Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Xubuntu, other spins also released

Apr 5, 2020 12:37 GMT  ·  By

Canonical has recently announced the final beta of Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, also known as Focal Fossa, along with the typical spins based on it, including Xubuntu, Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Ubuntu MATE, Ubuntu Budgie, and UbuntuKylin.

The company says the stable version of the next Ubuntu release is expected on April 23, so you can try it out in advance using this beta for a little over two weeks.

“20.04 LTS, codenamed "Focal Fossa", continues Ubuntu's proud tradition of integrating the latest and greatest open source technologies into a high-quality, easy-to-use Linux distribution. The team has been hard at work through this cycle, introducing new features and fixing bugs,” Canonical says.

“The Beta images are known to be reasonably free of showstopper image build or installer bugs, while representing a very recent snapshot of 20.04 LTS that should be representative of the features intended to ship with the final release expected on April 23rd, 2020.”

Hello, GNOME 3.36

There are several notable changes in this release, and it all starts with the Linux kernel 5.4 LTS and the addition of the GNOME 3.36 desktop environment.

In other words, the latest GNOME version brings all its goodies to Ubuntu, including a new lock screen, system menu, and folder design, alongside substantially refined performance, such as lower CPU usage for a series of components.

And of course, this new version comes with the brand-new Snap Store, which replaces ubuntu-software and makes it a lot more convenient to find and install new packages.

There are obviously several updates for the -reloaded software, including Mesa 20.0, Firefox 74, Thunderbird 68.6.0, and LibreOffice 6.4.

“Continuing with what started in the Eoan release, Ubuntu Focal ships zfs 0.8.3. Compared to what was available in the previous LTS release, zfs 0.8 brings many new features,” Canonical also explains.

The full release notes of the latest beta build are available on this page.