libinput will now handle various input devices

Mar 23, 2017 21:59 GMT  ·  By

Ubuntu MATE leader Martin Wimpress is informing Softpedia today about the immediate availability of the Final Beta release of the upcoming Ubuntu MATE 17.04 (Zesty Zapus) operating system, due for release on April 13, 2017.

As some of you out there might have noticed, Ubuntu MATE 17.04 did not participate in the Ubuntu 17.04 Beta release for opt-in flavors last month, as the team worked hard on the recently released MATE 1.18 desktop environment, which brings numerous new features, it's fully ported to the GTK+ 3 technologies, and is shipping in the Final Beta.

Among some of the highlights introduced by MATE 1.18 in Ubuntu MATE 17.04, we can mention full support for libinput to handle mice, trackpads and touch screens on both Wayland and X11, improved accessibility support, action icons support for notifications, desktop actions support and support for the Menulibre menu editor in MATE Panel.

Brisk Menu 0.3.0 applications menu is also included in Ubuntu MATE 17.04, as well as Ubuntu MATE Artwork 17.04.7, Ubuntu MATE Settings 17.04.5, Ubuntu MATE Welcome 17.04.8, MATE Tweak 17.04.2, MATE Menu 17.04.2, and MATE Dock Applet 0.76. Under the hood, the Final Beta is powered by Linux kernel 4.10 and uses the Mesa 17.0 graphics stack.

32-bit PowerPC (PPC) support removed

Ubuntu MATE 17.04 Final Beta does not ship with a 32-bit PowerPC (PPC) ISO image, and support for this platform has been dropped, officially. The final release of Ubuntu MATE 17.04 will be available only for 64-bit and 32-bit PCs, but it looks like the team will still support Ubuntu MATE 16.04 LTS 32-bit PPC installations until April 2019.

"The 32-bit PowerPC architecture has been removed from the 17.04 archive. Consequently, Ubuntu MATE will not be releasing PowerPC images anymore. Ubuntu MATE 16.04 will continue to support 32-bit PowerPC until 2019 and Ubuntu will offer security updates until 2021," said Martin Wimpress.

Last but not least, Ubuntu MATE 17.04 Final Beta ships with MATE Calculator, which replaces Galculator. If you want to test drive this pre-release version, you can download either the 32-bit or 64-bit Live ISO images of Ubuntu MATE 17.04 Final Beta right now from our website. Don't forget to report bugs, if you encounter any!