution-data-server evolution-data-server-common example-content gbrainy gedit gedit-common geoclue geoclue-ubuntu-geoip ginn gir1.2-atspi-2.0 gir1.2-gnomebluetooth-1.0 gir1.2-gtksource-3.0 gir1.2-indicate-0.6 gir1.2-peas-1.0 gir1.2-totem-1.0 gir1.2-totem-plparser-1.0 gir1.2-wnck-3.0 gnome-bluetooth gnome-control-center gnome-control-center-data gnome-desktop3-data gnome-disk-utility gnome-font-viewer gnome-icon-theme-symbolic gnome-media gnome-nettool gnome-online-accounts gnome-orca gnome-power-manager gnome-screensaver gnome-screenshot gnome-search-tool gnome-session gnome-session-bin gnome-session-canberra gnome-session-common gnome-settings-daemon gnome-system-log gnome-system-monitor gnome-terminal gnome-terminal-data gnome-user-share gnome-utils-common growisofs gstreamer0.10-gconf gvfs-backends gwibber gwibber-service gwibber-service-facebook gwibber-service-identica gwibber-service-twitter hwdata ibus-gtk3 indicator-appmenu indicator-datetime indicator-power indicator-session intel-gpu-tools libappindicator0.1-cil libarchive1 libatk-adaptor libatspi2.0-0 libaudio2 libbamf0 libbamf3-0 libboost-serialization1.46.1 libbrasero-media3-1 libcamel-1.2-29 libcanberra-pulse libcdio-cdda0 libcdio-paranoia0 libcdio10 libcompizconfig0 libdbus-glib1.0-cil libdbus1.0-cil libdbusmenu-qt2 libdconf-dbus-1-0 libdconf-qt0 libdconf0 libdecoration0 libebackend-1.2-1 libebook1.2-12 libecal1.2-10 libedata-book-1.2-11 libedata-cal-1.2-13 libedataserver1.2-15 libedataserverui-3.0-1 libexempi3 libfolks-telepathy25 libfolks25 libgail-3-common libgail-common libgconf2.0-cil libgdata-common libgdata1.7-cil libgdata13 libgdiplus libgdu-gtk0 libgeoclue0 libgexiv2-0 libgif4 libgkeyfile1.0-cil libglew1.5 libglewmx1.5 libglib2.0-bin libglib2.0-cil libglib2.0-data libgmime-2.4-2 libgmime2.4-cil libgnome-control-center1 libgnome-desktop-3-2 libgnome-media-profiles-3.0-0 libgnome-menu2 libgnome2-common libgnomekbd-common libgnomekbd7 libgoa-1.0-0 libgpgme11 libgpod-common libgpod4 libgtk-sharp-beans-cil libgtk2.0-cil libgtkmm-3.0-1 libgtksourceview-3.0-0 libgtksourceview-3.0-common libgtkspell3-0 libgudev1.0-cil libgweather-3-0 libgweather-common libgwibber-gtk2 libgwibber2 libhyphen0 libidl0 liblaunchpad-integration1.0-cil liblircclient0 liblouis-data liblouis2 libmetacity-private0 libmhash2 libmission-control-plugins0 libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil libmono-addins0.2-cil libmono-cairo4.0-cil libmono-corlib4.0-cil libmono-csharp4.0-cil libmono-i18n-west4.0-cil libmono-i18n4.0-cil libmono-posix4.0-cil libmono-security4.0-cil libmono-sharpzip4.84-cil libmono-system-configuration4.0-cil libmono-system-core4.0-cil libmono-system-drawing4.0-cil libmono-system-security4.0-cil libmono-system-xml4.0-cil libmono-system4.0-cil libmono-zeroconf1.0-cil libmtp-common libmtp-runtime libmtp9 libmysqlclient16 libmythes-1.2-0 libneon27-gnutls libnotify0.4-cil libnux-1.0-0 libnux-1.0-common liboauth0 liborbit2 liboverlay-scrollbar-0.2-0 liboverlay-scrollbar3-0.2-0 libpeas-1.0-0 libpeas-common libprotobuf7 libprotoc7 libpth20 libqt4-dbus libqt4-declarative libqt4-network libqt4-opengl libqt4-script libqt4-sql libqt4-sql-mysql libqt4-svg libqt4-xml libqt4-xmlpatterns libqtbamf1 libqtcore4 libqtdee2 libqtgconf1 libqtgui4 libquvi0 libraptor2-0 librasqal3 librdf0 libreoffice-base-core libreoffice-calc libreoffice-common libreoffice-core libreoffice-draw libreoffice-emailmerge libreoffice-gn