Ubuntu 19.04 Beta Now Available For Testing With Linux 5.0 + GNOME Shell 3.32 Experience

Ubuntu 19.04 "Disco Dingo" beta images have begun surfacing this evening as the first official test release (sans the generally great daily ISOs) for those wanting to begin testing this next six-month installment of Ubuntu Linux ahead of its official mid-April debut.

Ubuntu 19.04 is shaping up to be a great update, in large part thanks to using many GNOME 3.32 components for its default (X.Org-based) desktop experience. GNOME 3.32 is a really great release from performance enhancements to bug fixes. Separate from GNOME, Ubuntu 19.04 is running around ~8% faster than 18.10 based upon our testing thus far.

Under the hood, Ubuntu 19.04 is working on the Linux 5.0 kernel, GCC 8.3, Mesa 19.0, Python 3.7, and other updated software components that came about over the past half-year.

Available so far are the Ubuntu server images spun for the Ubuntu 19.04 beta milestone as well as the desktop ISOs. Some participating flavors like Ubuntu MATE are also out with their disco betas.

Ubuntu 19.04 is set to be officially released on 18 April. To meet that deadline, a release candidate is scheduled for the prior week on 11 April.