Steve Langasek has announced the availability of the first beta release of Ubuntu 10.04, code name “Lucid Lynx”, a long-term support (LTS) version: “The Ubuntu team is pleased to announce the first beta release of Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Desktop, Server, and Netbook editions and of Ubuntu 10.04 Server for Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (UEC) and Amazon’s EC2. Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Desktop and Netbook editions continue the trend of ever-faster boot speeds, with improved start-up times and a streamlined, smoother boot experience. …

Jesse Keating has announced the availability of the first alpha release of Fedora 13: “The Fedora 13 ‘Goddard’ alpha release is available. Among the top features for end users, we have: automatic print driver installation so when you plug in a USB printer, Fedora will automatically offer to install drivers for it if needed; automatic installation of language packs; redesigned user management interface; color management to better set and control your colors for displays, printers, and scanners; NetworkManager improvements include …

Ken Smith has announced the availability of the second release candidate for Freebsd7.3: “The third and what should be last of the test builds for the 7.3-RELEASE cycle, 7.3-RC2, is available for amd64, i386, pc98, and sparc64 architectures. The target schedule, as well as the current status of the release is available here. The schedule has slipped by a bit over a week so the actual target for the release announcement is really about a week and a half from …

Steve Langasek has announced the availability of the second alpha release of Ubuntu 10.04, code name “Lucid Lynx”: “Welcome to Lucid Lynx Alpha 2, which will in time become Ubuntu 10.04 LTS. New features: updated packages, Linux kernel 2.6.32, KDE 4.4 RC1; full removal of the HAL package, making Ubuntu faster to boot and faster to resume from suspend; Likewise Open package, which provides Active Directory authentication and server support for Linux, has been updated to version 5.4; improved support …