14 DAY TRIAL // The Kubuntu team was proud to announce the official release and general availability of the Kubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) operating system, which has been unveiled yesterday as part of the Ubuntu 16.04 LTS launch.
Just like its bigger brother, Kubuntu 16.04 is an LTS (Long Term Support) version that will receive critical security patches and software updates for a few more years than regular releases, such as Kubuntu 15.10 (Wily Werewolf) whose end-of-life support will be reached around July 2016.
However, this time, Kubuntu will follow a short LTS cycle, which means that it will be supported for only three years, not five like Ubuntu 16.04 LTS. But this shouldn't be an impediment for not using the distro and remain stuck with the Kubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr) operating system.
"This is the first release from the team since we became a completely volunteer group, just after the release of 15.10. Delivering an Long-Term Release (LTS) release is a superb achievement, and testimony to our community’s commitment to Ubuntu and KDE," reads the announcement.
What's new in Kubuntu 16.04 LTS
Release highlights of Kubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) include a brand-new package manager called Plasma Discover, the latest KDE Plasma 5 desktop environment with the KDE Applications 15.12 software suite and KDE PIM (Personal Information Manager), both of which bring you all the KDE apps you'll need.
Akonadi support and integration with the latest MySQL 5.7 database are also provided by default for new Kubuntu 16.04 LTS installs, and of course, there are now even more applications ported to the KDE Frameworks 5 technologies. The default web browser in Kubuntu 16.04 LTS remains Mozilla Firefox, which has been updated to version 4.5.
Lastly, the LibreOffice 5.1 office suite is there for all your office needs. Kubuntu 16.04 LTS is distributed as two Live ISO images that allow you to install the OS on either 64-bit or 32-bit computers. You can download Kubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) right now via our website or upgrade from a previous release.
