JacobThe release of Ubuntu 7.04, named Feisty Fawn, is scheduled for release in April. Herd (Alpha) 2 was recently released, but no one seems to know what has changed. I took a look into the system and found some very interesting changes relating to the GUI and GNOME 2.17. (GNOME 2.17 will be released as GNOME 2.18.)
The first change I found was the addition of a Control Center. This new application replaces the long, sometimes overflowing System Preferences and Administration menu with a simple dialog.
The next, and my personal favorite change, is the addition of color changing functionality to themes. I like green a lot, so I chose it for my menus and window border.
Another change related to themes is the new Clearlooks theme. The only major change here is the new, more defined menu style:
New to Feisty is the addition of a Power History dialog for laptop users. Since I don't own a laptop, I'm unable to show it in action, but here you go anyway:
Next up is a minor, but very handy change: The addition of a bug reporting menu item. On Canonical-supported applications, there has always been a menu to get support and help translate applications. Now, there is an item to report a bug should one arise.
Other changes include the usual bug fixes, an updated GNOME System Monitor that shows system specs, a new kernel, and ZeroConf networking. ZeroConf is a project to try to make configuring a network connection require as little user-intervention as possible.
Stay tuned as we follow the development of GNOME 2.17/18 and Ubuntu 7.04!
