"The Ubuntu team is pleased to announce the first beta release of Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Long-Term Support) Desktop, Server, and Netbook editions and of Ubuntu 10.04 Server for Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (UEC) and Amazon's EC2. Codenamed "Lucid Lynx", 10.04 LTS continues Ubuntu's proud tradition of integrating the latest and greatest open source technologies into a high-quality, easy-to-use Linux distribution.

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Desktop and Netbook Editions continue the trend of ever-faster boot speeds, with improved startup times and a streamlined, smoother boot experience.

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Server Edition provides even better integration of the Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud, with its install-time cloud setup.

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Server for UEC and EC2 brings the power and stability of the Ubuntu Server Edition to cloud computing, whether you're using Amazon EC2 or your own Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud.

The Ubuntu 10.04 family of variants, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Edubuntu, Ubuntu Studio, and Mythbuntu, also reach beta status today.

Desktop features
----------------

Social from the start: We now feature built-in integration with Twitter, identi.ca, Facebook, and other social networks with the MeMenu in the panel.

New Design: Cleaner and faster boot, new notification area, new themes, new icons, and new wallpaper bring a dramatically updated look and feel to Ubuntu.

Ubuntu One: Choose any folder in your home directory to sync, choose from millions of songs for purchase in the Ubuntu One Music store.

Please see http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/lucid/beta1 for details."

"This article shows how you can build your own video community using lighttpd with its mod_flv_streaming module (for streaming .flv videos, the format used by most major video communities such as YouTube) and its mod_secdownload module (for preventing hotlinking of the videos) on Ubuntu 9.10. I will use FlowPlayer as the video player, a free Flash video player with support for lighttpd's mod_flv_streaming module. I will also show how you can encode videos (.mp4 .mov .mpg .3gp .mpeg .wmv .avi) to the FLV format supported by Adobe Flash."

"Welcome to Lucid Lynx Alpha 3, which will in time become Ubuntu 10.04 LTS.

Pre-releases of Lucid 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 developers and those who want to help in testing, reporting, and fixing bugs.

Alpha 3 is the third in a series of milestone CD images that will be released throughout the Lucid development cycle. The Alpha images are known to be reasonably free of showstopper CD build or installer bugs, while representing a very recent snapshot of Lucid. You can download it here:

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/lucid/alpha-3/ (Ubuntu)
http://uec-images.ubuntu.com/releases/lucid/alpha-3/ (Ubuntu Server for UEC and EC2)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/releases/lucid/alpha-3/ (Kubuntu)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/xubuntu/releases/lucid/alpha-3/ (Xubuntu)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/edubuntu/releases/lucid/alpha-3/ (Edubuntu)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/mythbuntu/releases/lucid/alpha-3/ (Mythbuntu)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntustudio/releases/lucid/alpha-3/ (Ubuntu Studio)

See http://wiki.ubuntu.com/Mirrors for a list of mirrors.

Alpha 3 includes a number of software updates that are ready for wider testing. Please refer to http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/lucid/alpha3 for information on changes in Ubuntu.

NOTE: if you installed Lucid prior to Alpha 3, you may have libmysqlclient16 7.0.9-1 installed. This package was present in the Ubuntu archive by mistake and was retracted, but because it has a later version number than the real libmysqlclient16 package, the real package will not be installed automatically on upgrade. To ensure that you have the official package installed on your Lucid system and will receive security support for it throughout Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, please run:

sudo apt-get install libmysqlclient16/lucid

and follow the instructions.

This is quite an early set of images, so you should expect some bugs. For a list of known bugs (that you don't need to report if you encounter), please see:

http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/lucid/alpha3

If you're interested in following the changes as we further develop Lucid, have a look at the lucid-changes mailing list:

http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/lucid-changes "

"The Feature Freeze is now in effect for Lucid. The focus from here until release is on fixing bugs and polishing.

If you believe that a new package, a new upstream version of a package, or a new feature is needed for the release and will not introduce more problems than it fixes, please follow the Freeze Exception Process by filing bugs and subscribing ubuntu-release or motu-release as appropriate.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FreezeExceptionProcess

Please also make sure that specs assigned to you for Lucid are updated to their current status (which should be at least Beta Available if not Deferred, or unless granted a freeze exception).

https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/lucid/

Our next testing milestone, Lucid Alpha 3, is scheduled for Thursday, February 25. Lucid Alpha 3 will use a "soft freeze" for main. This means that developers are asked to refrain from uploading packages between Tuesday and Thursday which don't bring us closer to releasing the alpha, so that these days can be used for settling the archive and fixing any remaining showstoppers.

The list of bugs targeted for alpha-3 can be found at:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/lucid/+bugs?field.milestone=21445

Per the policy described at <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/RCBugTargetting>, this list is used for tracking bugs that are blockers for the alpha 3 milestone. If you know of other bugs that should be considered blockers, please target them to the release and set the milestone target for those bugs. If you have questions about whether a bug should be considered a blocker, please contact a member of the release team.

And of course, please also consider helping with the bugs already listed there if you have the time.

Beyond the bugs that are blockers for Alpha 3, we have those bugs that are listed as release-critical for Lucid as a whole:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/lucid/+bugs

If you aren't among the small group of people who have milestoned bugs assigned to you, please consider helping with those release-targeted bugs, using your best judgement with regard to the alpha freeze when uploading fixes.

Please also help us to get the archive in a consistent state again for the alpha, as described on <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuDevelopment/PackageArchive#Consistency>.

Finally, if you know of new features in Lucid that you think should be highlighted for Alpha 3, let me or another member of the release team know so that they can be added to the technical overview at <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LucidLynx/TechnicalOverview>.

Thanks,
--
Steve Langasek
On behalf of the Ubuntu release team"