Ubuntu 9.10 to be Released on Thursday 10/29/09

Ubuntu 9.10, code named Karmic Koala, will be officially released on Thursday. If you don't want to wait you can get the beta release immediately.
However, the download servers and mirror sites are expected to be busy, so be prepared for longer download times than usual.

The desktop environment of Karmic Koala has been upgraded to GNOME 2.28, and the Add/Remove menu option for installing and removing software has been replaced with the "Ubuntu Software Center". Other noteable changes include the addition of Empathy as the default messaging client. It is replacing Pidgin. The gdm 2.27.4 login manager has been completely rewritten, and the file sharing service ubuntuone.com is included be default.

Karmic further brings a kernel upgrade, a new Intel video driver architecture for improved graphics performance, a new default compiler, ext4 as default file system, and the GRUB 2 boot loader. An application development tool "Quickly" helps developers to create applications for Ubuntu and make them available to other users through PPAs (personal package archives).

The beta release can be retrieved from the Karmic Koala download page. For current users of Ubuntu there are also instructions on how to upgrade from Ubuntu 9.04.