Ubuntu 20.10 Beta Released For Testing

The Ubuntu 20.10 "Groovy Gorilla" beta is now available for testing of Ubuntu Desktop / Cloud / Server products as well as derivatives like Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Ubuntu Budgie, Ubuntu Kylin, Ubuntu MATE, Ubuntu Studio, and Xubuntu.

Ubuntu 20.10 is due for its official release on 22 October while the beta serves as the prime opportunity for testing it to avoid any last minute snafus. Ubuntu 20.10 is riding high atop the stable Linux 5.8 kernel, migrated to the GCC 10 compiler this cycle, Active Directory support was added to the installer, continued work on the opt-in ZFS root file-system support, restricting access to dmesg, and on the desktop side is rounded out by the recently released GNOME 3.38 that has many improvements in its own right.

Ubuntu 20.10 beta images along with spins of all the other flavors can be found available for download from the mailing list announcement.

Next week meanwhile will mark the kernel freeze for Ubuntu 20.10 along with the non-language-pack translation deadline. On 15 October is the final freeze and release candidate while the official release will then come a week later on 22 October.