Ubuntu 11.04

At some point today, the team at Ubuntu are going to put up the image for Ubuntu 11.04 onto their FTP server. That means you’re going to be able to download it advance. All that needs to happen is to watch the FTP server: ftp.ubuntu.com.

Hint: How to get Ubuntu 11.04 quickly when it is released

I know that I am going to be one of those geeks that downloads Ubuntu 11.04 the day it comes out (or the day after, when I have the day off because of the Royal Wedding) however, I have a variety of options on how to download it. The first is to just update my current installation, and whilst this could be a very sensible approach for most people, I am choosing not to take this because I have three computers that need updating, and I don’t want to have to follow through the procedure three times. Therefore I am going to need to get the ISO.

Because the site will be ludicrously slow, you are going to need a better approach, and there are two. The first is to use a torrent, which could be a very sensible approach because you may end up getting the download from somewhere very nearby – you may even be getting it from someone across your street. I don’t like torrents that much because I’ve had slow experiences with them in the past, however I know that they can be very useful, so I shall still recommend it.

The second, and probably less know approach is to go to the Alternate Download page and then find the ‘location near me’ link. This will bring you through to a download server that is closest to you, meaning that you’ll be able to get it quicker. I strongly advise many people to take this approach, because whilst the Ubuntu servers are generally very good at coping with large amounts of traffic, if people use nearby downloads it will take the strain off all the other servers, so everyone gets it quicker. Lets all be sensible and open about this, and download Ubuntu from different servers…