Ubuntu 11.10 Alpha 2 arrives for testing
Canonical and the Ubuntu development team have announced the release of a second alpha version of Ubuntu 11.10, code-named "Oneiric Ocelot". Oneiric Ocelot Alpha 2 is based on the upcoming version 3.0 (rc5) Linux kernel and ships with GNOME 3.0 based foundations, but the controversial Unity desktop is still the default desktop. Unity, the theme and the Ayatana scroll bars have been updated for GTK/GNOME 3 compatibility.
As previously planned, LightDM has now replaced the GNOME Display Manager (GDM) as the display and login manager, and Déjà Dup, the simple backup utility, is now included in the standard installation. Alpha 2 also sees Mozilla's Thunderbird 5.0 replace GNOME Evolution as the default mail client, though this is still a provisional feature. Package updates include Firefox 5, version 1.1.10 of the VLC Media Player, version 4.6.1 of the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) and a snapshot of Mesa 7.11.
As with all development releases, use in production environments and on mission critical systems is not advised. Users testing the release are encouraged to provide feedback and report any bugs that they find.
