Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat

The newest Ubuntu operating system is coming out October 10, 2010 (10-10-10) and it is called Ubuntu Maverick Meerkat and the version is 10.10. The previous version of Ubuntu is Lucid 10.04 which is a LTS release and is the latest current release. This version is designed to be feature packed and sport the newest open source software. Some improvements in this release include: faster boot up, new theme called light and it will include more social friendly software.

Ubuntu Maverick will have 3 Alpha, 1 Beta and 1 RC releases before the final build is made. Ubuntu Alpha 1 will be released on June 3rd, Ubuntu Alpha 2 will be released on July 1, Ubuntu Alpha 3 will be released on August 5th, Beta 1 on September 2nd and the RC will be released on September 30th. The new themes are expected around the Alpha 3 release. During this time Ubuntu Lucid will have a major update on August 12th (10.04.1). The Beta version will be stable enough to run on a computer without too many issues, however the releases before then are highly experimental and can crash frequently.

Ubuntu Maverick will have some changes that end user will notice right away. This version of Ubuntu will get a new filesystem which is called BTRFS which is much better then the current filesystem that Ubuntu uses(ext4). There has been a debate wither or not it should be the default filesystem. Shotwell is going to be the new imaging software replacing f-spot. There will be more games as well. There will be more software in the repository including Guayadeque Music player and Openshot. The downside to this version of Ubuntu is that they will no longer support processors below i686.