Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) has been released

[aidanjt]

Yup, it's that time of the bi-year, again. It was released yesterday, actually, but I'm busy moving into a new place and I have a little free time this morning, so I thought I'd give my fellow Hexites the heads up, for those who haven't noticed, yet, that is.

Features Page.
Release announcement.
Kubuntu release announcement and overview.
Release Notes.

PC Pro review.
Google translated review from a Cech site.

Main download page.
Oxford mirror.
HEAnet mirror.
Main Kubuntu download page.

In this release, Unity has become the default environment for both netbooks and laptops/desktops, which does away with the netbook image. You can (as I have) revert to the old Gnome 2 environment by changing your session to "Ubuntu Classic" at the gdm login dialog.

I still need to check out Kubuntu.

[Biscuit]

Looks good!

Not gunna get to try it out until i go back down south but seems like my macbook may stop having OSX on it entirely now

[aidanjt]

I'm not especially fond of Unity, particularly on my desktop. It works well where pixels are at a premium, though. And they still haven't made evolution hide on close. It just quits and removes the handy indicator shortcuts.

But anyway, going to give Kubuntu a spin in an hour or so, just to see how KDE 4.6 is.

[watercooled]

Thanks for the heads up, this completely slipped my notice! Will DL and have a play later.

[The Fish]

I'm new to Linux, but a previous issue got me looking at it. {Think that may have been your advice Watercooled..]

I have installed Windows Vitual Pc on my 7 Ultimate O/S, running XP mode. Just to play with VM really as that's new to me. Can I install Ubuntu on there to play with? I can't see why not, but as both VM and Linux are soooo new to me thought I would ask.

Cheers fellers.

[aidanjt]

It probably wont work right on Virtual PC, since Microsoft doesn't particularly want to support competitors. But It will work just fine on VirtualBox, or VMware Player.

[peterb]

One way to find out... try it and see! (and then post the results back here please!)

[Splash]

It probably wont work right on Virtual PC, since Microsoft doesn't particularly want to support competitors. But It will work just fine on VirtualBox, or VMware Player.

Just be aware that VMWare doesn't have the VGA acceleration features required for Unity, though Virtualbox may well do.

[aidanjt]

Just be aware that VMWare doesn't have the VGA acceleration features required for Unity, though Virtualbox may well do.

Yeah, VBox's OpenGL accel works just fine with Linux guests. Works for compiz, probably will work for unity.

[billythewiz]

Can I install Ubuntu on there to play with?

What you could try is the windows installer.

As the name suggests it installs as a windows app. On boot you get a choice, Ubuntu or Windows. If you don't like it just un-install it from windows (as you would any other windows app).

Easy.

[aidanjt]

Yeah, it is slower with I/O than a VM, though. So loading stuff will probably feel sluggish.

[The Fish]

Thanks to all of you who replied, at a stroke my VM knowledge increases lol. Billythewiz makes an interesting point but I'll probably try both, and virtualbox seems to be the better bet graphically.

Cheers all.

[aidanjt]

I should probably add that fullscreen flash video now works properly (on Intel's i945 IGP at least)! \o/

[Raz316]

Really chuffed with it, even with upgrading to each release instead of doing a nice clean fresh install I have been pleased to see a slight increase in speed. The space saving really makes running on a 1024x768 monitor much less of a squeeze

[Splash]

I have to say that I'm liking Unity. A lot.

[Raz316]

Me too, I've not used this type of launcher before, but I use it without thinking and when opening new apps I just press the 'windows' key and start typing.

Tempted to try getting steam working in Linux now.