the beta release of the Ubuntu 20.04 "Focal Fossa" distribution, which marked a complete freeze of the package base and moved on to final testing and bug fixes. The release, which is categorized as a Long Term Support (LTS) release with 5 years of updates, is scheduled for April 23rd. Ready test images are created for , , , , Ubuntu
Budgie, , and UbuntuKylin (China edition).
All :
- Desktop updated to release . The default Yaru theme has been redesigned, in addition to the previously available dark (dark headings, dark background and dark controls) and light (dark headings, light background and light controls) modes, a third completely light option will appear. A new design of the system menu and application menu has been proposed. Added new directory icons that are optimized for display on light and dark backgrounds.
Implemented a new interface for changing theme options.
- The performance of GNOME Shell and the window manager has been optimized. Reduced CPU load and reduced delays during rendering of animations when manipulating windows, when moving the mouse, and when opening overview mode.
- Added support for 10-bit color depth.
- X11 now supports fractional scaling, which was previously only available when using Wayland. This feature allows you to choose the optimal size of elements on screens with a high pixel density (HiDPI), for example, you can increase the displayed interface elements not by 2 times, but by 1.5.
- Added a new splash screen to be shown on boot.
- Linux kernel updated to release . As in the fall release, the LZ4 algorithm is used to compress the kernel and the initial initramf boot image, which allowed to reduce boot time due to faster decompression of data.
- Updated system components and development tools: Glibc 2.31, BlueZ 5.53, OpenJDK 11, rustc 1.41, GCC 9.3, Python 3.8.2, ruby ββ2.7.0, Ruby on Rails 5.2.3, php 7.4, perl 5.30, go 1.13.
- Updated user and graphic applications:
Mesa 20.0, PulseAudio 14.0-pre, Firefox 74.0, Thunderbird 68.6.0, LibreOffice 6.4 - Updated applications for servers and virtualization:
QEMU 4.2, libvirt 6.0, Bind 9.16, HAProxy 2.0, OpenSSH 8.2 (with support for FIDO/U2F two-factor authentication tokens). Apache httpd has TLSv1.3 support enabled. Added support for VPN WireGuard. - The exact time synchronization daemon chrony has been updated to version 3.5 and is additionally isolated from the system through the connection of a system call filter.
- Continued development of the experimental ability to install on a root partition with ZFS. ZFSonLinux implementation updated for release with support for encryption, hot removal of devices, the "zpool trim" command, acceleration of the "scrub" and "resilver" commands. To manage ZFS, the zsys daemon is being developed, which allows you to run several parallel systems with ZFS on one computer, automates the creation of snapshots and manages the separation of system and data that changes during the user session. In different snapshots, you can contain different system states and switch between them. For example, in case of problems after installing updates, you can return to the old stable state by selecting the last snapshot. Snapshots can also be used to transparently automatically back up user data.
- Compared to the last LTS release, the Snap Store has replaced Ubuntu-software as the default tool for finding and installing regular and snap packages.
- Package building for the i386 architecture has been stopped. To continue running legacy programs that remain 32-bit only or require 32-bit libraries, build and ship 32-bit library packages.
- Π KDE Plasma 5.18 desktop, KDE Applications 19.12.3 and Qt 5.12.5 framework are offered. The default music player is Elisa 19.12.3, which replaced Cantata. Updated latte-dock 0.9.10, KDEConnect 1.4.0, Krita 4.2.9, Kdevelop 5.5.0. Dropped support for KDE4 and Qt4 applications.
An experimental session based on Wayland is proposed (after installing the plasma-workspace-wayland package, an optional item "Plasma (Wayland)" appears on the login screen).
- : MATE desktop updated to version . Added an interface for updating firmware using fwupd. Removed Compiz and Compton from distribution. Provided display of window thumbnails in the panel, the task switching interface (Alt-Tab) and the desktop switcher. A new applet for displaying notifications is proposed. Evolution is used as an email client instead of Thunderbird. When installing proprietary NVIDIA drivers, which can be selected in the installer, an applet is provided to switch between different GPUs on systems with hybrid graphics (NVIDIA Optimus).
- : Apps menu applet enabled by default and its own applet for managing network settings.
Added interface to quickly switch desktop layouts (Budgie, Classic Ubuntu Budgie, Ubuntu Budgie, Cupertino, The One
and Redmond).
The core package includes the GNOME Firmware and GNOME Drawing applications.
Improved integration with GNOME 3.36. The Budgie desktop has been updated to version 10.5.1. Added anti-aliasing and font hinting settings. By default, the system tray applet is disabled (due to problems during operation). Applets are adapted for HiDPI screens. - : Ubuntu Studio Controls separates settings for Jack Master, Auxiliaries and Layers to PulseAudio. Updated RaySession 0.8.3, Audacity 2.3.3, Hydrogen 1.0.0-beta2, Carla 2.1-RC2,
Blender 2.82, KDEnlive 19.12.3, Krita 4.2.9, GIMP 2.10.18,
Ardour 5.12.0, Scribus 1.5.5, Darktable 2.6.3, Pitivi 0.999, Inkscape 0.92.4, OBS Studio 25.0.3, MyPaint 2.0.0, Rawtherapee 5.8. - Π the appearance of a dark theme is noted. IN only minor changes and updates are noticeable.
Source: opennet.ru