Introduction

The Xubuntu developers are moving very quickly to bring you the absolute latest and greatest software the Ubuntu and Xfce community have to offer. Gutsy Gibbon Tribe 2 is the second of several alpha releases for Xubuntu 7.10. With this Tribe comes a whole host of excellent new features. The feature list for 7.10 has been steadily growing since Gutsy opened a month ago. Many exciting new packages have been uploaded to Xubuntu, and developers continue to work to add even more features that will appear later in the release cycle.

Note: This is still alpha (not a stable) release! Alpha releases of Gutsy are not encouraged for anyone who needs a stable system or who is not comfortable running into a broken system. Alpha releases of Gutsy ARE recommended for Xubuntu developers and anyone interested in helping to test, report, and fix bugs.

Packages Updates

Gnash

The long-awaited free and open source Flash implementation, Gnash, is uploaded in the latest test release of Gutsy. Thanks to the development efforts of those involved with the GNU Project, Gnash is now mostly SWF 7 compliant, with Flash v8 and v9 compliance in the works. This release of Gnash features several improvements, including bug and security fixes. Gnash can be installed on 32-bit and 64-bit processors using the standard package included in the repositories via these instructions.

Xubuntu Restricted Extras

The xubuntu-resticted-extras package is a meta package which will allow for the instillation of many popular restricted packages. Installing this package will pull in support for MP3 playback and decoding, the Java 6 Runtime Environment, Adobe's Flash player plugin, DVD playback and more. Note: the packages which are installed via xubuntu-restricted-extras include packages from the multiverse repository which are restricted by copyright or legal issues in some countries. See http://www.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/licensing for more information.

Nspluginwrapper

Nspluginwrapper is a plugin which allows for the compatibility of Netscape-related plugins (like those for Mozilla's Firefox). Nspluginwrapper allows for the installation of these plugins for architectures for which they are not built. For example, this will allow for Adobe's Flash player plugin work on 64-bit machines without the user using untrusted webpages and unsupported methods.

Murrine Theme Engine

Murrine is a theming engine which is designed to help you easily configure the theming of your system while keeping it nice and shiny. The upload is just the engine for Murrina and includes some bug fixes while polishing Murrina to work nicer with dark colored themes.

Iceape

New in Gutsy is Iceape, the unbranded version of Mozilla's Seamonkey Internet Suite. This included a web browser, IRC application, address book, and more. Iceape is a good package to install for Xubuntu users looking for a full set of tools related to Internet usage.

Xfce 4.4.1

The latest stable release of the Xfce Desktop is installed in Tribe 2. Included in Xfce 4.4.1 are many bugs fixes and translation updates. A preview of the Xubuntu desktop can be found below:

Kernel

Xubuntu Tribe 2 ships with the 2.6.22-7 Linux kernel. T he Tribe 2 kernel will take advantage of significant enhancements and fixes that have been merged in the last few months into the mainline (Linus) kernel.

Looking Forward

Xfce 4.4.2

The Xubuntu Development team is eagerly anticipating the release of Xfce 4.4.2, which will include several bug fixes. Once it has been released by Xfce, it will be uploaded to Gutsy.

Documentation

The Xubuntu Documentation team has benefited with the addition of several members and has begun submitting patches to the Xubuntu documentation. This means the migration toward Topic Based Help has begun. In the future, users looking at the Xubuntu documentation should be able to quickly find the information they need.

Download Tribe 2

Get it while it's hot. ISOs and torrents for all Ubuntu projects are available at:

• http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/gutsy/tribe-2/ (Ubuntu)
  http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/releases/gutsy/tribe-2/ (Kubuntu)
  http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/edubuntu/releases/gutsy/tribe-2/ (Edubuntu)
  http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/xubuntu/releases/gutsy/tribe-2/ (Xubuntu)

Bugs

Gutsy Gibbon does ship with bugs! Your comments, bug reports, patches and suggestions will help fix bugs and improve future releases. Please report bugs through Malone, Ubuntu's bug tracker.

If you want to help out with bug reports, the BugSquad is always looking for help.

Participate in Xubuntu

If you would like to help shape Xubuntu, take a look at the list of ways you can participate at http://www.ubuntu.com/community/participate/ and http://xubuntu.org/devel

More Information

You can find out more about Xubuntu on our website.

For user discussion, help, and support then please subscribe to the Xubuntu user mailing list at https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/xubuntu-users .

Feedback

To follow the discussion about Xubuntu development, please subscribe to the Xubuntu development mailing list at:

https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/xubuntu-devel