The beta release of the Ubuntu 20.10 "Groovy Gorilla" distribution has marked the complete freeze of the package base, transitioning to final testing and bug fixes. The release is scheduled for October 22. Ready test images have been created for , , , , Ubuntu
Budgie, , and UbuntuKylin (China edition).
Key :
- Updated application versions. The desktop has been upgraded to the release , and the Linux kernel has been updated to version . Python, Ruby, Perl, and PHP versions have been updated. A new release of the LibreOffice 7.0 office suite has been proposed. System components such as PulseAudio, BlueZ, and NetworkManager have also been updated.
- Implemented default use of the nftables packet filter. To maintain backward compatibility, the iptables-nft package is available, providing utilities with the same command-line syntax as iptables but translating the received rules into nf_tables bytecode.
- The Ubiquity installer has added the ability to enable authentication in Active Directory.
- The popcon (popularity-contest) package, which was used to transmit anonymized telemetry about the downloading, installation, updating, and deletion of packages, has been removed from the core set. Reports on application popularity and used architectures were generated based on the collected data, which developers used to make decisions about including certain programs in the base supply. Popcon had been included since 2006, but starting with the Ubuntu 18.04 release, this package and its related backend server had been non-functional.
- Access to the utility /usr/bin/dmesg is restricted to users in the "adm" group. The reason cited is the presence of information in the dmesg output that could be exploited by attackers to facilitate privilege escalation exploits. For example, in case of failures, dmesg displays the stack dump and allows for the identification of addresses of structures in the kernel, which could aid in bypassing the KASLR mechanism.
- In Kubuntu the desktop and the KDE Applications 20.08 suite.
- In Ubuntu MATE, as in the previous release, the desktop includes .
- In the proposed graphical environment .
- Shuffler, the interface for quick navigation through open windows and grouping windows in a grid, has added a "sticky neighbors" feature and implemented tools for command line management. The menu now includes support for GNOME settings search and has removed many distracting icons. A Mojave theme has been added with macOS-style icons and interface elements. A new fullscreen applet for navigating installed applications has been introduced, which can be used as an alternative to the application menu. The Budgie desktop has been updated to a fresh code snapshot from Git.
- In the transition to Glibc 2.30 and GCC 9.2.0 has been made. 33 packages have been updated, including the Linux kernel 5.2, the use of KDE Plasma as the default desktop (previously Xfce was offered). It is noted that KDE Plasma has quality tools for graphic artists and photographers (Gwenview, Krita) and better support for Wacom tablets. There's also a transition to the new Calamares installer. Ubuntu Studio Controls has returned support for Firewire (drivers based on ALSA and FFADO are available). A new audio session manager branched off from , and the mcpdisp utility. Updated versions include Ardour 6.2, Blender 2.83.5,
KDEnlive 20.08.1,
Krita 4.3.0,
GIMP 2.10.18,
Scribus 1.5.5,
Darktable 3.2.1,
Inkscape 1.0.1,
Carla 2.2,
Studio Controls 2.0.8,
OBS Studio 25.0.8,
MyPaint 2.0.0. Rawtherapee has been removed from the base distribution in favor of Darktable. Jack Mixer has been returned to the main set.
Source: opennet.ru
