We’re preparing Kubuntu 13.04, the Raring Ringtail, for distribution in April 2013. With this beta pre-release, you can see what we are trying out in preparation for our next version. We have some interesting things happening, so read on for highlights and information.

NOTE: This is an 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
• Kubuntu developers

Getting Kubuntu 13.04 Beta 1

Download a Disk Image

• Bootable images for standard PCs/laptops/netbooks

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

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

Beta 1 Highlights

Software Updates

KDE Plasma and Applications 4.10.1

The current update release of KDE's Plasma Workspaces and Applications 4.10 adds a new screen locker, Qt Quick notifications, colour correction in Gwenview and faster indexing in the semantic desktop.

Muon Suite 2 RC

Included in Beta 1 is the pre-release version of the Muon Suite, which introduces support for installing Plasma widgets found in KDE's KNewStuff framework from within Software Center and Muon Discover.

Rekonq 2.2.1

Rekonq 2 now supports in-line spell-checking.

Homerun

A full screen alternative to the Kickoff application menu, add it to your panel to give it a try.

Screen Management

A new screen management tools makes it easy to attach and unattach extra monitors.

Oxygen Sans Font

Available on the default install is Oxygen Sans, a new font from KDE's artists.

Krita

Our painting application Krita now uses a nifty new calculations library Vc making it twice as fast as before. It also sports an artsy new black theme.

Installer

Our installer sports a professional new look

MTP Devices

Access your digital music player and smartphone through MTP protocol.

Tomahawk

Available in the archives is Tomahawk, a new music player which makes it easy to share your music with your friends over IM.

Infrastructure

Secure Boot

Kubuntu should now be able to support UEFI Secure Boot, a standard for controlling what software can be run on a computer. Supporting Secure Boot, a part of the Windows 8 certification requirements for client systems, ensures that Ubuntu will continue to provide an "it just works" experience on new hardware.

If you have hardware for this, we would appreciate your help in testing it out.

Linux kernel 3.8

The beta Raring Ringtail snapshot includes the 3.8.0-12.21 Ubuntu Linux kernel which is based on the the upstream v3.8-rc6 Linux kernel. Notable changes include initial support for arm multiplatform support for TI omap3/4 and Freescale imx6, alx ethernet driver support, misc config updates and security fixes.

GNU Toolchain

13.04 is distributed with an updated default toolchain that includes: GCC 4.7.2-21ubuntu1 (was GCC 4.7.2 in 12.10) and eglibc 2.17-0ubuntu4. ARM 64 bit cross compiler (gcc-4.7-arm64-cross 0.5.0) is also available.

Further information can be found upstream (GCC-4.7, gdb).

Java Toolchain

OpenJDK7 is the default Java implementation. Current revision is: OpenJDK-7 7u15-2.3.7-1ubuntu2.

Known Problems

Kubuntu

Feedback

Development of Kubuntu 13.04, the Raring Ringtail is ongoing and bugs are fixed every day. Before reporting bugs, please ensure your system is up to date. For verifying installation related bugs, updated disk images are available from Daily bootable images for standard PCs/laptops/netbooks.

You can give us feedback on the Kubuntu Google+ page.