We're happy to announce the release of ROS 2 alpha8, aka Hook-and-loop!
Installation instructions and tutorials can be found on the wiki: https://github.com/ros2/ros2/wiki
To get an idea of what's in (and what's not in) this release, be sure
to read the overview page:: https://github.com/ros2/ros2/wiki/Alpha8-Overview
A key change in this release is that Fast-RTPS is now the default ROS 2 middleware.
The list of all features available in this alpha can be found here: https://github.com/ros2/ros2/wiki/Features

~~~As the "alpha" qualifier suggests, this release of ROS 2 is far from complete. You should not expect to switch from ROS 1 to ROS 2, nor should you expect to build a new robot control system with ROS 2. Rather, you should expect to try out some demos, explore the code, and perhaps write your own demos.
~~~
As always, we invite you to try out the new software, give feedback, report bugs, and suggest features (and contribute code!): https://github.com/ros2/ros2/wiki/Contact

The ROS 2 team