Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala is in beta! I have been following on Ubuntu and periodically using it for 3 years now. It has become my favorite Linux distro. What does the coming version have? I have prepared my own list of changes, the ones I like or dislike, rather than just copy-pasting the Ubuntu news release at Ubuntu.com.

I liked:

1. Gnome 2.28 - the final release of Gnome before going to Gnome 3. Changes are mostly fixes. New features will be added to Gnome 3.
2. Grub 2 - the video adapter is supported from the early stages of booting, doing less flicker. Kinda fun. Nothing special.
3. Better sound settings - now with more features like Hardware option, new better interface. That is quite nice and handy.
   
   
4. Empathy PM Client - now replaced Pidgin. I always liked Pidgin. Whatever.
5. Software Center - a new package manager. Very good, with icons and description right away.
6. New Icons - Orly??? Yes. But again. Brown. Arghhhh.

I really hoped for a new theme that has been promised for a few years now. Evidently, it will not show up until Gnome 3.0, or even later. Oh, the current theme is different. But what I meant is not brown theme.

Congrats, all Ubuntu fans. A stable and user friendly system. In many ways, I like it more, than I do Windows 7. Did I tell you it's free?