What comes after a Hoary Hedgehog? If you’re Ubuntu Linux, it’s a Breezy
Badger.
Ubuntu Linux 5.10 is now available and includes a number of enhancements
that improve installation, networking and server support, including the Linux 2.6.12.6 kernel and GNOME 2.12.1, among the usual suspects.
The release, code-named Breezy Badger, follows the April release of Hoary Hedgehog.
Ubuntu Linux is a Debian GNU/Linux-derived distribution sponsored by
Canonical, which is owned by space tourist and South African Internet
magnate Mark Shuttleworth.
Breezy Badger supports x86, PowerPC, AMD64 platforms and includes a
live version, as well as a version specifically optimized for servers.
“As always, we’ve brought the latest and greatest of open source software
together in Ubuntu and made it more accessible than ever,” Ubuntu CTO Matt
Zimmerman told internetnews.com.
“We’ve put a lot of effort into providing
for translations of Ubuntu, adding a new tool to make it easy to install
support for multiple languages and providing direct access to our Web-based
translation tool, Rosetta, from the Help menu of many applications on the
desktop.
“We’ve polished up the boot process with a graphical splash screen and
progress bar, and vastly improved out-of-the-box support for laptops,”
Zimmerman added.
So what’s thinner, a badger or a hedgehog? If you guessed a badger you’d be right, (in the case of Ubuntu 5.10 at
least), as the distro integrates thin-client capabilities.
Thin clients boot their operating systems remotely from a server.
According to Ubuntu its OS management tools will work for both the server
and the thin client. Ubuntu is making use of the Linux Terminal Server Project (LTSP) to make the Badger a thin beast.
LTSP’s Jim McQuillan wrote on the LTSP site that there are some differences between Ubuntu’s implementation of LTSP and the
current version LTSP 4.1.1.
“But we have worked very closely with the Ubuntu
team to help ensure that it works very well, and I must say that I’m very
impressed with the results,” McQuillan wrote.
Installer support for OEMs has also been added to Ubuntu with this new
release. According to the company, “Ubuntu can be pre-installed and
tested without configuring end-user information. The user will be asked to
complete that configuration (name, timezone and password) upon first
startup.”
HP is among the OEM vendors that reportedly ships notebooks pre-loaded
with Ubuntu, in South Africa and parts of EMEA at least.
Though Ubuntu is arguably the most popular Debian-based distribution, it
is not part of the nascent DCC Alliance, which was originally called the Debian Common Core Alliance.
“We have chosen not to participate in the DCC Alliance for the simple
reason that we do not believe it will be successful,” Zimmerman said. “We
would prefer to devote our finite resources to pursuing our existing goals
with Ubuntu, as we remain confident that this is our most effective way to
contribute to the success of free software.”
A spokesperson for the DCCA was unavailable for comment by press time.
