People are excited over the new Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Lucid Lynx, which is to be released in only 2 days. Ubuntu 10.04 is going to be one of the most important releases ever. Although it is a Long Term Support release (meaning the primary focus is stability and bug fixtures), Ubuntu 10.04 will bring some awesome new features. Check these improvements out!

1. Faster Boot Speed – It was the goal of the Ubuntu developers to achieve 10 second boot from a cold system to a fully functional desktop. Some people have even claimed starting it 3.6 seconds using a SSD. A lot of work has been put into Upstart for this. Ten seconds will be a great improvement, especially for netbook users. Compare this to the 25 seconds it took to start 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope!

2. Major User Interface & Artwork Changes – Finally the yucky brown look is gone! Who ever liked Human theme anyway?  Lucid gives Ubuntu a nicer purple & orange look. The 2 new themes are Ambiance (dark) and Radiance (light). The whole desktop experience is much more welcoming. Controversially the Maximize, Minimize & Close buttons have been now moved to the left side of the screen like the Mac OS X. Mac users will love this but Windows users might not be so quick to adopt it. Lucid also includes a completely new logo and boot screen.

3. Social Networking Built into the Desktop – So many people are into social networking nowadays the building it right into the desktop is sure to be a hit. Ubuntu has added a new menu (called the Me Menu) in the top right corner of the screen. The program Gwibber is what makes this work, and the Me Menu is the front-end for it. This awesome new feature will support Digg, Facebook, Flickr, Identi.ca, Jaiku, Twitter and RSS feeds.

Ubuntu 10.04

4. Change of Default Programs – Ubuntu has decided to make it easier for users by only including the best easy-to-use software by default. And if the user want the more advanced software all they have to do is install it. XSane the previous scanner was so complicated to use that I completely gave up. Lucid will include Simple Scan instead. Lucid will also introduce PiTiVi, an open source video editor similar to something like Windows Movie Maker. It can do all the basic functions that the average user would need. GIMP will also not be included for the first time ever. The rational is that most users will never need the advanced features that it includes. Also Lucid will only include 5 games pre-installed down from the 17 that previous versions had.

Other notable changes include: a manual for the first time ever, the new Ubuntu One Music Store, more user-created themes and a few other minor changes.

I hope this gave you an idea of what to expect from Ubuntu 10.04. Lucid Lynx will clearly be a release like no other in the cycle of Ubuntu releases. It will be a great update to Karmic (9.10) users and even more worthwhile to Hardy (8.04) & Jaunty (9.04) users like me.