A few minutes ago, the Ubuntu development team unleashed the sixth and last alpha version of the upcoming Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) operating system, due for release in late October this year.

As usual, we've downloaded a copy of it in order to keep you up-to-date with the latest changes in the Ubuntu 9.10 development.

What's new in Ubuntu 9.10 Alpha 6? Well... first of all, there is no more Usplash (the boot splash screen). So it appears the the team has successfully managed to fulfill their initial plans for making a faster startup where a boot screen is no longer necessary. Therefore, when Ubuntu will start, you will see a black screen, after the BIOS POST, followed by the X-based splash screen (xsplash) that we've presented a few weeks ago. If the login manager is enabled, after login... xsplash will appear again (this time, loading the desktop in the background). Here is the new X-based splash screen everyone was waiting for...