Ubuntu team has released the first beta of Ubuntu 8.10 code named Intrepid Ibex. There are couple of issues I’m having with Ubuntu 8.10.
The 1st one is the ATI proprietary driver fglrx which is not compatible with the new Xorg, so Ubuntu will default you to open source driver which is quite slow in my system. Using GMail in Firefox is also terribly slow. I’m not sure if it’s due to the driver issue or Firefox issue or installation issue on my laptop.
The 2nd one is webcam. Ubuntu 8.10 detected my webcam as usb camera (It’s a built in webcam). Ubuntu 8.04 and previous version correctly detected it as Logitech Quickcam and the video worked fine on AMSN, Skype etc. The video doesn’t work with AMSN in Ubuntu 8.10 and with Skype, I get only green color with my face outline. I’m not sure if it’s a known bug.
The reason why I’m still with 8.10 is the wireless network. It’s works much better and detects and connects to the network much better. Again there is an issue here. Network manager doesn’t store the key. You have to enter the key each time.

The beta version also adds support for digital contents from BBC in Totem. To enable it, start Totem  Applications -> Sound & Video -> Movie Player), enable the plugin (Edit -> Plugins -> BBC content viewer) and select “BBC” from the drop-down labelled “Playlist”. The feed is fetched from a staging server at the moment so there may be a delay while it is downloaded.

Here are some issues published by Ubuntu with 8.10:

• The fglrx and two of the older nvidia binary drivers are not available for X.Org 7.4 yet, so users of these drivers will be automatically switched to the corresponding open source drivers.
• A problem that could result in corruption of the firmware on Intel GigE ethernet hardware has led to the disabling of the e1000e driver in the Linux kernel included in Ubuntu 8.10 Beta. Ethernet devices that use this driver cannot be used with Ubuntu 8.10 Beta; support for this hardware will be re-enabled in daily builds immediately after Beta and this issue will be resolved for the Ubuntu 8.10 final release.
• Clicking on links in GNOME programs, such as evolution, will not launch firefox automatically due to a bug in a wrapper script used by the firefox-3.0 package. As a workaround, users can launch firefox manually and copy and paste links into the location bar.
• NetworkManager 0.7 as included in Ubuntu 8.10 Beta is not compatible with static network configuration in /etc/network/interfaces. New installations are not affected by this issue because NetworkManager will manage all interfaces by default. Users upgrading from previous Ubuntu releases can work around this issue by disabling NetworkManager at startup.

Kubuntu also released their 1st beta version of Kubuntu 8.10. Here are some new features in Kubuntu.

• Intrepid Ibex Beta brings with it KDE 4.1.2.
• Intrepid Ibex comes with an all-new KDE 4 version of the Adept Package manager, Adept 3.0.
• Desktop effects enabled by default.
• The all new update-notifier-kde serves as an update-notifier and an apport crash notifier for Intrepid Ibex.
• In Intrepid Ibex beta, KMix now supports the multimedia-button functionality that various keyboards offer.

Source: Ubuntu, Kubuntu.

Ubuntu 8.10 beta, Kubuntu 8.10 beta, BBC, Totem, Intrepid Ibex, FGLRX, XORG, GNOME, KDE 4.1.2