Online training for the desktop - Available now at the Ubuntu shop

About Ubuntu

Introduction

The Ubuntu developers are moving very quickly to bring you the absolute latest and greatest software the Open Source Community has to offer. The Feisty Fawn Herd 1 is the first alpha release of Ubuntu 7.04, and with this new alpha release comes a whole host of excellent new features. The feature list for 7.04 has been slowly growing more exact since Feisty opened late last month. While looking forward nothing is completely certain, here are some of the new things that have already arrived, such as GNOME 2.17, the new 2.6.19 kernel, as well as a good look at the approved specifications for Feisty.

Note: This is still an alpha release. Do not install it on production machines. The final stable version will be released in April 2007.

Contents

  1. In General
  2. GNOME 2.17
    1. New Games: Sudoku and Chess
    2. Your disk in ring view
    3. Other changes
  3. Kernel 2.6.19
  4. Massive merge from Debian
  5. Download Herd 1
  6. Reporting Bugs
  7. Participate in Ubuntu
  8. More Information
  9. Credits
  10. Feedback

In General

So what are we going to get? It is hard to exactly predict, but some things seem certain. Feisty will certainly lead the way with new desktop technologies, including 3d effects and windows that wobble. On the networking side, Network Manager is likely going to finally make it on the default desktop, after what seems like forever waiting in the wings. On the Zeroconf side, Feisty will have Avahi installed and enabled by default. Upstart, the sysvinit replacement, is going to have the new event-based init system actually turned on, for faster and more reliable booting.

The Ubuntu Marketing team is currently preparing a slightly more lengthy document on Feisty, but for now you can read Scott James Remnant's excellent blog post on the topic.

GNOME 2.17

GNOME 2.17 is still shaping up and there are a lot of features still to come, including potential new applications. However, there have already been a few new features landed in various parts of the GNOME desktop. Of course the largest one is the addition of two new games, Sudoku and Chess, although we can't forget minor changes like the Disk Analyser (Baobob) being able to handle ring graphs (to make more room for games, of course) and GNOME power manager now able to scale the frequency of your processor (again, to be able to play those games as fast as possible).

For further information, please see the GNOME Roadmap and the draft release notes for 2.17.

New Games: Sudoku and Chess

With a change of maintainers in gnome-games, the pleas for new and more exciting games was heard. After two surveys, one to figure out which game to remove and another to determine to which one to add, two winners emerged: gnome-sudoku and glchess. Both of these games have now been added to gnome-games 2.17 and you can find them under Applications > Games > Chess or Sudoku. Of course, one game did get axed. Sadly Ataxx, a game similar to Reversi or Othello didn't make it.

Chess, GNOME style

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FeistyFawn/Herd1?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=chess.png

Sudoku, GNOME style

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FeistyFawn/Herd1?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=sudoku.png

Your disk in ring view

One of the new tools that came with Ubuntu 6.10 was the Disk Usage Analyzer. With this new version, you can easily view your disk usage stastics in a more intuitive manner.

Disk analyzer

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FeistyFawn/Herd1?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=boabob.png

Other changes

There were a number of minor changes as well, including the ability of gnome-power-manager (GPM) to be able to control processor frequency scaling, allowing you to save power. GPM also now uses significantly less memory on laptops. There are many new theme changes, including the ability to change the language and session types into drop down menus in GDM and a new theme version for the desktop, allowing for easier and more power in theme creation.

Kernel 2.6.19

With Herd 1 comes the latest new kernel, hot off the presses: 2.6.19. Although the eventual [plan for Feisty is to use the 2.6.20 kernel], the .19 kernel does bring a few new things, including the GFS clustered file system. the new ext4 (currently very much an alpha and for developers only), eCryptFS, which sits on top of existing file systems and much more. You can read more on the Kernel Newbies 2.6.19 page.

Massive merge from Debian

As with the beginning of any development cycle, the Feisty one has seen the merge floodgates open once again. This merge not only brings in lots of new version of various packages, but also a fair number of totally new applications. You can read more in an older Ubuntu Weekly News, #22.

Download Herd 1

Get it while it's hot. ISOs and torrents are available at:

Reporting Bugs

Feisty Fawn has bugs! (I bet you're not surprised). Your comments, bug reports, patches and suggestions will help fix bugs and improve future releases. Please report bugs through Malone

If you want to help out with those bugs, the Bug Squad is always looking for help.

Participate in Ubuntu

If you would like to help shape Ubuntu, take a look at the list of ways you can participate at

More Information

You can find out more about Ubuntu on our website and wiki.

To sign up for future Ubuntu development announcements, please subscribe to Ubuntu's development announcement list at:

Credits

The Herd 1 release notes were brought to you by:

  • Corey Burger

  • Eldo Varghese

  • Melissa Draper

  • Tony Yarruso

  • Colin Watson

Feedback

This document is maintained by the Ubuntu Marketing Team. Please feel free to contact us regarding any concerns or suggestions by either sending an email to ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com or by using any of the other methods on the Ubuntu Marketing Team wiki page.