ADMIN - Explore the new world of system administration! Special introductory offer! Order by September 30th to save 10% off the regular subscription price! Each issue delivers technical solutions to the real-world problems you face every day. Learn the latest techniques for better:
network security
system management
troubleshooting
performance tuning
virtualization
cloud computing
on Windows, Linux, Solaris, and popular varieties of Unix.
The first alpha release of the successor to Ubuntu 9.04 is available for download. Ubuntu 9.10, code-named Karmic Koala, includes Kernel 2.6.30 and GNOME 2.27.1.
Karmic Koala, aka Ubuntu 9.10, is expected to appear in its final version some time in October of this year. Developer Martin Pitt announced its first alpha only weeks after Ubuntu 9.04 shipped.
Alpha 1 is first and foremost for developers only, albeit stable, and as a rule includes a whole bunch of bugs. A collection of prior postings and a chance to subscribe for posting new ones are on the Karmic-changes page.
The alpha currently has the developer version of Kernel 2.9.30, GNOME 2.27.1 and the driver architecture for Intel processors that should migrate from the EXA to UXA acceleration method over the course of the Karmic Koala release cycle.
Ubuntu especially needs testing of the new "kernel mode setting" feature designed to reduce the flicker of video mode switching at boot-up and speed up suspend/resume. Karmic Koala also uses GCC 4.4 as the default compiler, which also went through some fundamental changes.
Comments