Canonical Announces Availability of Ubuntu 9.04
IT News Online Staff
2009-04-21
Canonical Ltd., the commercial sponsor of Ubuntu, announced that Ubuntu 9.04 Desktop Edition is free to download from Thursday 23 April. Canonical also announced simultaneous releases of Ubuntu 9.04 Server Edition and Ubuntu 9.04 Netbook Remix (UNR).
Ubuntu 9.04 Desktop Edition delivers a range of feature enhancements to improve the user experience. Shorter boot speeds, some as short as 25 seconds, ensure faster access to a full computing environment on most desktop, laptop and netbook models. Enhanced suspend-and-resume features also give users more time between charges along with immediate access after hibernation. Intelligent switching between Wi-Fi and 3G environments has been broadened to support more wireless devices and 3G cards, resulting in a smoother experience for most users.
Jane Silber, COO, Canonical, said, "With every release, we see Ubuntu Desktop Edition make significant steps forward in appealing to mainstream computer users. With access to the latest office productivity suite, support for Skype and Adobe Flash, and faster boot times, we're confident that Ubuntu 9.04 Desktop Edition will see more people join millions of others and make the switch to an open platform."
Ubuntu 9.04 features OpenOffice.org 3.0. This gives users a complete office suite that is entirely compatible with Microsoft Office. This free office software provides an immediate saving of at least $200 for users who need to create presentations, write documents or manage spreadsheets at work or at home.
A new integrated notification system appears in Ubuntu 9.04 for the first time. This system combines the notification methods of various applications and presents that information in a simple, unobtrusive manner. New icons and artwork also appear in this release, part of the continual improvement of the Ubuntu user experience.
Ubuntu 9.04 Server Edition enables businesses to deploy and manage their common workloads - Web, print, file, database and mail servers - more efficiently. The new Server Edition integrates the latest, stable Open Source applications from across the community, packaged and ready for users to deploy. New enhancements include improved virtualization with the latest KVM features, clustering support in Samba file server and easier mail server setup with out-of-the-box Dovecot-Postfix integration.
New fully supported features in Ubuntu 9.04 Server Edition:
- Extended hardware compatibility ensures easier deployment for users
- Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) can now pre-install their own default first-boot configuration of Ubuntu Server Edition and replicate it across all their Ubuntu servers
- Ubuntu Server on Amazon EC2 helps businesses to deploy services to external clouds
- Virtualization updates, including support for nested virtualization, further improve infrastructure management efficiencies
- New mail server features include shared user authentication and enhanced spam protection
- Samba 3.3 provides extended cluster support for file serving and integrates with the latest Microsoft systems
- Enhanced integration between OpenChange and Microsoft Exchange encourages interoperability
- Suspend-and-Resume features deliver power-management improvements
- Security enhancements with Apparmor offer greater peace of mind
Previews:
- The Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud uses an open source system known as Eucalyptus to enable a company to test, deploy and experiment with their own private, in-house cloud that matches the Amazon EC2 API
- Advanced Message Queue Protocol (AMQP) support brings the emerging standard for high-performance enterprise messaging to Ubuntu users through Rabbit MQ
- MySQL 5.1 is the latest release of the world's most popular Open Source database server. Upgrade from the fully-supported 5.0 to 5.1 is possible now
Ubuntu 9.04 Netbook Remix comes with faster boot speeds, and with a built-for-purpose interface that means that favorite applications and Web sites are just a click away. Ubuntu Netbook Remix makes a great choice for netbook users.
"The latest feature enhancements in Ubuntu 9.04 Netbook Remix are particularly well suited to the requirements of netbook fans. Faster boot speeds, enhanced power-management features and easier switching between networks delivers the best netbook end-user experience available for download today," said Silber.
For the first time, users can download the complete Ubuntu Netbook Remix to a USB flash drive directly from Ubuntu.com. Users can then install and run Ubuntu Netbook Remix on a wide range of the most popular netbook machines available in the market today. Ubuntu 9.04 Netbook Remix has been fully tested for use on a range of netbook models including Acer Aspire One, ASUS Eee PC 1000 and Dell Mini 9.
Ubuntu Netbook Remix offers an enhanced user experience with more intuitive icons, consistent notifications across applications and numerous design changes that give the product more visual appeal.
Ubuntu 9.04 is available from 23 April 2009 and can be downloaded for free at www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu. Users can also purchase a CD, flash drive or DVD (Server Edition) at shop.canonical.com or request a free CD at shipit.canonical.com.
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