The beta of Hirsute Hippo (to become 21.04 in April) has now been released, and is available for download.

This milestone features images for Kubuntu and other Ubuntu flavours.

Pre-releases of the Hirsute Hippo are not recommended for:

• Anyone needing a stable system
• Regular users who are not aware of pre-release issues
• Anyone in a production environment with data or workflows that need to be reliable

They are, however, recommended for:

• Regular users who want to help us test by finding, reporting, and/or fixing bugs
• Kubuntu, KDE, and Qt developers
• Other Ubuntu flavour developers

The Beta includes some software updates that are ready for broader testing. However, it is an early set of images, so you should expect some bugs.

We STRONGLY advise testers to read the Kubuntu 21.04 Beta release notes before installing, and in particular the section on ‘Known issues‘.

Kubuntu is taking part in #UbuntuTestingWeek from 1st to 7th of April, details of which can be found in our Kubuntu 21.04 Testing Week blog post, and in general for all flavours on the Ubuntu Discourse announcement.

You can also find more information about the entire 21.04 release (base, kernel, graphics etc) in the main Ubuntu Beta release notes and announcement.

We’re delighted to announce that we’re participating in another ‘Ubuntu Testing Week’ from April 1st to April 7th with other flavours in the Ubuntu family. On April 1st, the beta version of Kubuntu 21.04 ‘Hirsute Hippo’ will be released after freezing all new changes to its features, user interface, and documentation. Between April 1st and the final release on April 22nd, all efforts by the Kubuntu team and community should be focused on ISO testing, reporting bugs, fixing bugs, and translations right up to final release.

On social media, please use the #UbuntuTestingWeek hashtag if you write about your testing or want to spread the word about the event to your followers. Testers can visit the ISO tracker and read bug reporting tutorials.

You can test without changing your system by running it in a VM (Virtual Machine) with software like VMWare Player, VirtualBox (apt install). Or run Hirsute from USB, SD Card, or DVD to test on your hardware.

There are a variety of ways that you can help test the release, including trying out the various live session and installation test cases from the ISO tracker. If you find a bug, you’ll need a Launchpad account to file it against the package the app is bundled in, which you can find by asking around on the IRC/Telegram/Matrix Kubuntu channels or the user mail list.

Chat live in IRC (Freenode) #ubuntu-quality (or #kubuntu-devel if it cannot be reproduced on other flavours) or Telegram: Ubuntu Testers.

The easiest and fastest way to file a bug is in the command line (Konsole): ubuntu-bug $packagename, such as ubiquity – `ubuntu-bug ubiquity`

It is important to file the bug within the testing environment so that the necessary results are properly provided to the bug-tracker. All you need to provide to the ISO tracker is the bug number.

If the bug is found in the installer, file it against `ubiquity`, or file it against the `linux` if your hardware isn’t working. We encourage those that are willing, to install it either in a VM or on physical hardware. It requires at least 15GB of hard drive space. If you can use it for a few days, more bugs can be discovered and reported.

Please test apps that you regularly use, so you can identify bugs and regressions that should be reported, especially as the recently released Plasma 5.21.3 is bundled in this release. New ISO files are built every day, and you should always test with the most up-to-date ISO. It is easier and faster to update an existing daily ISO file on Linux with the command below. Run in the terminal or konsole from within the folder with the ISO file:

$ zsync http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/daily-live/current/hirsute-desktop-amd64.iso.zsync

We look forward to you joining us to make Kubuntu 21.04 an even bigger success, and hope that you will also test out the other Ubuntu flavours.