Trying the Ubuntu 11.04 (a.k.a Natty Narwhal) Beta 1

The Beta version 1 of Ubuntu 11.04 a.k.a. Natty Narwhal was released early this month. This is the first of the 2 beta series before the final release of Natty is made on April 28, 2011.

The release of Beta 2 will be on April 14, 2011.

There's a lot of new things to expect in Natty. Here are some of the few new things worth noting:

• Ubuntu 11.04 is not sporting a new desktop shell called unity. (The twitter icon is not included in the default installation, btw. I just added gwibber)

• Ubuntu 11.04 have reinvent the scroll bar
• Ubuntu 11.04 now features the global menu bar (MacOS type)

• Ubuntu 11.04 Ubuntu Software Center has now rating and reviews.
• Ubuntu 11.04 now includes a new safe upgrade option (from 10.10 to 11.04) during the installation 

• Ubuntu 11.04 now supports multiarch library support. 
• This means that it will allow users to install 32 bit applications even if the are using a 64-bit version of Ubuntu 11.04. More details can be found here.
• Ubuntu 11.04 now comes with Kernel 2.6.38.x.
• Shotwell 0.9 
• Firefox 4.0 RC2
•  Libreoffice 3.3.2 
• Xserver 1.10 
• Banshee 1.9.5 (now the default player)
• Nautilus 2.32.2 (file manager)
• Evolution 2.32.2 and  
• Gnome 2.32.1. 
• Ubuntu 11.04 Unity launcher is now dock on the left side. 
• The launcher auto-hides to give more screen space to the application.
• To get the launcher back, just click on the upper left hand of the screen.

• Ubuntu 11.04 now sports lenses. 
• This is where you get the application you need that is not present on the launcher.

The Ubuntu 11.04 really comes with a long list of new features, but the one that really stand out is the unity. Unity has so much to give, but there are still tons of tweaking and bug fixing that is needed.

I've come across an article saying that Ubuntu 11.04 is by far the worst edition that Canonical have released. I don't subscribe to the idea. It is a matter of being unique.

If you want to give this Ubuntu 11.04 spin, you can download it here. And since this is still in beta, don't expect full stability in the system (although I have it installed already in my production machine and using it!)

Some notes before trying this out.

• If your video graphic device is ATI, it may not be worth your time to try this at the moment since the unity support for ATI graphics is not stable yet.
• If you are using Intel graphics, make sure that you blacklist the radeon module from loading, otherwise you will experience intermittent problem during boot-up and while using your machine.

So there you go!