Ubuntu 21.10 Beta Available to Download with GNOME 40

A beta release of the Ubuntu 21.10 “Impish Indri” Beta Available to Download with GNOME 40, The release is scheduled for October 14th. Ready test images created for Ubuntu, Ubuntu Server , Lubuntu , Kubuntu , Ubuntu Mate , Ubuntu Budgie , Ubuntu Studio , Xubuntu, and UbuntuKylin (China Edition).

Ubuntu 21.10 changes :

• The transition to the use of GTK4 and the GNOME 40 desktop has been made , in which the interface has been significantly modernized. The Activities Overview virtual desktops are set to landscape orientation and are displayed in a continuous loop from left to right. Each desktop displayed in overview mode clearly shows the available windows, which are dynamically panned and scaled by user interaction. Seamless transition between program list and virtual desktops is provided. Improved organization of work with multiple monitors. GNOME Shell provides GPU rendering for shaders.

• By default, it offers a completely light version of the skin Yaru used in Ubuntu. A completely dark option is also available as an option (dark headers, dark backgrounds and dark controls). Support for the old combined theme (dark headers, light background and light controls) has been discontinued due to the lack of GTK4’s ability to define different background and text colors for the title and main window, which does not guarantee the correct operation of all GTK applications when using the combined theme …

• Provided the ability to use a desktop session based on the Wayland protocol in environments with proprietary NVIDIA drivers.

The Waydroid project develops a package to run Android on GNU / Linux

• PulseAudio has significantly expanded support for Bluetooth: added A2DP-codecs LDAC and AptX, built-in support for the HFP (Hands-Free Profile), which has improved the sound quality.

• We switched to using the zstd algorithm for compressing deb packages, which will almost double the speed of installing packages, at the cost of a small increase in their size (~ 6%). Support for using zstd has been present in apt and dpkg since Ubuntu 18.04, but has not been used to compress packages.

• A proposed new installer for Ubuntu Desktop has been , implemented in the form of an add-on over the low-level installer curtin , which is already used in the default Subiquity installer in Ubuntu Server. The new installer for Ubuntu Desktop is written in Dart and uses the framework Flutter to build the user interface. The new installer has been designed with the modern Ubuntu desktop in mind and is designed to provide a consistent installation process across the entire Ubuntu product line. Three modes are offered: “Repair Installation” for reinstalling all packages available in the system without changing the settings, “Try Ubuntu” for getting familiar with the distribution kit in Live mode and “Install Ubuntu” for installing the distribution kit on disk.

• By default, the packet filter is nftables enabled . To maintain 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.

• The Linux kernel 5.13 has been used . Updated versions of programs including PulseAudio 15.0, BlueZ 5.60, NetworkManager 1.32.10, LibreOffice 7.2.1, Firefox 92 and Thunderbird 91.1.1.

Firefox browser has been transferred by default to delivery in the form of a snap-package, accompanied by Mozilla employees (the ability to install a deb-package is preserved, but now it is an option).

• In Xubuntu will continue to supply the desktop the Xfce 4.16 . Integrated Media Server Pipewire which is used in conjunction with PulseAudio. Includes GNOME Disk Analyzer and Disk Utility applications to monitor disk health and simplify disk partition management. Rhythmbox with an alternative toolbar is used to play music. The messaging application Pidgin has been removed from the base distribution.

• In Ubuntu Budgie involved new release desktop Budgie 10.5.3 and recycled dark design theme. A new revision of the assembly for the Raspberry Pi 4 has been proposed. The capabilities of the Shuffler, an interface for quickly navigating through open windows and grouping windows on a grid, have been expanded, in which an applet has appeared for automatically moving and rearranging windows in accordance with the selected layout of elements on the screen, the ability to bind the launch of the application has been implemented to a specific virtual desktop or location on the screen. Added new applet to show CPU temperature.

• As of Ubuntu MATE desktop MATE has been updated to version 1.26 .

• Kubuntu : desktop offered KDE Plasma 5.22 and KDE Gear 21.08 suite of applications . Updated versions of panel Latte-dock 0.10 and graphical editor Krita 4.4.8. A Wayland-based session is available, but not enabled by default (to activate on the login screen, select “Plasma (Wayland)”).

• Beta releases of two unofficial editions of Ubuntu 21.10 are available for testing – Ubuntu Cinnamon Remix 21.10 with desktop Cinnamon and Ubuntu Unity 21.10 with Unity7 desktop .