14 DAY TRIAL // Kubuntu 17.04 was also released today as part of the Ubuntu 17.04 (Zesty Zapus) operating system, and since it's an official flavor, we're gonna take a quick look at its new features.
Kubuntu 17.04 debuts with the latest, new generation KDE Plasma 5.9 desktop environment customized with some of the goodies coming to the KDE Plasma 5.10 release next month, such as the Folder View instead of the Desktop widget that was used in all previous Kubuntu releases.
The new Folder View mode also features a spring-loading functionality that lets users navigate folders just by hovering the mouse cursor over them during a drag and drop operation. Besides KDE Plasma 5.9, Kubuntu 17.04 comes with the latest KDE Applications 16.12.3 software suite and KDE Frameworks 5.31.0.
"Folder view is now the default setting for the Plasma Desktop for new installations and new user accounts," said the devs. "Kubuntu comes with KDE Applications 16.12.3 containing all your favorite apps from KDE, with the exception of PIM and related products. KDE PIM applications have been held at version 16.04.3."
Calligra 3.0.1 office suite and Krita 3.1 are now available
Other release highlights of Kubuntu 17.04 include the Calligra 3.0.1 office suite and Okular 16.12 PDF and document reader, both of which were ported to the latest Qt 5 and KDE Frameworks 5 technologies, as well as K3B, which is ported from a Qt5/KF5 preview snapshot of the upcoming KDE Applications 17.04 software suite.
The latest Krita 3.1 digital painting software is included as well, despite the fact that it was split from the Calligra office suite, and Kubuntu 17.04 ships with the Kdevelop 5.0 IDE (Integrated Development Environment) and numerous other up-to-date applications from KDE.
Non-KDE applications include the LibreOffice 5.3.1 office suite and Mozilla Firefox 52.0.1 web browser. Under the hood, Kubuntu 17.04 is powered by the same internals as Ubuntu 17.04 (Zesty Zapus), namely Linux kernel 4.10, X.Org Server 1.19.3, and Mesa 17.0.3. Swap files are used by default instead of swap partitions.
You can download the Kubuntu 17.04 Live ISO images for either 64-bit or 32-bit hardware architectures right now from our website if you want to deploy the operating system on new computers or reinstall. Existing users can upgrade using the built-in package manager. Kubuntu 17.04 is supported until January 2018.
