Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise Pangolin) released!

[Kate Stewart]

"Imagination is as vital to any advance in science as learning and 
precision are essential for starting points."   - Percival Lowell


The Ubuntu team is very pleased to announce the release of Ubuntu 12.04 LTS 
(Long-Term Support) for Desktop, Server, Cloud, and Core products.

Codenamed "Precise Pangolin", 12.04 continues Ubuntu's proud tradition 
of integrating the latest and greatest open source technologies into a
high-quality, easy-to-use Linux distribution.  The team has been hard 
at work through this cycle, introducing a few new features and improving 
quality control.

To be a bit more precise about what we're releasing today...
There are 54 product images and 2 cloud images being shipped with 
this 12.04 LTS release,  with translations available in 41 languages.  
The Ubuntu project's 12.04 archive currently has 39,226 binary packages 
in it, built from 19,179 source packages, so lots of good starting points 
for your imagination!   

For PC users, Ubuntu 12.04 supports laptops, desktops, and netbooks  
with a unified look and feel based on an updated version of the desktop 
shell called "Unity", which introduces "Head-Up Display" search capabilities.  
Finding and installing software using the Ubuntu Software Centre is 
now easier thanks to improvements in speed, search and usability. 

Ubuntu Server 12.04 has made it much easier to provision, deploy, 
host, manage, and orchestrate enterprise data centre infrastructure
services with the introduction of new technologies such as "Metal as
a Service" (MAAS), the Juju Charm Store, and the latest OpenStack version, 
codenamed Essex.  These technologies further position Ubuntu Server 
as the best OS for scale-out computing.  

Read more about the new features of Ubuntu 12.04 in the following 
press releases:

   http://www.canonical.com/content/ubuntu-server-1204-lts-certified-available-and-ready-hyperscale-world
   http://www.canonical.com/content/ubuntu-1204-lts-aims-conquer-enterprise-desktop

Long term support maintenance updates will be provided for 
Ubuntu 12.04 for five years, through April 2017.  For those working 
on the ARM architecture, an 18 month supported release is also 
provided for the ARM server using the ARM Hard Float (HF) architecture.

Thanks to the efforts of the global translation community, Ubuntu 
is now available in 41 languages.  For a list of available languages 
and detailed translation statistics for these and other languages, see:

   http://people.canonical.com/~dpm/stats/ubuntu-12.04-translation-stats.html

The newest Kubuntu 12.04 (LTS), Edubuntu 12.04 (LTS), Xubuntu 12.04 (LTS), 
Mythbuntu 12.04, Lubuntu 12.04  and Ubuntu Studio 12.04 are also being 
released today.  More details can be found in their announcements:

   Kubuntu: http://kubuntu.org/news/12.04-release
   Xubuntu: http://xubuntu.org/news/12-04-release
   Edubuntu http://edubuntu.org/news/12.04-release
   Mythbuntu: http://mythbuntu.org/12.04/release
   Lubuntu: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Lubuntu/Announcement/12.04
   Ubuntu Studio: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuStudio/12.04release_notes


To get Ubuntu 12.04
-------------------

In order to download Ubuntu 12.04, visit:

   http://www.ubuntu.com/download

Users of Ubuntu 11.10 will be offered an automatic upgrade to 12.04 
via Update Manager. For further information about upgrading, see:

   http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/upgrade

As always, upgrades to the latest version of Ubuntu are entirely free of charge.

We recommend that all users read the release notes, which document caveats, 
workarounds for known issues, as well as more in-depth notes on the release 
itself. They are available at:

   http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes

Find out what's new in this release with a graphical overview:

   http://www.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/whats-new 
   http://www.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/features 

If you have a question, or if you think you may have found a bug 
but aren't sure, you can try asking in any of the following places:

   #ubuntu on irc.freenode.net
   http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users
   http://www.ubuntuforums.org
   http://askubuntu.com


Help Shape Ubuntu
-----------------

If you would like to help shape Ubuntu, take a look at the list 
of ways you can participate at:

   http://www.ubuntu.com/community/get-involved


About Ubuntu
------------

Ubuntu is a full-featured Linux distribution for desktops, laptops, 
netbooks and servers, with a fast and easy installation and regular 
releases. A tightly-integrated selection of excellent applications 
is included, and an incredible variety of add-on software is just a 
few clicks away.

Professional services including support are available from Canonical 
and hundreds of other companies around the world.  For more information 
about support, visit:

   http://www.ubuntu.com/support


More Information
----------------

You can learn more about Ubuntu and about this release on our 
website listed below:

   http://www.ubuntu.com

To sign up for future Ubuntu announcements, please subscribe to 
Ubuntu's very low volume announcement list at:

   http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-announce


On behalf of the Ubuntu Release Team,
Kate Stewart