DapperFlight5

Revision 17 as of 2006-03-07 19:43:49

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WORK IN PROGRESS

SCREENSHOTS WILL BE ADDED AS SOME OF THE ARTWORK STARTS TO GET FINIALIZED

Introduction

Assistive Technology

The introduction of gfxboot has made possible a radical improvement in accessibility support on the live CD. Starting in Flight 5, it will now be possible to select one of several accessibility options from the very first boot screen. Having enabled assistive technology from start of the live CD process it is now possible for disabled users to complete the installation independently, using Ubuntu Express and the assistive technology systems available in Gnome.

Add/Remove Applications

Free Windows Software

As usual the Live CD contains a small selection of useful software for the Windows platform. For this release that includes Abiword, Firefox, Gaim, Gimp and Thunderbird. The layout of the Win-FOSS CD browser has been redesigned to make it as dapper as the rest of the distribution.

attachment:ff_scr.png

Graphical Power Tools

gdebi

Run As Different User

Graphical Shutdown

Many Linux distributions have had graphical start up screens for a while now. No Linux distribution has had a complete graphical shut down process... until now. Starting with Flight 5, Ubuntu 6.04 now uses usplash to provide a graphical shut down screen. This gives Ubuntu a more professional and user friendly feel overall. Users now see almost no text messages on the start up and shut down screens. Watch this short movie below for a sneak peak at this great new feature.

Movie X: Graphical Shut Down via usplash

attachment:usplash-shut-down-movie.gif

This movie is a 30 second long clip and will play in a loop. Actual shut down times are faster than shown in this movie.

Things To Come

Even though we are nearing the end of this development cycle there are still many great things to come. Here is a quick preview of what to expect to see during the coming weeks.

Artwork

There is some great new artwork floating around. There is also a new icon set that may very well be ready in time for Dapper. You can get a sneak preview of these great new icons here:

Stay Tuned!

Download Flight 5

Get it while it's hot. ISOs and torrents are available at:

Participate in Ubuntu

If you would like to help shape Ubuntu, take a look at the list of ways you can participate at

Some things you can do to help Ubuntu right now is to simply download the CD (links above) perform some basic testing and report bugs when you find them.

Testing

If you plan to do an installation of Dapper Flight 5 be sure to head to ["Testing"]. With just a few minutes of time at your hands, you can really help to improve Ubuntu. We have two different tests, one takes just a short while, the other is more thorough.

  • ["Testing/Current"] - Just simply note how your installation went
  • ["Testing/Short"] - the short test
  • ["Testing/Long"] - the longer test

Reporting Bugs

Your comments, bug reports, patches and suggestions will help fix bugs and improve future releases. Please report bugs through Launchpad's Bug tracker Malone:

More Information

You can find out more about Ubuntu on our website, IRC channel and wiki. If you're new to Ubuntu, please visit:

To sign up for future Ubuntu development announcements, please subscribe to Ubuntu's development announcement list at:

Additional Resources

Here are some additional resources discussing current Ubuntu 6.04 and GNOME 2.14 developments.

GNOME 2.14

Previous Flights

All comments, suggestions, etc... about this document can be fired, out of a cannon, at: [mailto:matt.t.galvin@gmail.com Matt Galvin]