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CASPER

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Exciting Features For Ubuntu 9.04

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Ubuntu Jaunty

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If all goes according to plan, the first alpha release for Ubuntu 9.04 (the Jaunty Jackalope) will be released tomorrow. This first alpha release will show early signs of what we can expect to see in this next Canonical-sponsored release -- albeit many of the features are still in planning. In this article we will provide a glimpse at what Ubuntu 9.04 should hold in store to captivate Linux desktop users.

When Mark Shuttleworth had announced Ubuntu 9.04 in September, he expressed interest in making this popular Linux distribution boot "blindly quick", which shouldn't be surprising considering Ubuntu's presence on more and more devices through the desktop spin on notebooks, Ubuntu Mobile on MIDs, and Ubuntu Netbook Remix on netbooks. The goal with Ubuntu 9.04 is to expedite the boot process through kernel modifications and optimizing other services.

Canonical isn't the only Linux vendor interested in speeding up the boot performance but Mandriva has been doing the same, Intel has been aggressively interested in speeding up the boot process (with their Moblin project included), and many other companies also involved. If you are interested in learning more about Linux boot performance, you may be interested in our Ubuntu boot-time benchmarks and Fedora start-up benchmarks from earlier this year. Also worth looking at is our ASUS Eee PC 901 Linux boot benchmarks.

The focus on Ubuntu 9.04 will be on boot performance, but perhaps not the wider performance issues at hand with Ubuntu. Late last month we delivered benchmarks of Ubuntu 7.04 through 8.10 and had found the performance to get slower with time, at least with the test system we had used. Other readers and Ubuntu users have since chimed in on our forums and elsewhere with many feeling that Ubuntu has been indeed been getting sluggish on the desktop in the more recent releases. In addition, earlier this month we had delivered comparative benchmarks of Mac OS X 10.5 and Ubuntu 8.10 and had found that the Apple operating system had the upper hand. Finally yet importantly, we have looked at the X.Org and Mesa performance with both the Intel drivers and ATI drivers going back to the Feisty Fawn.

As development efforts on the Jaunty Jackalope progresses, we will be sure to deliver Ubuntu 9.04 benchmarks on a variety of hardware to see how the desktop performance pans out in this next Ubuntu release. You can run your own Linux benchmarks as well by using the Phoronix Test Suite, our advanced open-source testing software that provides automation support, software/hardware detection, and many other features. Some of the other changes in this next Ubuntu release will also influence the performance, such as Canonical considering making the move to EXA acceleration by default in the xf86-video-ati driver.

One of the other action items on the agenda for Ubuntu 9.04 that was mentioned by Mark Shuttleworth is the blending of web services and desktop applications.

As we shared last week, Ubuntu 9.04 will run on ARM-powered netbooks. Canonical and ARM have joined together to port the Ubuntu desktop to the ARMv7 architecture as this Linux distribution continues to appear on an increasing number of mobile devices.

Further affirming Ubuntu's position for mobile devices, Ubuntu 9.04 is set to include a number of power management improvements. Some of the changes this is set to entail include powering down wireless adapters when an Ethernet connection is being used, prompting the user to turn off WiFi/Bluetooth when not in use, an ultra low-power mode where USB and other systems would be shutdown, and other optimizations. If you are interested in learning more about the state of Linux power consumption, you may be interested in our Ubuntu power consumption tests and Linux versus Windows power comparison from late last year.

ntroduced with Ubuntu 7.10 was install-time encryption support for all areas of the hard drive except for the boot partition. However, the downfall with this feature is that it was only implemented in the alternate CD installer, meaning anyone using the standard Ubuntu LiveCD could not choose this option. Then with Ubuntu 8.10 there was an encryption option added to the Ubiquity LiveCD installer but just for creating an encrypted private directory (located at ~/Private). This Intrepid Ibex feature did not support encrypting the full /home/ directory or the full disk. Now though the Ubuntu developers plan to add this option to Jaunty Jackalope that gives the users the ability to encrypt their entire home directory whether they are still using the alternate or LiveCD installer. Granted, however, we still would really like to see the option added to Ubiquity for encrypting the entire disk. To see how encrypting the disk affects system performance, check out our Ubuntu disk encryption benchmarks and Intel Atom disk encryption benchmarks.

On the X.Org side, at a minimum will be X Server 1.6, which features RandR 1.3, Predictable Pointer Acceleration, and Direct Rendering Infrastructure 2. This next X Server release was also slated to include MPX and X Input 2, but those two features have been postponed. X Server 1.6 is scheduled for release in early January as an update to X Server 1.5 that is found in X.Org 7.4.

X.Org 7.5 has been talked about that it could be released on the first of April, but chances are that it will be delayed and not make it into this distribution until Ubuntu 9.10. X.Org 7.5 will likely be paired with an X Server 1.7 release. Even without a major X.Org update in Ubuntu 9.04 users can still expect updated Intel, ATI, Evdev driver updates along with other X packages.

The kernel in Ubuntu 9.04 will be either Linux 2.6.28 or Linux 2.6.29 -- we would certainly hope for the latter one. The Linux 2.6.28 kernel features integration of Intel's Graphics Execution Manager for providing kernel memory management to graphics drivers, stabilization of the EXT4 file-system, numerous new hardware drivers, and many other features. The Linux 2.6.29 kernel will continue with the usual slew of driver and architecture updates, but hopefully kernel mode-setting support will be incorporated. Recently we shared the state of kernel mode-setting and then provided a look at Red Hat's Plymouth and Wayland projects.

Ubuntu 9.04 will also feature an arsenal of updated Linux packages and the Debian import freeze for Jaunty doesn't go into effect until the end of December. Updating to GNOME 2.26 is a given for Ubuntu 9.04 and it has also been proposed that Xfce 4.6 and KDE 4.2 are integrated. Ubuntu 9.04 will also feature OpenOffice.org 3.1, since OpenOffice.org 3.0 was too buggy and too late to make the cut for Ubuntu 8.10. Updates to GIMP, Pidgin, Firefox, and the slew of other desktop applications would also be expected.

Some of the other minor work going on within the Ubuntu camp currently are new security features, the Ubuntu x86_64 spin being compiled with Position Independent Executable (PIE) by default, improvements to the Ubuntu server installer, an Ubuntu local repository mirror manager, better integration with NetworkManager, and of course a lot more work on the mobile side.

Expect Ubuntu 9.04 Alpha 1 to hit the Internet soon while the Ubuntu 9.04 release schedule places the final release of the Jaunty Jackalope on April 23, 2009. More information (and benchmarks) will be on Phoronix as the Jaunty development cycle continues forward.
 
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