The first alpha version of Ubuntu 16.04 (Xenial Xerus) is now available

This alpha features images for Lubuntu, Ubuntu MATE, and UbuntuKylin.

Pre-releases of the Xenial Xerus 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.

Alpha 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 Alpha 1 images have been tested and work, except as noted in
the release notes, Ubuntu developers are continuing to improve the
Xenial Xerus. In particular, once newer daily images are available, system
installation bugs identified in the Alpha 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
16.04 the best Ubuntu release yet. Always ensure your system is up to
date before reporting bugs.

Lubuntu:

Lubuntu is a flavour of Ubuntu based on LXDE and focused on providing a
very lightweight distribution.

The Alpha 1 images can be downloaded at:
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/lubuntu/releases/xenial/alpha-1/

More information on Lubuntu Alpha-1 can be found here:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/XenialXerus/Alpha1/Lubuntu

Ubuntu MATE:
Ubuntu MATE is a flavour of Ubuntu featuring the MATE desktop
environment.

The Alpha-1 images can be downloaded at:
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-mate/releases/xenial/alpha-1/

More information on Ubuntu MATE Alpha-1 can be found here:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/XenialXerus/Alpha1/UbuntuMATE

UbuntuKylin:
UbuntuKylin is a flavour of Ubuntu that is more suitable for
Chinese users.

The Alpha-1 images can be downloaded at:
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntukylin/releases/xenial/alpha-1/

More information on UbuntuKylin Alpha-1 can be found here:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/XenialXerus/Alpha1/UbuntuKylin

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
Xenial, 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, alpha 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 Alpha release!

On behalf of the Ubuntu Release Team,

Walter Lapchynski

  Ubuntu 16.04 Alpha 1 released