Hi, the second Alpha of Lubuntu is now available for testing. Don't forget that it's build with Ubuntu Lucid (10.04) which is still in Alpha state of development, so same warnings : "Pre-releases of Lucid are *not* encouraged for anyone needing a stable system or anyone who is not comfortable running into occasional, even frequent breakage. They are, however, recommended for Ubuntu developers and those who want to help in testing, reporting, and fixing bugs."

There is not so much changes between Alpha 1 and Alpha 2, don't expect big surprises. The next release (Alpha 3), which will be released after the Feature Freeze, will be more interesting :)

Features :
- LXDE packages up-to-date
- LXDM - The new pcmanfm for testing (type "pcmanfm2" in a terminal)
- Many wallpapers and start icons from lxde forum, gnome-look or Leszek Lesner, to be able to switch easily and to test the result
- First customization with a splash screen from Leszek Lesner
- Installable with ubiquity (but upgrade from this Alpha 2 to next release is not guaranteed). Known bugs:
- Alpha 2 may not boot on karmic Virtualbox, you should upgrade virtualbox to avoid this problem.

If you want to create a bootable usb system, please use the usb creator directly on Ubuntu. Please follow the testing process described on this page : https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Lubuntu/SubTeams/TestingSubTeam . You can also report problems and bugs relative to the tests on this page. Download : http://people.ubuntu.com/~gilir/lubuntu-lucid-alpha2.iso

Regards, Julien Lavergne

Hi, This is quick summary of the state of Lubuntu, 3 mouths before the target release date.

=== Alpha 2 ===

- May be released at the end of this week.

=== New packages ===

- lxdm was committed, waiting for archive approval. It's mostly working, but need some improvements. Currently, there is no plymouth support and Default language not working well. - libfm and pcmanfm2 are available for testing on the Lubuntu PPA [1].

=== Default applications ===

- Current discussion on the video player, music player and email client
- Future discussion on the browser. It will begin when chromium will enter the archive, or sooner if nothing arrive before 1st February.
- Some changes may happen in the futur, if the manpower is still the same (see below). We need to share the maintenance for non-LXDE applications with other teams, if we want to have good quality. I have in mind the network manager and the browser.
- For all the cases, I would like to stop all the choices for Feature Freeze (18th February), to have enough time for bug fixes and translations of the non-LXDE packages.

=== Maintenance and advertising ===

The main reason why I don't make many advertising around Alpha releases of Lubuntu is because I can't handle more feedback/testing for now. We don't have many devs working on Lubuntu, and my time on it is also limited.

=== If you want to help ===

- If you speak English and 1 or more languages, you can translate LXDE packages and other applications of Lubuntu (see https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Lubuntu/SubTeams/TranslationSubTeam )
- If you like to play with unstable stuff, you can test Alpha ISO and report bug you have (We already have some nice testers :)) (see https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Lubuntu/SubTeams/TestingSubTeam )
- If you are an artist, you can imagine or create a new artwork for Lubuntu. (see https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Lubuntu/SubTeams/ArtworkSubTeam )
- If you want to get involve in Ubuntu development, you can begin to triage bug, improve packages ... (see https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Lubuntu/SubTeams/CodingAndPackagingSubTeam ) There is available tasks for everyone :)

I can provide guidelines and mentoring, and I'll try to maintain the wiki to share useful information. Just to be clear, the schedule is still good. There is currently no blocker for the release in April, but more help will make the release better. Regards, Julien Lavergne

[1] : https://launchpad.net/~lubuntu-desktop/+archive/ppa

Hi, I just generated the first real ISO for Lubuntu Lucid, available for testing. Don't forget that it's build with Ubuntu Lucid (10.04) which is still in Alpha state of development, so same warnings : "Pre-releases of Lucid are *not* encouraged for anyone needing a stable system or anyone who is not comfortable running into occasional, even frequent breakage. They are, however, recommended for Ubuntu developers and those who want to help in testing, reporting, and fixing bugs."

Features :
- LXDE packages up-to-date [1]
- LXDM - The new pcmanfm for testing (type "pcmanfm2" in a terminal)
- Many wallpapers and start icons from lxde forum, gnome-look or Leszek Lesner, to be able to switch easily and to test the result
- First customization with a splash screen from Leszek Lesner
- Installable with ubiquity (but upgrade from this Alpha 1 to next release is not guaranteed)

The ISO is called "Preview", because it's build with new features which will be part of the final release, and to encourage early testing. All this components are not yet part of the official repositories (work in progress). Also, if you want to propose a new application for the default installation, please test its behavior in this live-cd.

If you want to create a bootable usb system, please use the usb creator directly on Ubuntu. Please report any problem you have with it on this list or directly to me. Exception for pcmanfm2, it doesn't have all the features pcmanfm have, so no need to report it's incomplete :)

Download : http://people.ubuntu.com/~gilir/lubuntu-lucid-alpha1.iso

Regards, Julien Lavergne

[1] except LXmusic which was released recently and is not part of Lubuntu. Some packages are not yet in official repositories, but it's just a question of time.

I plan to stay in sync with the Ubuntu release cycle as much as possible
(see https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LucidReleaseSchedule).
So, next release should be near the January 14th.

I just created an ISO of lubuntu Lucid for testing purpose. But before starting to download it, please read the following "release notes" :

* Using lxdm instead of gdm This ISO uses a not-yet-in-the-official-repository version of lxdm, thedisplay manager of LXDE instead of gdm. I would like to test the stateof it and if it's possible to include it in Lubuntu.