Ubuntu 16.04 - xenial xerus!
Cloud Ninja
All of these are coming together beautifully, making Ubuntu the fastest path to magic of all sorts. And that magic will go by the codename… xenial xerus!
What fortunate timing that our next LTS should be X, because “xenial” means “friendly relations between hosts and guests”, and given all the amazing work going into LXD and KVM for Ubuntu OpenStack, and beyond that the interoperability of Ubuntu OpenStack with hypervisors of all sorts, it seems like a perfect fit.
And Xerus, the African ground squirrels, are among the most social animals in my home country. They thrive in the desert, they live in small, agile, social groups that get along unusually well with their neighbours (for most mammals, neighbours are a source of bloody competition, for Xerus, hey, collaboration is cool). They are fast, feisty, friendly and known for their enormous… courage. That sounds just about right. With great… courage… comes great opportunity!
Cloud Ninja
Ubuntu 16.04 Alpha 1 Is Now Available for Testing
The Xenial Xerus makes its first formal appearance
The original Xenial Xerus Release Schedule pegged Alpha 1 for December
Alpha 1 in the Ubuntu 16.04 ‘Xenial Xerus’ development cycle is now available to download.
The release comes a few days later than was originally planned (December 31, 2015). Send ‘thanks’ on a postcard , c/o Christmas and New Year holidays.
A perfectly understandable delay and, perhaps, a perfect explanation as to why only three Ubuntu flavours participate in the Ubuntu 16.04 Alpha 1 milestone. They are: Lubuntu, Ubuntu MATE and China-orientated Ubuntu Kylin.
A second alpha, in which Ubuntu GNOME and Kubuntu are expected to participate, is due January 28th.
Alphas Aren’t For Everyone
Alpha releases are NOT intended for use in “production environments”, e.g. your main laptop, your work PC, etc.
Almost all you reading this will know that. Alpha status means bugs, breakages, and incomplete features, and these test snapshots serve as an early technology preview of the next release and not a usable or dependable platform.
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Final will be released on April 21st, 2016 will receive on-going security and critical bug fixes for until 2021.
Lubuntu 16.04 Alpha 1
Lubuntu 16.04 will NOT ship with LXQt. The long-promised perpetually-in-development desktop, a merger of the LXDE and Razor Qt desktop environments, is once again not stable enough to ship by default.
Instead, users of Xenial’s low-power alternative to regular Ubuntu will get the reliable and wholly familiar GTK-based LXDE desktop environment.
While this is good news for stability it does mean there is, once again, precious little beyond miscellaneous bug fixes development toolchain and toolkit updates, and a small helping of recent-ish package upgrades to talk of.
(Though you can look forward to improved hardware compatibility in Linux Kernel 4.3.x.)
LXQt packages are available in Xenial’s archive however, so if you want do want check out the progress of the next-gen desktop (and since other Linux distributions are already shipping it, it’s not a threadbare option) you can do so with a few choice commands in the LxTerminal app.
As Lubuntu LTS releases support PowerPC architectures this alpha is also available for PowerPC users.
Download Lubuntu 16.04 Alpha 1
Ubuntu MATE 16.04 Alpha 1
Also taking part is Ubuntu MATE, the popular Ubuntu spin for those who like Linux to be Linux-y.
Ubuntu MATE is (by clear margin) the most active flavour in the Ubuntu family. And the changes ready even in this early alpha shows there’s no sign of let-up.
Ubuntu MATE 16.04 Alpha 1 offers a ‘revamped Ubuntu MATE welcome screen’, a new version of THIS, and WOW.
- 5 New Community Wallpapers
- Updated icons
- New-look Ubuntu MATE Welcome utility
- Ubuntu MATE Settings updated to 16.04.x
- MATE Tweak updated to v3.5.3
- New recommended apps, including Redshift and Variety wallpaper slideshow
Although not part of the spun alpha 1 testing ISO those testers taking it for a trial run will receive an update to thenew MATE 1.12 desktop sometime in the coming days.
Download Ubuntu MATE 16.04 Alpha 1
Source: http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2016/01/ubuntu-16-04-xenial-xerus-alpha-1
Cloud Ninja
Ubuntu 16.04 Beta 2 Released, This Is What’s New
Although this is the second beta release in the Ubuntu 16.04 release schedule it is the first to include the regular version of Ubuntu with the Unity desktop.
Ubuntu 16.04, which many of us know by the codename Xenial Xerus, is set for its stable release on Thursday April 21, 2016.
But you’re not here for a recap of what you already know, are you? So let’s dive into this release to gawp at the shiny new stuff.
Ubuntu 16.04 ‘Xenial Xerus’ Beta 2
If you plan to trial this beta out for yourself you’ll find a download link at the bottom of the article.
But if you haven’t been keeping track of Xenial’s development you’ll need to brace yourself for a big shock¹: not much has changed from Ubuntu 15.10, at least superficially.
There are a couple of new apps to enjoy (and some old ones to miss) and plenty of polish has been applied to the Unity interface.
In fact Unity as a whole has never looked or worked as good as it does here.
It would be remiss of us to not mention the headline-grabbing change shipping Ubuntu 16.04, so let’s get it out of the way now:
#Ubuntu 16.04 will let you move the Unity Launcher to the bottom of the screen https://t.co/fEVDFHDSuWpic.twitter.com/jEEtku1x2u
— OMG! UBUNTU! (@omgubuntu) March 18, 2016
Yes: Ubuntu 16.04 finally lets you move the Unity launcher to the bottom of the screen — nearly six long years after user’s first asked. And you have the Ubuntu Kylin team to thank for it for it is they who did the heavy work of hacking Unity to be moveable.
While the ‘option’ to change position is buried deep in the geeky depths of dconf-editor it is the one change that everyone is talking about.
But it’s not the only welcome improvement.
New Apps
Two major new apps debut in this release: a new desktop calendar app and a brand new software store.
Both bring huge benefits to Ubuntu as a distro, the former plugging a sorely needed gap, the latter improving on a shoddy predecessor.
The USB Startup Creator tool has also received some love, attention, and (importantly) bug fixes. Having been virtually untouched for years (not to mention not actually working) it’s great to see the tool dusted off. I can finally recommend it make USB sticks with once again!
Unity 7.4
Ubuntu 16.04 is all about making this potentially final release of Ubuntu as we know it as rock solid as possible. After all, it will be supported for five years on the desktop.
This focus means plenty of fixes, polish and small usability tweaks abound, most of them targeting the Unity desktop shell and its Compiz backend.
Unity 7.4 features the following notable fixes and changes:
- Session shortcuts (restart, shutdown, etc) added to Unity Dash
- Hidden option to move Unity launcher to the bottom of the screen
- Loading apps now place icon on launcher sooner
- Online searches are now disabled by default
- Option to ‘Always Show’ app menus in menu bar or locally
- New scrollbars in Unity Dash
- Indication of how many external storage/Trash windows are open
- Workspace switcher has gained a quick list
- Option to format removable devices added to quicklist
- External storage on launcher can be opened using Alt+{num}
- Ubuntu themes now draw (most) CSD windows correctly
In addition the Sound Menu now lets you adjust microphone input volume using a slider (only shows when a microphone is present).
New Default Wallpaper
There’s a new default wallpaper to gawp at (assuming it’s not the first thing you change!).
There are no currently no new ‘community contributed’ wallpapers to enjoy in this beta. The Ubuntu ‘free culture showcase’ for this cycle attracted around 52 entries.
Linux 4.4
This beta of Xenial ships with Linux kernel 4.4, with the following highlights:
- Improved Intel Skylake processor support
- 3D support in the virtual GPU driver
- New driver for Corsair Vengeance K90
- Support for TPM 2.0 chips
- Journaled RAID 5 support
Linux Kernel 4.4 also includes less obvious changes including bug fixes and improvements for various file systems, power efficiency, and memory management.
Want a fuller overview of changes? Check out Kernel Newbies’ rundown of Linux 4.4.
Core Application Updates
A batch of updates to Ubuntu applications are also included. Among them you’ll find:
- Firefox 45.0.1
- Thunderbird 38.6
- LibreOffice 5.1
- Chromium 49
- Nautilus (aka ‘Files’) 3.14
- Totem (aka ‘Videos’) 3.18
- Rhythmbox 3.3.1
- Shotwell 0.22
There are also some new applications included:
- GNOME Software 3.19
- GNOME Calendar 3.18
- Cheese
And several apps have been removed:
- Brasero
- Empathy
- Ubuntu Software Center
Download Ubuntu 16.04 Beta 2
Beta releases of Ubuntu are not for everyone. If you need a stable system, hate bugs and can’t deal with potential package breakages, wait for the stable release next month.
And if you are keen to try it out stick to running it off of a live USB or DVD. Also note that there is a major bug that may cause beta installs to fail on hard-drives which already contain a swap partition.
You can download a fresh desktop image of Ubuntu 16.04 Final Beta from the Ubuntu releases server:
Also while you’re here don’t forget…
Download Ubuntu MATE 16.04 Beta 2
Source: http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2016/03/ubuntu-16-04-beta-2-released-whats-new
http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2016/03/ubuntu-16-04-beta-2-flavors-released