bLoG-[at]-hYPeReND

On March 21, Canonical has released the first public beta version of Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron. Its about a month left until the release of stable version of Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Hardy Heron. Here are some of the improvements made by the developers that distinguish Hardy Heron from Gutsy Gibbon.

• Latest version of Xorg (7.3)
• Linux 2.6.24-12.13 kernel based on 2.6.24.3 which bring support for amd64 power saving ( this is a good news for me)
• Gnome 2.22 is the default desktop environment. Kubuntu 8.04 comes with KDE 3.5 or KDE 4
• Firefox 3 beta 4 is the default web browser
• GTK’s version of the Transmission bittorent client
• PulseAudio is enabled by default
• New PolicyKit manager for advanced permission controls
• Vinagre
• Brasero CD/DVD burning application, replaces the Serpentine CD burning utility
• World Clock Applet
• Native PDF support
• Wubi installer which allows Windows users to install and uninstall Ubuntu like any other Windows application (a good features to attract Windows user to the world of Linux)

Since this is still a beta version, therefore you are not recommended to install it on production machines. The full version of Ubuntu 8.04 is due out on April 24th.