April 23 The release of Ubuntu version 20.04, codenamed Focal Fossa, is the next long-term support (LTS) release of Ubuntu and continues from Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, which was released in 2018.
A bit about the codename. The word 'Focal' means 'central point' or 'the most important part', relating to the idea of focus, the center of certain properties, phenomena, and events, while 'Fossa' has the root 'FOSS' (Free and Open-Source Software) and, following the tradition of naming Ubuntu versions after animals, it means — the largest carnivorous mammal from the family Eupleridae found on the island of Madagascar.
Developers position Ubuntu 20.04 as an important and successful update with five years of support for both desktop computers and servers.
Ubuntu 20.04 is a logical continuation of Ubuntu 19.04 'Disco Dingo' and Ubuntu 19.10 'Eoan Ermine'. Following the latest trends, a dark theme was introduced in desktop versions. Thus, Ubuntu 20.04 offers three variants of the standard Yaru theme:
- Light,
- Dark,
- Standard.
The Amazon application was also removed. Ubuntu 20.04 uses the latest version as the default graphical interface. .
Key Changes
Ubuntu 20.04 is based on kernel 5.4, which was released on November 24, 2019. This version includes several important innovations, which we will discuss below.
lz4
Canonical engineers tested various compression algorithms for the kernel and initial initramfs boot image, seeking a balance between the best compression (smaller file size) and decompression speed. The lossless compression algorithm lz4 showed the most significant results and was added in Ubuntu 19.10, allowing it to reduce boot times compared to previous releases (Ubuntu 18.04 and 19.04). This same algorithm will remain in Ubuntu 20.04.
Linux Lockdown Kernel
The Lockdown feature enhances the security of the Linux kernel by restricting access to functions that could allow arbitrary code execution via code provided by user processes. In simpler terms, even the root superuser account cannot change kernel code. This helps to minimize damage from potential attacks, even if the root account is compromised. Thus, the overall security of the operating system is improved.
exFAT
The Microsoft FAT file system does not allow files larger than 4 GB to be transferred. To overcome this limitation, Microsoft created the exFAT file system (short for Extended FAT). Now you can format, for example, a USB drive in exFAT using for the exFAT file system.
WireGuard
Although Ubuntu 20.04 won't be using kernel 5.6 right away, it already features a backport of WireGuard in kernel 5.4. WireGuard is a , so including it in the kernel now gives Ubuntu 20.04 an advantage in the cloud space.
Fixed and now multi-threaded applications can run faster. A driver has been added to work with temperature and voltage sensors for Ryzen processors.
All of this is far from the only innovations introduced in kernel 5.4. Detailed reviews can be found on the resource (in English) and on the forum (in Russian).
Using Kubernetes
Canonical has implemented full support for with support for , and .
Installing Kubectl in Ubuntu 20.04:
# snap install kubectl --classic
kubectl 1.18.0 from Canonical ✓ installedUsing SNAP
Canonical continues to promote the universal package format — snap. This is even more evident in the release of Ubuntu 20.04. If you try to run a program that is not installed, it will first offer to install it using:
# snap install <package> 
Enhanced ZFS support
Although , but it remains a popular file system and its experimental support has been added since Ubuntu 19.10.
It is quite user-friendly and stable for data storage, whether for a home archive or a server repository at work (it 'out of the box' does more than LVM). ZFS supports partition sizes up to 256 quadrillion Zettabytes (hence the 'Z' in its name) and can handle files up to 16 Exabytes in size.
ZFS performs data integrity checks by considering how data is laid out on the disk. The copy-on-write feature ensures that existing data is not overwritten. Instead, new information is written to a new block, and the filesystem metadata is updated to point to it. ZFS allows the creation of snapshots that track changes made to the filesystem and exchange data with it to save disk space.
ZFS assigns a checksum to each file on the disk and continually checks its status against it. If it finds that a file is corrupted, it will attempt to automatically restore it. The Ubuntu installer has introduced a separate option that allows the use of ZFS. You can learn more about the history of ZFS and its features in the blog. .
Goodbye Python 2.X
Python 3 was introduced back in 2008, but even 12 years wasn't enough for projects on Python 2 to adapt to it.
An attempt to phase out Python 2 was made back in Ubuntu 15.10, but its support continued. And now, on April 20, 2020, the was released, which is the last version of the Python 2 branch. There will be no further updates for it.
Ubuntu 20.04 no longer supports Python 2 and uses Python 3.8 as the default Python version. Unfortunately, many projects still work with Python 2, and for them, the transition to Ubuntu 20.04 may be painful.
You can install the last version of Python 2 with a single command:
# apt install python2.7In addition to Python 3.8, developers can evaluate an updated toolset that includes:
- MySQL 8,
- glibc 2.31,
- OpenJDK 11,
- PHP 7.4,
- Perl 5.30,
- Golang 1.14.
Farewell to 32-bit
For several years now, Ubuntu has not provided ISO images for 32-bit computers. Existing users of 32-bit versions of Ubuntu can switch to Ubuntu 18.04, but it won't be possible to upgrade to Ubuntu 20.04. This means that if you are currently using 32-bit Ubuntu 18.04, you will be able to stay with it until April 2023.
How to upgrade
Upgrading to Ubuntu 20.04 from previous versions is quite easy — just run the following commands:
# sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
# sudo do-release-upgradeWe are pleased to announce that Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa) is now available as an image for virtual machines on our Create your own virtual IT infrastructure using the latest software!
UPD: Users of Ubuntu 19.10 can upgrade to 20.04 now, while users of Ubuntu 18.04 will be able to upgrade after the release of 20.04.1, scheduled for July 23, 2020.
Source: habr.com
