[lubuntu-devel] Lubuntu Noble Beta Released!

[Walter Lapchynski]

We are happy to announce the Beta release for Lubuntu Noble (what will
become 24.04 LTS)!

= What makes this cycle unique? =

Lubuntu is a lightweight flavor of Ubuntu, based on LXQt and built for
you. As an official flavor, we benefit from Canonical’s infrastructure
and assistance, in addition to the support and enthusiasm from the wider
Ubuntu community. We are thankful for the opportunity to call ourselves
an Ubuntu flavor; when there are common struggles, we step up to help.
When discussions arise that affect the entire ecosystem, we lend a
voice. This cycle was no different in that respect, but different in
many others.

This started with the normal transitions that occur during the beginning
of every cycle, a list of which can be found on the release schedule for
Noble [1]. These transitions take time; we (as Ubuntu) perform rigorous
testing to ensure these packages are ready before publishing them for
general availability. Several feature uploads became stuck, but we were
looking forward to the opportunity to test after Feature Freeze.

We then faced two major transitions following Feature Freeze, the first
of which was time_t [2]. This allows for 32-bit devices to work past
2038. To learn more about the 2038 problem, visit this site [3].
Immediately following this transition, the xz-utils backdoor was found
[4]. We would like to thank the Canonical and community developers
involved in these transitions for their work around the clock to get
everyone in the ecosystem to a releaseable state.

= What does this mean for Lubuntu? =

We need extra help from our community to test this release. If you have
a few spare hours (or even minutes), please do help us test. If
something is not working, please feel free to check the Beta tracking
document [5], and file a bug if it is not otherwise reported.

If you are unsure how to file a bug report but just want to make the
issue known, that is okay, please either make a post on our Discourse
instance [6] or join our Development channel on Matrix [7]. Any help is
appreciated, and your one post or message will make a difference for
many users.

= What new features made it? =

For much more information, please see the Alpha status post [8].

Since then, we have made the tough decision to not include the following
in the final release:

 * Power management UX.
 * Active Directory support in Calamares before release; that pull
request has been submitted upstream.

That being said, a redesigned Customize menu has made it, in addition to
other bugfixes and features listed in the Alpha announcement.

Our final release announcement will have many more details, stay tuned!

= Where do I download it? =

>From our downloads page, here [9].

[1]: https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/noble-numbat-release-schedule/35649
[2]:
https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2024/02/msg00000.html
[3]: https://theyear2038problem.com/
[4]: https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2024/03/29/4
[5]:
https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/noble-numbat-24-04-beta-release-status-tracking/44043
[6]: https://discourse.lubuntu.me/
[7]: https://matrix.to/#/#lubuntu-devel:ubuntu.com
[8]: https://lubuntu.me/noble-alpha-featureset/
[9]: https://lubuntu.me/downloads
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