The beta release of the Ubuntu 21.04 "Hirsute Hippo" distribution is presented, after the formation of which the package database was completely frozen and the developers proceeded to the final testing and bug fixes. The release is scheduled for April 22. Ready test images are created for Ubuntu, Ubuntu Server, Lubuntu, Kubuntu, Ubuntu Mate, Ubuntu Budgie, Ubuntu Studio, Xubuntu and UbuntuKylin (China edition).
Major changes:
- GTK3 and GNOME Shell 3.38 continue to be shipped as desktops, but GNOME applications are mostly in sync with GNOME 40 (desktop transition to GTK 4 and GNOME 40 considered premature).
- By default, a session based on the Wayland protocol is enabled. When using NVIDIA's proprietary drivers, the X server session is still offered by default, but for other configurations, this session has been moved to the category of options. Many of the Wayland-based GNOME session restrictions have recently been resolved, which were cited as issues blocking the transition to Wayland. For example, you can now share your desktop using the Pipewire media server. The first attempt to migrate Ubuntu to Wayland by default was in 2017 with Ubuntu 17.10, but Ubuntu 18.04 brought back the traditional X.Org Server-based graphics stack due to unresolved issues.
- Added support for smart card authentication (using pam_sss 7).
- On the desktop, added the ability to move resources from applications using the drag&drop interface.
- In the settings, it became possible to change the energy consumption profile.
- Added support for the Pipewire media server, which allows you to organize screen recording, improve sound support in isolated applications, provide professional audio processing capabilities, eliminate fragmentation, and unify the audio infrastructure for different applications.
- Added support for creating spare keys to restore access to encrypted partitions in the installer.
- Improved integration with Active Directory and the ability to access Active Directory with GPO (Group Policy Objects) support immediately after installation.
- The model of access to users' home directories in the system has been changed - home directories are now created with permissions 750 (drwxr-x—), which grant access to the directory only to the owner and members of the group. For historical reasons, earlier user home directories in Ubuntu were created with permission 755 (drwxr-xr-x), allowing one user to view the contents of another's directory.
- The Linux kernel has been updated to version 5.11, which includes support for Intel SGX enclaves, a new syscall interception mechanism, an auxiliary virtual bus, blocking assembly of modules without MODULE_LICENSE(), fast syscall filtering mode in seccomp, deprecation of ia64 architecture, porting of WiMAX technology to branch "staging", the ability to encapsulate SCTP in UDP.
- By default, the nftables packet filter is enabled. To preserve backward compatibility, the iptables-nft package is available, which provides utilities with the same command line syntax as in iptables, but translates the resulting rules into nf_tables bytecode.
- Updated application and subsystem versions, including PulseAudio 14, BlueZ 5.56, NetworkManager 1.30, Firefox 87, LibreOffice 7.1.2-rc2, Thunderbird 78.8.1, Darktable 3.4.1, Inkscape 1.0.2, Scribus 1.5.6.1, OBS 26.1.2 .20.12.3, KDEnlive 2.83.5, Blender 20.12.3, KDEnlive 4.4.3, Krita 2.10.22, GIMP XNUMX.
- Raspberry Pi builds have added GPIO support (via libgpiod and liblgpio). Compute Module 4 boards support Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
- Kubuntu offers the KDE Plasma 5.21 desktop and KDE Applications 20.12.3. The Qt framework has been updated to version 5.15.2. Elisa Music Player 20.12.3 is enabled by default. Updated versions of Krita 4.4.3 and Kdevelop 5.6.2. Available, but not enabled by default, is a Wayland-based session (select "Plasma (Wayland)" on the login screen to activate).
- In Xubuntu, the Xfce desktop has been updated to version 4.16. The base package includes Hexchat and Synaptic applications. On the desktop, by default, the right-click application menu is disabled and shortcuts to file systems and external drives are hidden.
- Ubuntu MATE continues to ship the MATE 1.24 desktop release.
- Ubuntu Studio uses the new music session manager Agordejo by default updated Studio Controls 2.1.4, Ardour 6.6, RaySession 0.10.1, Hydrogen 1.0.1, Carla 2.3-rc2, jack-mixer 15-1, lsp-plugins 1.1.29 .
- Lubuntu offers the LXQt 0.16.0 graphical environment.
- Ubuntu Budgie features a new release of the Budgie 10.5.2 desktop. Added builds for Raspberry Pi 4. Added an optional macOS style theme. Shuffler, an interface for quickly navigating open windows and grouping windows on a grid, has added a Layouts interface for grouping and launching multiple applications at once, and the ability to fix the position and size of an application window. and New Apples budgie-clipboard-applet (clipboard management) and budgie-analogue-applet (analogue clock) are proposed Updated desktop design to default to dark theme. Budgie Welcome provides a tabbed interface for navigating themes.
Additionally, Canonical announced the start of testing a specialized build of Ubuntu Windows Community Preview for creating Linux environments in Windows using the WSL2 (Windows Subsystem for Linux) subsystem, which provides running Linux executable files in Windows. The ubuntuwsl text configurator is offered for configuration.
Source: opennet.ru