Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope Has Been Released

New features include:

1) Gnome 2.26 desktop environment, which includes the following new features:

a) brasero, an all-in-one CD burning application.
b) Improved multi-monitor handling.

2) X.Org server 1.6, which supports several new video cards, as well as ATI-specific performance improvements including EXA acceleration by default, 2D support for R6xx/R7xx, 3D support for R5xx cards, along with an updated -fglrx proprietary driver for R6xx/R7xx 3D support.

3) New notification style and preferences.
4) Boot performance is "significantly improved".
5) Linux kernel 2.6.28-11.37, which is based on 2.6.28.8.
6) Ext4 file system support.

7) Server edition includes support for cloud computing via Eucalyptus, an open source technology which is included in Ubuntu as a technology preview, enables you to use your own servers to deploy, experiment and test your own private cloud that matches the Amazon EC2 API.

8) Turn-key mail servers with the dovecot-postfix package, which supports SMTP, POP3 and IMAP with TLS and SASL.

Ubuntu has published upgrade instructions for those wishing to migrate from 8.10 (the previous release).

"To upgrade from Ubuntu 8.10 on a desktop system, press Alt+F2 and type in update-manager -d into the command box. Update Manager should open up and tell you: New distribution release '9.04' is available. Click Upgrade and follow the on-screen instructions.

"To upgrade from Ubuntu 8.10 on a server system: install the update-manager-core package if it is not already installed; edit /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades and set Prompt=normal; launch the upgrade tool with the command sudo do-release-upgrade; and follow the on-screen instructions."

Google's Matt Cutts shows us how fast JJ can load using an Intel X25-E Etreme Single-Level Cell (SLC) SDD. The X25-E has a 75 microsecond latency, and up to 250 MB/s read speeds, and 170 MB/s write speeds. From notebook power-on to Firefox launched and running Google, it was 23.0 seconds, with about 5.5 seconds being the notebook's BIOS. At 18 seconds it had a mouse pointer and at around 22 to 23 seconds Firefox was loaded with the Google page.