[ec2-beta] Ubuntu Amazon EC2 beta2 is released.

[Chuck Short]

The Ubuntu EC2 team is happy to bring you the second Beta release based 
on Ubuntu Intrepid 8.10. The beta2 release brings many improvements to 
the Ubuntu Amazon EC2 image. We would like to thank the many users that 
have offered suggestions to make the Ubuntu Amazon EC2 experience better.

New features since beta1
------------------------------------------

Highlights of the new features include the following:

1. Updated usability improvements:

Beta2 includes many usability features to make managing the EC2 instance 
easier.  It also includes dynamic hostname generation and easier 
integration with existing EC2 API tools.

In order to login to the instance, you must use the "ubuntu" user 
instead of the "root" user.  You can use the "sudo" command in order to 
run commands as the privileged "root" user without a password prompt.

2. Availability in the European zones:

The Ubuntu Amazon EC2 images are now available for EU zone users.

3. Ubuntu archive mirror:

Canonical has made available an archive mirror in both the the US zones 
and European zones. The Ubuntu Amazon EC2 image makes use of the archive 
mirror to cut down on network traffic for Amazon EC2 users.

4. Updated software:

The beta2 includes the latest software updates from Intrepid. It also 
includes the ec2-ami-tools to allow the users to re-bundle the image.

To see a full list of bugs that were fixed in this release please see:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu-on-ec2/+milestone/beta2

To get Amazon Ubuntu EC2
----------------------------------------------

The Ubuntu EC2 beta2 images are available to the public. The AMI ids for 
the new images are the following:

US:

canonical-beta-us/ubuntu-intrepid-beta2-20090226-i386 ami-69d73000
canonical-beta-us/ubuntu-intrepid-beta2-20090226-amd64 ami-18d73071

Europe:

canonical-beta-eu/ubuntu-intrepid-beta2-20090226-i386 ami-5e173f2a
canonical-beta-eu/ubuntu-intrepid-beta2-20090226-amd64 ami-48173f3c

Feedback and Helping
--------------------------------------

If you would like to help shape Ubuntu EC2, please sign up for the 
Ubuntu EC2 mailing list at:

  https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ec2-beta

Your comments, bug reports, patches and suggestions will help turn this Beta
into the best release of Amazon Ubuntu EC2 ever.  Please report bugs 
through the
Launchpad bug tracker:

  https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu-on-ec2

If you have a question, or if you think you may have found a bug but are not
sure, please join us on the #ubuntu-ec2 IRC channel on FreeNode or on 
the Ubuntu EC2 beta mailing list.


Helping 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/participate/

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

Ubuntu is a full-featured Linux distribution for desktops, laptops, and
servers, with a fast and easy install 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.