The second alpha of the Xenial Xerus (to become 16.04) has now been
released!

This alpha features images for Lubuntu, Ubuntu MATE,
Ubuntu Kylin and the Ubuntu Cloud images.

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 2 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 2 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 2 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 Lubuntu 16.04 Alpha 2 images can be downloaded from:

* http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/lubuntu/releases/xenial/alpha-2/

More information about Lubuntu 16.04 Alpha 2 can be found here:

* https://wiki.ubuntu.com/XenialXerus/Alpha2/Lubuntu


Ubuntu MATE:
Ubuntu MATE is a flavour of Ubuntu featuring the MATE desktop
environment for people who just want to get stuff done.

The Ubuntu MATE 16.04 Alpha 2 images can be downloaded from:

* http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-mate/releases/xenial/alpha-2/

More information about Ubuntu MATE 16.04 Alpha 2 can be found here:

* https://wiki.ubuntu.com/XenialXerus/Alpha2/UbuntuMATE


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

The Ubuntu Kylin 16.04 Alpha 2 images can be downloaded from:

* http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntukylin/releases/xenial/alpha-2/

More information about Ubuntu Kylin 16.04 Alpha 2 can be found here:

* https://wiki.ubuntu.com/XenialXerus/Alpha2/UbuntuKylin


Ubuntu Cloud:
Ubuntu Cloud images can be run on Amazon EC2, Openstack, SmartOS and
many other clouds.

The Alpha-2 images can be downloaded from:

* http://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/releases/xenial/alpha-2/


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
Wily, 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 Ubuntu Release Team, Martin Wimpress and Walter Lapchynski.