Ubuntu 9.04 released with cool new features

The latest version of the popular Linux distribution Ubuntu has been released. As usual, it has a crazy nickname, Jaunty Jackalope, and offers significant changes with solid features and better performance.

You can download Ubuntu 9.04 now from the official download site or help the community a bit by downloading the torrent and seeding the ISO file afterwards. Most likely, the correct image file is the PC (Intel x86) desktop CD which is suitable for almost all PCs, including Macs.

Updated GNOME, Kernel and much more

As always, Ubuntu includes upgraded versions of GNOME and X.Org. This will make video and graphics performance better. GNOME 2.26 features new versions of its applications, including the Brasero CD/DVD burner, e-mail client Evolution or music player Rhythmbox.

Ubuntu now uses the Linux kernel 2.6.28-11.37, the latest Linux kernel with improved disk performance, better SSD support and superior virtual memory scalability. You get noticeably quicker performance from your storage drives.

If you are a very impatient computer user, you will be happy to hear, that the boot time is a lot faster now. Some Ubuntu users even report boot times of 17.5 seconds. Pretty amazing.

The Linux distro now support the ext4 file system. By default, Ubuntu still uses ext3, however ext4 is supposed to be faster, offering faster boot times and better read/write performance.

Also new is a design element called notification area which is quite similar to the one on Macs. Good first step to improve the GUI, more design improvements are planned for the next release in October 2009.

Live CD, bootable USB flash drive or virtual machine

After downloading the Ubuntu image file, you have several options how to run the Linux operating system. First, you can burn it on a CD and thus have an Ubuntu Live CD.

A more advanced but still pretty easy way is creating a bootable USB flash drive with Ubuntu on it. Follow the instructions in my USB article, it’s really nice if you don’t want to waste a CD.

Another way to try out Ubuntu is to install it in a virtual machine. You will need a special virtualization software for that, I recommend using VirtualBox.

Whatever way to try Ubuntu, the nice thing about it is that you actually don’t have to install it right away. For all users of previous versions, I highly recommend the upgrade, as always, Ubuntu made huge progress with this release.