The
first alpha build for
Ubuntu 9.04 was released a week ago and there wasn't too much to take note of in this inaugural development release for the
Jaunty Jackalope. Many of the packages were the same as what can be found in
Ubuntu 8.10, there was the same theme, and the
exciting Ubuntu 9.04 features have yet to be implemented. However, since that release several new packages have been accepted into Jaunty that begin to show change.
While Ubuntu 9.04 will hopefully be shipping with the
Linux 2.6.29 kernel, the latest release candidate for
Linux 2.6.28 is currently the default kernel in the Jaunty repository, which is a step-up compared to
Linux 2.6.27 in the Intrepid Ibex release.
Perhaps more interesting to end-users than a new kernel is a Firefox upgrade. Firefox 3.1 will be the web-browser in this next Ubuntu release. The Ubuntu package in the development repository is currently based off of Firefox 3.1 Beta 2. Some of the features for Firefox 3.1 and the Gecko 1.9.1 engine that powers it can be found on the
Mozilla Wiki.
Ubuntu developers are also transitioning from Mono 1.9 to
Mono 2.0 with many of the updated packages already appearing in the Jaunty repository.
Exciting us this week from the changes in the Ubuntu 9.04 package set include the libdrm (the Direct Rendering Manager library) being bumped to version 2.4.1 and the
Intel 2.5 graphics driver being introduced. With those updates plus the Linux 2.6.28 kernel, it would be possible to easily build the Intel driver with the
Graphics Execution Manager enabled.
Many other packages have also been updated in the past few days -- including
NetworkManager and a horde of GNOME software. To see all of the changes, look at the
jaunty-changes archives. If you are really interested, there is the
jaunty-changes mailing list, which is very high traffic as you'll be notified anytime a new package is accepted for into 9.04.