Canonical’s Ubuntu 11.04 which is scheduled for release sometime at the end of April just may be one of Canonical’s most anticipated releases yet.

Code named “Natty Narwhal“, this upcoming version is packed with some major improvements and upgrades that should prove to be an operating system worth reckoning with.  unfortunately, the Wayland graphics system won’t be ready in time for this new release, but the new Unity desktop interface will be the new default desktop for Ubuntu’s version 11.04.

According to Canonical’s release schedule, the second alpha version of “Natty Narwal” should be available for testing 0n February 3rd with the final release, of course coming available on April 28th.

What are some of the changes that we can expect in Ubuntu’s upcoming release?

Unity 2D

Like myself, I’m sure not everyone has 3D enabled hardware, so I’m happy to report that Natty Narwhal will support a 2D version of the Unity Desktop Interface.  Canonical engineering manager Bill Filler reported in a recent blog post that Unity 2D’s main goal is to provide a Unity environment on hardware platforms that don’t support Unity’s OpenGL requirements.  He also noted that Unity 2D will expand Unity’s reach to a considerable class of new hardware.

Bill Filler also reported that Canonical has made a significant effort to try and match the visual style of Unity quite closely, so Unity 2D will have the same look and feel as Unity and that it will be installed as its own session, it will be able to live side by side with Unity, Gnome and all your other favorite applications.  As a side note to all you current Ubuntu 10.10 users, it has been reported that Unity’s 2D version will be available for you as well.

Cloud Support

Recently, word on the street has revealed that Natty Narwhal will support cloud computing through Eucalyptus as well as the OpenStack platforms.

In a recent video interview, Canonical’s Mark Shuttleworth explained that it’s “all about reshaping the way that people think they will consume GNU/Linux, and making it easier to amplify the effects of good skills”. He went on to say that “What’s important to us is that people can deploy OpenStack and they can look at it through the same set of APIs that they can look at a Eucalyptus-based cloud and the same set of APIs that they can look at an Amazon or RackSpace-based cloud”.

Banshee Audio Player

In the upcoming Ubuntu 11.04 version, Rhythmbox has been removed as the default audio player and replaced with Banshee. Banshee supports portable media players including Android, iPod and the Creative Zen players. A couple of the many features that Banshee will be offering is Last.fm and podcast support.

Qt Applications

Mark Shuttleworth also announced that future versions of Ubuntu will incorporate the Qt user interface libraries and may include applications based on the Qt framework.  He says that they will need to find some space on the CD for Qt libraries, and that they will evaluate applications developed with Qt for inclusion on the CD and default install of Ubuntu. He was also quoted as saying that “We should evaluate apps on the basis of how well they meet the requirement, not prejudice them on the basis of technical choices made by the developer.”

In my oppinion, I believe Canonical is heading in the right direction with their upcoming Natty Narwolh release, but then again, I guess we all will have to wait until the final release comes available at the end of April.