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This latest release of Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) has brought great improvements as compared to previous versions. Some features and support for extended machine and network is also added. Due to these improvements more and more people are converting towards Linux OS. The following features will prove why Ubuntu 9.04 is the next desktop operating system for its users.

Features:

1. Gnome 2.26
2. X.Org Server 1.6
3. Cloud Computing
4. Ext4 File system support
5. Office applications
6. Music and Video tools
7. Gimp 2.6.5
8. Productivity tools
9. Accessibility tools
10. New Notification System
11. New Auto Update  Manager
12. New Brasero Interface

Gnome 2.26:

Ubuntu 9.04 contains  the latest gnome 2.26 desktop environment.It focuses on ease of usability, stability and accessiblity support. It provides useful tools like e-mail, web browsing, groupware, file management, multimedia and games. ( Details )

• This gnome contains bracero as a complete CD/DVD burning application.

• Multiple monitors can be handled easily now by using Display Preferences.

X.ORG Server:

Jaunty also contains latest X.Org Server 1.6. Which intern contains latest Mesa 3D DRI through which number of video cards have been transitioned as part of these updates. It also supports latest ATI driver support and its control panel features using 2D and 3D acceleration. ( Details )

Cloud Computing:

Using Ubuntu 9.04 server edition you can experiment with cloud computing techniques. Eucalyptus is an open source application bundled with ubuntu 9.04  which makes you deploy, test and experiment on your own server with your private cloud which resembles with Amazon EC2 API. Virtual machines can be dynamically created. Multiple clusters can be also be easily configured.

Ext4 File system support:

Users of jaunty can install and use new Ext4 file system whereas the default filesytem will remain Ext3. Ext4 support has been provided in GRUB. So if you update your /boot file system to Ext4 then you must also reinstall your boot loader. ( Details )

Office Applications:

Open Office 3.0  provides most of the features you expect from a powerful office suite and it supports most of the widely used file formats that your friends,  colleagues and clients use.

1. Word processing
2. Presentations
   
3. Spreadsheets
4. and many other office applications.

Rhythmbox Music and Totem video players:

Ubuntu 9.04 comes with featured rich music player so you can directly plugin your music player or any other multimedia device and transfer media files across. you can stream thousands of radio channels . Using Totem video player you can watch online content like BBC, youtube and many other streaming sources.

Gimp 2.6.5:

GIMP is a versatile graphics manipulation package. Various photo imperfections can be perfected using GIMP. To name a few features, it includes perspective transform , sample colorize, barrel distortion and digital touching. It also supports most of the file formats currently used. ( Details )

F-Spot  Photo Manager:

It is a brilliant photo manager utility that comes with ubuntu 9.04. You can plug your phone or digital camera direclty to your desktop and then tag, edit and manage and then share online with your friends.

Accessibility Tools:

This version of Ubuntu contains nice accessibility tools which enables the liberty of computing to all the users.

Orca assistive technologies for sight-impaired users. Orca combines speech synthesis, braille and magnification for a highly functional interface to many of the applications and toolkits that Ubuntu distributes including Firefox, OpenOffice, Acroread, Transmission and many more. Orca defines a set of default behaviours (reactions to application events) and key bindings (reactions to user key presses).

Slow keys and gesture support. Ubuntu offers multiple variants of slow-key support, which is an essential tool for the physically impaired - enabling the keyboard to be used as a mouse for instance. Ubuntu also supports an on-screen, touch-screen keyboard, which can be used with pointers. It also offers gesture support.

Summary:

Most of the claims of jaunty jakalope are coming true. No doubt its faster than any distribution with boot time as good as 21 seconds. Its more and more stable than any other Ubuntu version. Its experience is nice with clean and beautiful desktop. It has auto update manager that automatically updates your libraries and packages. All in all this release has really impressed me a lot.

I could go on and on giving you list  of  features and telling you which libraries are installed and which kernel Ubuntu is using. But for this version of Ubuntu all these tech bits take a back seat and tell a fact that we are experiencing one of the first Linux distribution that could compete with the windows.
Ubuntu 9.04 3D experience example:

Via:  https://wiki.ubuntu.com/JauntyJackalope/TechnicalOverview

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