First beta of Ubuntu’s Precise Pangolin arrives

The next version of Ubuntu has hit beta, ahead of the final release at the end of April.

Ubuntu 12.04, dubbed Precise Pangolin, will be a long-term support version – a stable edition supported for five years, making it easier for business to use than the standard edition, which is updated every six months.

Because it’s a long-term support version, developers are focused on removing bugs and improving stabilty, but 12.04 will include the new Head Up Display (HUD), which drops a start menu in favour of a search box.

Precise Pangolin will also feature a new version of LibreOffice and switches back to Rhythmbox for the default music app, instead of Banshee.

The update will also feature an energy efficiency system by default. “The technology that allows GPUs to go into a very low power consumption state when the GPU is idle (RC6) is now enabled by default for Sandy Bridge systems, which should result in considerable power savings when this stage is activated,” according to a post on the Ubuntu blog.

The Ubuntu 12.04 beta can be downloaded here.