The first Beta of Ubuntu 17.10 Artful Aardvark was announced last night. The beta features images for Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Ubuntu Budgie, Ubuntu Kylin, Ubuntu MATE, Ubuntu Studio and Xubuntu.

It was announced in the Ubuntu-release mailing list:

“The first beta of the Artful Aardvark (to become 17.10) has now been released!

This milestone features images for Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Ubuntu Budgie, Ubuntu Kylin, Ubuntu MATE, Ubuntu Studio and Xubuntu.

Pre-releases of the Artful Aardvark are *not* encouraged for anyone needing a stable system or anyone who is not comfortable running into occasional, even frequent breakage. They are, however, recommended for Ubuntu flavor developers and those who want to help in testing, reporting, and fixing bugs as we work towards getting this release ready.

…“

Ubuntu 17.10 Beta 1 features:

• Plasma desktop 5.10.5 in Kubuntu 17.10.
• Change from ifupdown to netplan for networking in Lubuntu 17.10 Beta1
• Budgie Desktop 10.4, replace GNOME Photos with gThumb, Nautilus 3.24 support etc. in Ubuntu Budgie
• Ubuntu MATE 17.10: Different panel layouts to mimic Unity 7, macOS, Windows interface.
• Ubuntu MATE 17.10: Complete Super key support, improvements to Global Menu, Heads-Up Display, and more.

Download Ubuntu 17.10:

LUbuntu 17.10: cdimage.ubuntu.com/lubuntu/releases/artful/

KUbuntu 17.10: cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/releases/artful/

Ubuntu Kylin 17.10: cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntukylin/releases/artful/

Ubuntu Budgie 17.10: cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-budgie/releases/artful/

Ubuntu MATE 17.10: cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-mate/releases/artful/

XUbuntu 17.10: cdimage.ubuntu.com/xubuntu/releases/artful/

UbuntuStudio 17.10: cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntustudio/releases/artful/

According to the release schedule, there will be a final beta on September 28th, Final Freeze (Release candidate) on October 12th, and Ubuntu 17.10 will be finally released on October 19th.