Canonical launches a new version of Ubuntu Linux every 6 months. But Long Term Support (LTS) releases only come every 2 years, and the next is due to launch in April.

Don’t want to wait? You can now download the final beta of Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, code-named Trusty Tahr.

ubuntu 14.04

Since Canonical offers at least 5 years of support for an LTS release, the developers put an emphasis on stability. This is the first time that all community versions of Ubuntu including Ubuntu Desktop, Xubuntu, Lubuntu, Ubuntu GNOME, and Kubuntu have been approved for LTS status — although some versions will be supported for 3 years rather than 5.

The beta release may still need a bit of polishing before it’s deemed bug-free (or close enough) for official launch. But there are a number of new features in this release for folks upgrading from Ubuntu 13.10, and even more for anyone who’s been using one of the older LTS releases such as Ubuntu 12.04 or Ubuntu 10.04.

For instance, there’s now TRIM support for Intel and Samsung solid state disks which helps extend the useful life of those SSDs, improved support for NVIDIA Optimus graphics-switching technology, and updates to the Unity user interface, better support for high-resolution displays, and updated default apps including Firefox, LibreOffice, and more.

You can find a few overviews of some of the new changes for connoisseurs at Web Upd8 and OMG Ubuntu.

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5 replies on “Ubuntu 14.04 LTS Trusty Tahr final beta”

  1. I will most likely install this on an old laptop since it’s the LTS version.

      1. It’s certainly not super old. This ran Windows 7 before it crashed, and has an Intel Pentium chip and 4 GB of RAM. I’ll probably replace the hard drive before I install it. After it crashed and would no longer boot into Windows; I had a perfectly functional install of Ubuntu 13.04 running on it. Something happened, however, when it began automatically updating to 13.10. It only got a half-@$$ed install, so it became unusable. I reinstalled Ubuntu 13.04 from the disk I had, but a few bugs (i.e. parts of the OS didn’t install) were there, so I am going to start with a clean, non-damaged hard drive.
        Since 14.04 is the LTS version, I have no need to worry about an out-of-date OS for some time. hopefully, it won’t fall asleep during the update and totally ruin the OS.
        I have the power in that computer to run Ubuntu just fine, but I’ll probably need a new hard drive before going in on that.

  2. Didn’t Canonical say that ver 14 would use Mir as default? Or has that been pushed back again?

    1. I’ll answer that myself. Pushed back to 2016.
      Doubt it’ll ever happen now. More likely they’ll switch to Wayland.

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