As October nears, the Kubuntu team has been hard at work preparing for the final release of 12.10, the Quantal Quetzal. With this first Beta release, we are finalizing the changes we are making and buttoning things down. We have some interesting things happening, so read on for highlights and information.

NOTE: This is a beta pre-release. Kubuntu Pre-releases are NOT recommended for:

• Regular users who are not aware of pre-release issues
• Anyone who needs a stable system
• Anyone uncomfortable running a possibly frequently broken system
• Anyone in a production environment with data or workflows that need to be reliable

Kubuntu Pre-releases ARE recommended for:

• Regular users who want to help us test by finding, reporting, and/or fixing bugs involving installation, updgrades, and regular usage.
• Kubuntu developers

Getting Kubuntu 12.10

Upgrading from Previous Versions

To upgrade to Kubuntu 12.10 from 12.04 LTS, follow the Upgrade Instructions.

Download a Disk Image

• Bootable images for standard PCs/laptops/netbooks

• Bootable images for Kubuntu Active Tech Preview

Instructions for burning the image to a DVD or USB flash drive can be found on the Burning ISO Howto or Installation for USB Stick

We recommend you learn how to check your image file so your pre-release is as it is supposed to be. Compare your MD5 checksum with the correct ones found alongside the images.

Beta Highlights

1GB Images

We're bursting out of our increasingly limited CD-sized images. The 12.10 images need to be installed from a DVD or USB drive. This will give us the room to ship more of the world-class KDE Software.

KDE Plasma and Applications 4.9

The latest release of KDE's Plasma Workspaces and Applications brings new features and improvements all around. Highlights include further integration of Qt Quick in plasmoids making them more attractive, easier to enhance and extend and behave better on touchscreens. Dolphin file manager has improved its display and sorting and searching based on metadata. Deeper integration of Activities for files, windows and other resources. Kontact PIM suite sees bug fixes and performance improvements and introduces new tools to import mail, filters, account information, calendar data and address book entries from Thunderbird and Evolution. Kontact also now provides better Google and Facebook integration. A mail backup and restore tools has also been added. Okular document viewer and Gwenview image browser both also see added functionality and improvements.

New Software Selections

We are testing some different default software selections. Please help us test them to help determine if these choices are worthy of inclusion or not.

Calligra Suite

We are experimenting with providing the KDE Office Suite as the default in 12.10. Users are encouraged to try it out and provide feedback for this. Calligra Suite expands our offering of creativity tools to include graphics creation, and project management. Please check out the Calligra site for more.

Calligra has the best support for reading MS Office files of any open source software.

LightDM-KDE

We have replaced the login manager with LightDM which uses shiny QML based themes.

KDE Telepthy

Telepathy-KDE replaces the unmaintained Kopete as the default IM client. This new and active software project, now with developer sponsorship, provides for easy access to Facebook, Google, Yahoo and many other instant messaging protocols. Version 0.5 brings new video and chat log support, in-line images in chats and some user interface enhancements. Run it from KDE IM Contacts from the K-menu.

Skanlite

Now included on the image is Skanlite, KDE's simple image scanning application

Kamoso

Also added is Kamoso. Use your webcam to make video recordings or snapshot photos using using a simple interface that makes it very easy to use.

Kde-Config-Tablet

We have added a Wacom configuration tool for those with tablet input devices, this needs testing by anyone with the hardware necessary and feedback let for us.

OwnCloud

OwnCloud 4 adds a host of new features including shared calendars, easier sharing of files and a more shiny photo gallery. See http://owncloud.org/changelog

New in this release is owncloud-client, a desktop app to sync your folders to your OwnCloud.

Print Manager

A new manage and admin tool for printers. Print manager adds a Plasma UI to the panel applet.

Colord KDE

A new tool to calibrate your screen, webcam and printer colours.

GTK Configuration

GTK Configuration replaces GTK Settings to tweak themes of GTK applications and lets you set both GTK 2 and newer GTK 3 applications.

Kontact Facebook and Google Integration

Kontact now integrates with your Facebook and Google addresses and calendar through akonadi-facebook and akonadi-googledata.

Kubuntu Active

Still in Tech Preview but with an updated version of Plasma Active, the tablet remix of Kubuntu has images available with this beta.

Known Problems

• (1038522) Manual partitioning in installer crashes

• (1042788) Dist-upgrade from alpha 3 fails

• (1028553) Konsole complains about open tabs on logout

Feedback

We want to hear your opinions on this beta.

• Do we “Amarok”?

• Did a feature make or break your day?
• What do you flat-out dislike?

Take a look at the Ubuntu Code of Conduct, try Kubuntu 12.04 Beta 1 and head on over to the Feedback Page. Your input is an invaluable resource, so do take the time to write down your thoughts and let us know what you think!