A preview of Ubuntu Linux 5.04 has been released:

The Ubuntu Team is proud to announce the preview of their second release: Ubuntu 5.04-preview - codenamed "Hoary Hedgehog" (*). The preview release includes both install CDs and bootable Live CDs for three architectures.

There are CD images of the preview release in both Install and Live CD form at for Intel/x86, PowerPC and AMD64 here:

http://releases.ubuntu.com/hoary/

Ubuntu is a Linux distribution for the desktop or the server that includes all of Debian as well as most of the packages of apt-get.org, and more, with a fast and easy install, regular releases (every six months), a tight selection of excellent packages installed by default, a commitment to security updates for 18 months after release and professional technical support from many companies for every release.

To see it all, you'll need to try the CD, but the highlights include:

* GNOME 2.10 -- Very fresh... Released yesterday!
* X.org 6.8.2
* Kickstart compatibility for automatic installations
* Several new desktop package-management tools to make it even easier to stay up to date
* An ultra-fast boot process, with optimized init process and special optimizations for the hotplug system
* Improved hardware support on a range of platforms -- laptops in particular gain improved suspend/hibernation support and processor frequency scaling
* Unified and improved hardware detection between the install and live CDs, which gives us live CDs on powerpc and amd64 too
* A range of improvements related to internationalization, translations, and different keyboard layouts, including a new smart keyboard selector that guesses your keyboard based on keypresses
* A load of new Ubuntu-specific documentation, thanks to the hard work of our community documentation team * Instant messaging, desktop publishing, office productivity, with vorbis playback and Python 2.4 ready out of the box
* Enhancements to the hardware abstraction layer to provide you with BIOS, CPU, memory and LSB data (infrastructure for the upcoming hardware database)
* Enhanced proactive security due to privilege minimization of many processes which previously ran as root. This work reduces the impact of many potential security vulnerabilities.
* The very best of the 100% FREE / LIBRE application software world.
* Much, much more!

You can find out more about Ubuntu and about this preview release on our website, IRC channel and wiki. If you're new to Ubuntu, please visit:

http://www.ubuntu.com/

The final version of Ubuntu 5.04 is expected to be released in early April.

At that time, we will be mailing shrinkwrapped CDs free of charge to anyone who signs up for one. To receive a complimentary copy of the Hoary Hedgehog CD -- or a handful to give to your friends, your school or LUG, place your request at the URL below. If you requested CDs before, you'll need to log in and update your order:

http://shipit.ubuntu.com/

The community behind Ubuntu has continued to grow since our last release. There are many ways to track Ubuntu development and to participate in mailing lists,
forums, and in focused teams. Teams include new Local Community Teams that help coordinate Ubuntu advocacy and support for users in communities around the world. Visit our community page for more information:

http://www.ubuntu.com/community/

To sign up for future Ubuntu announcements, you may subscribe to Ubuntu's very low volume announcement list at:
http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-announce

This list is archived at http://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-announce/
and receives on average less than 5 messages per month.

(*) Hoary, adj., So old as to inspire veneration; ancient. In case you were wondering.