Ubuntu 10.10 to get updated installer

The revamped Ubuntu installer will have a new interface and the “paralleling tasks” feature. The new distribution will release by October 10th, 2010.

Ubuntu

Canonical Ltd’s Ubuntu is one of the leaders in the global Linux revolution. Linux has steadily been grabbing market share, thanks to developers like Canonical Ltd. The last stable release of Ubuntu, the 10.04 (Lucid Lynx), was released on April 29, 2010 and has got rave reviews for itself. And now, in order to go one up, Canonical has lined up a heavily revamped installer for the latest iteration of its Linux distro-the Ubuntu 10.10.

Ubuntu 10.10 (codenamed Maverick Meerkat), on its release, will now get a totally redesigned installer and added features. Aimed at easing the task for amateur and first time Linux users, the new installer will have prominent changes in its interface and added features as “paralleling tasks” and the Geonames place name service. So what exactly does the “paralleling tasks” feature do or how does it intend to make things easier? Well, it works by allowing the user to do the following tasks while Ubuntu is installing: set up timezone, account information and keyboard layout, and even to download software updates. Also, on the Hard Drive Partitioning page of the installer, once the hard drive space has been allocated for the Ubuntu installation and the "Install Now" button pushed, the installer automatically formats and/or resizes the drive and copies the necessary files, while the user can set up timezone, keyboard layout and account information.

The Ubuntu installer, formally known as Ubiquity, needs you to have an active Internet connection while installing Ubuntu to facilitate download of software updates, install support for non-English languages and automatic timezone selection via an GeoIP location service present in the upcoming Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) operating system.

The Alpha 2 release of Ubuntu 10.10 is now available for testing purposes as a download. The stable release of it has been scheduled to be available on October 10th, 2010.