Ubuntu 8.04 LTS(Long term support) alpha - 4 has been released. Its code named Hardy Heron. I decided to take it for a run and here are my first impressions

First a note: Alpha means the software is waiting to crash. It in development stage , so unless you are a developer or you have a spare space to waste, dont install this.

Every time a new ubuntu release comes up, It surpasses my expectations. With their release cycle so short, its amazing how much innovation the developers manage to put it. There are some hot new features and lots of fixes (a lot of them from the kernel).
PulseAudio is what everybody has been talking about. Its refreshing to see, linux moving away from Alsa and OSS. Although both have served Linux well over the years, todays applications demand much more. Pulse Audio will for the first time bring among other features, independent controlling of volume for individual applications and support for streaming audio to multiple devices at the same time and trasferring a audio stream from one device to another realtime. Although right now its just a frontend to alsa and ESD, apps using pulse audio directly for its sound server should popup soon. Read more about PulseAudio here

Another very significant architectural change in Ubuntu 8.04 is the inclusion of GIO and GVFS. These are again under high development, GVFS replaces the antiquated GnomeVFS library and uses the D-Bus interprocess communication protocol to coordinate between various daemons that handle mounting and file operations. There are still a few bugs that need to be resolved to call it stable, but inclusion in the next version of Ubuntu, will surely help. It already provides a few new features that are visible to the user. In particular, Nautilus will now queue up long file transfer operations and display them in a single window rather than spawning a separate window for each file transfer operation. The screenshot below demonstrates the result. It definitely looks very useful. Another user feature that should show up soon will be the ability to pause file transfers. Its surprises me, why no operating system has this built in.

Ubuntu 8.04 also adds PolicyKit, a new framework for secure privilege escalation. In the future this will completely replace gksudo. Unlike gksudo, which grants elevated root privileges to an entire program, PolicyKit makes it possible to isolate privileged actions and make them accessible to programs through a D-Bus interface. . This approach provides a much higher level of security and also gives administrators more flexible control over what operations are accessible to individual users. PolicyKit still uses password prompts like gksudo, so the difference to end users will be minimal. In some system configuration utilities, like the network settings tool, there are now Unlock buttons which, when clicked, will present the user with a password prompt before making privileged elements of the user interface accessible. This will open a whole new world of possibilities for applications. Imagine

There are a handful of other subtle improvements in Ubuntu 8.04 that are already present in this alpha release. The panel clock applet, for instance, has been improved to include support for displaying weather information and times for multiple locations in its expanded view, which is something i really love. For my work, I ocassionally need to look up other timezones, this will make life so much simpler. Ubuntu 8.04 also replaces the unmaintained GNOME BitTorrent client with Trasmission, a cross-platform BitTorrent client that offers a nice GTK interface for Linux. Also new is the Brasero CD burning program and a much-improved System Monitor utility with a rich Cairo-based visual display. Although I would like Cairo integrated into X itself, but right now it seems thats quiet far away,since X development is slow and very painful.

Although many of the significant architectural features like PulseAudio and GIO are still in transitional stages and aren’t fully functional yet, Ubuntu 8.04 alpha 4 is still very impressive. I’m a big fan of D-Bus, and I’m very pleased to see it being adopted throughout the entire desktop stack in core components. It will be very helpful to small time developers like me, to reach parts of gnome, which would otherwise take a lot of effort to reach. A complete visual refresh, including new artwork, icons etc. is also planned for the Ubuntu 8.04 which should be very exiting. (maybe down with brown!!! ) . There are a lot of kernel improvement, which I have not talked about here. Overall Ubuntu Hardy is something I will be keenly waiting for in the coming months.