When you are required to integrate new features into your Linux-based IT infrastructure you should take a look to the upcoming release of your Linux distribution. If required features will be part of the next release you could concentrate on upgrading your distribution or try to use existing software packages.

This article shows you how to test drive upcoming releases of Ubuntu-based distributions by utilizing latest pre-releases.

Overview

Starting with Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) there is a software package integrated enabling you to test drive the next major releases of Ubuntu. Supported are the following flavours…

• Ubuntu 11.04 (natty) – Variants: Alternate, Desktop, DVD, Server (Arch: x86, amd64)
• Kubuntu 11.04 (natty) – Variants: Alternate, Desktop, DVD (Arch: x86, amd64)
• Xubuntu 11.04 (natty) – Variants: Alternate (Arch: x86, amd64)

For launching the preview releases there are GUI- and terminal-based frontends available.

Every day ‘nightly builds’ are made available. The first time you are running one of the previous alternatives a whole CD ISO image has to be downloaded. Subsequent relaunches will run an synchronization task that will update modified parts and integrate them into your local image.

Testdrive

‘testdrive‘ is an easy-to-install application. Just utilize the package manager of your distribution to download and to integrate this application into your system.

Installation

When you are running a Linux system with a graphical desktop you will be able to install the required applications via the Synaptic Package Manager. To start Synaptic choose the appropriate entry from the desktop main menu: System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager. The package testdrive-cli contains the command line frontend and testdrive-gtk contains the GUI frontend.

If you prefer to install testdrive via command line just key-in the following instruction in a terminal window.

# install packages via command line
$ sudo apt-get install testdrive-cli testdrive-gtk
 

Launch Command Line Frontend

The console-based application is named ‘testdrive‘. After launching the application you have to select a distribution to test drive. The selected disk image will be downloaded and launched.

When the download has been finished the CD image will be mounted and started.

Launch GUI Frontend

The GUI frontend may be started by utilizing one of the following methods.

• run ‘testdrive-gtk’ from command line
• select the following enty from the desktop main menu: Applications > System Tools > Test Drive an Ubuntu ISO.

The GUI frontend is self-explanatory and easy-to-use. Just select the image file of your choice, syncronize the CD image and launch the contained distribution.

The next screenshot illustrates the ‘Welcome Screen’ of the utilized CD image.

An example of the Kubuntu desktop:

An example of the Xubuntu desktop:

That’s it. Now you know how to test drive upcoming releases of Ubuntu Distributions. If you are interested in checking out other distributions you may configure testdrive to download other CD images to launch Linux, FreeBSD, … or even MS Windows systems. Maybe you might consider this approach to distribute and start up-to-date preconfigured system images within your IT infrastructure. With a slightly modified frontend application this could be an easy-to-use and fault-tolerant solution!