path: root/published/ubuntu1510.html

<p>Canonical recently released Ubuntu 15.10, nicknamed Wily Werewolf.</p>
<p>In the past the Autumn releases of Ubuntu Linux have often been more experimental affairs and warranted some caution when updating. They weren't quite update-at-your-own risk rough, but they were often packed full of new features that were not fully baked.</p>
<p>Whereas Spring .04 releases tended to be stable (and every two years packaged as Long Term Support releases), Autumn was a time to experiment.</p>
<p>For example, the now shuttered Ubuntu One first debuted in 9.10. The Unity desktop became a default in 11.10 and the controversial Amazon search results in the Unity Dash made their debut in 12.10.</p>
<p>Unfortunately -- or fortunately, depending on how you feel about desktop experiments -- that's not a case with Wily Werewolf.</p>
<p>There are new features worth updating for in this release, but on the whole this is Canonical refining what it has already created, getting ready for the next LTS release (Ubuntu 16.04, due toward the end of April 2016), which will also likely be the last LTS release based on Unity 7.</p>
<p>By this time next year 16.10 will be back to the experimental new features with an entirely different beast on the desktop -- Unity 8, Mir and other big changes will return next year's .10 release to the kind of playground status of the past.</p>
<p>More on Unity 8 and what it means for Ubuntu in a minute. But first, Ubuntu 15.10, which might be the very last of its kind for a little while -- a stable, welcome update that doesn't require you to radically change your workflow or habits.</p>
<h2 id="ubuntu-15.10">Ubuntu 15.10</h2>

[image="ubuntu1510-desktop.png" caption="Visually Ubuntu 15.10 looks a lot like previous releases."]

<p>While Ubuntu 15.10 is unlikely to win any awards for innovation there are some very useful new features in the kernel update, a couple of UI changes for Unity and plenty of application updates, all of which make it well worth the update.</p>
<p>The most notable UI changes in this release are the scrollbars, which are now pulled straight from GNOME 3. Canonical has abandoned its little disappearing "handle"-style scrollbars in favor of GNOME's defaults (which have improved considerably since Ubuntu started work on its own version). The change appears to based more on <a href="https://plus.google.com/+WillCooke/posts/4WnzUY2PHix">code maintenance</a> and development effort than any strong aesthetic feelings from Canonical. It would seem that writing and maintaining your own scrollbar code is more work than it's worth. The visual change is minor and solves quite a few bugs in Canonical's home-grown scrollbars, making it a win for users as well as the programmers once tasked with maintaining the old code base.</p>

[image="ubuntu1510-scrollbars.png" caption="The old Ubuntu-created scrollbar is on the left, the new upstream version from GNOME on the right."]

<p>Abandoning the homegrown scrollbars might also mean that Unity is able to integrate upstream GNOME updates faster than it has been lately. With this release most of the GNOME suite of tools that powers much of Unity have finally been updated to 3.16, though a few holdouts like GEdit remain at much older versions.</p>
<p>Aside from the scrollbars, there's not a lot of visual changes to this release. Unity itself gets a slight version bump with some bug fixes and a couple new features, including a new option to drag icons out of the Dash launcher and onto your desktop. If you were really missing the ability to clutter your desktop with something other than files, well, now you can throw some application launchers in there for good measure.</p>
<p>Other notable bug fixes in Unity include an annoying problem with fullscreen menu bars and the ability to access locally integrated menus -- that is, menus within the window rather than in the top bar -- on unfocussed windows.</p>
<p>While those are welcome fixes, most of what's interesting in this release is not directly from Canonical. The most exiting thing in Ubuntu 15.10 is probably the updated kernel, which is now based on the upstream Linux Kernel 4.2.</p>
<p>The 4.2 line brings support for for recent Radeon GPUs, as well as some new encryption options for ext4 disks. There's also support for Intel's new Broxton chips, which just might be finding their way into an Ubuntu Mobile device at some point. 15.10 also marks the first time that the new live kernel patching has been available in Ubuntu. This release also adds a new kernel for the Raspberry Pi 2.</p>
<p>Linux game aficionados will be happy hear that this release ships with support for the <a href="http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/10/steams-living-room-hardware-blitz-gets-off-to-a-muddy-start/4/">new Steam controller</a>.</p>
<p>Developers get some love in this release too, with updates for Python and Ubuntu Make, Ubuntu's impressive suite of developer tools. If you're looking for a quick way to get, for example, a basic Android development environment set up, you'd be hard pressed to beat Ubuntu Make's simple <code>umake android</code> command.</p>
<p>Anyone doing tech support from an Ubuntu machine will be happy to hear that Virtualbox has been updated with the latest version, which offers guest additions for Windows 10. The rest of Ubuntu's standard application suite has been updated as well, including the latest version of Firefox, Thunderbird, Chromium and more. Of particular note is LibreOffice, which has been upgraded to version 5, a major update for LibreOffice users.</p>
<p>Ubuntu 15.10 has been rock solid in my testing. That said, I have had some trouble installing 15.10 via Chrubuntu on a new Dell 13 Chromebook, primarily related to trackpad drivers. Chrubuntu is a bit of a hack though, it's probably not fair to hold it against Ubuntu. Otherwise 15.10 has been very stable and wonderful to use on all the devices I've tested it on -- especially my old Eeepc where Ubuntu offers something that gets very little press -- UI scaling. Typically HiDPI screens get all the attention, and indeed Unity looks great in high res, but Ubuntu also has some great scaling in the opposite direction. Using the slider under Settings &gt;&gt; displays it's possible to downsize the entire UI, which gains you some precious real estate on smaller screens. It doesn't work everywhere -- Firefox is my most-used exception -- but it does make it easy to reclaim a few pixels on small screens.</p>
<h2 id="ubuntu-15.10-flavors">Ubuntu 15.10 Flavors</h2>
<p>When most people refer to Ubuntu they mean the Unity desktop version, but there are half a dozen other official Ubuntu "flavors" using just about every popular desktop available for Linux.</p>
<p>The release of Wily Werewolf brings updates for all of them, but perhaps none as big or impressive as Kubuntu 15.10. Kubuntu has always been one of the nicer KDE-based distros, but this release is particularly impressive. With Kubuntu 15.04 earlier this year, Kubuntu made the leap to Plasma 5, the next generation of KDE, but things were rough around the edges in my experience. Kubuntu 15.10 adds an impressive list of bug fixes and some added UI polish that make it one of the best KDE desktops available right now (the other standout being openSUSE Leap). This update features Plasma 5.4 and KDE Applications 15.08, which means the latest set of stock KDE apps and underlying tools you can get in a KDE distro.</p>

[image="kubuntu1510-desktop.png" caption="Kubuntu 15.10 with the new Breeze KDE theme."]

<p>The new Breeze desktop with its flat, colorful, high-contrast look is what KDE refers to as a modernized interface, with "reduced visual clutter throughout the workspace." For more details on what's new in Plasma 5, see Ars' <a href="http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/08/17/kde-plasma-5-for-those-linux-users-undecided-on-the-kernels-future/">earlier review</a>.</p>
<p>Unfortunately Kubuntu 15.10 comes along with news that the lead developer of Kubuntu is <a href="https://kubuntu.org/news/jonathan-riddell-stands-down-as-release-manager-of-kubuntu/">leaving the project</a>. The good news is that he'll still be actively involved in KDE, but the bad news is he made some troubling accusations about Canonical's misuse of donations as the reason for his departure. Canonical has reportedly launched an internal audit to figure out what, if anything, went wrong.</p>
<p>The other notable update among the various Ubuntu flavors is an Ubuntu MATE release intended for the Raspberry Pi 2. The lightweight MATE desktop is a natural fit for the Pi and the new tailored release makes it much easier to get it installed and up and running on your Raspberry Pi 2.</p>
<h2 id="unity-8">Unity 8</h2>
<p>Despite a healthy list of new features in Unity and quite a bit of change in some of the other flavors, many, including me, feel a certain sense of disappointment with 15.10.</p>
<p>While there's something to be said for solid updates that don't rock the boat and let you keep getting work done, that's really what LTS releases were designed for. If you prize stability, stick with 14.04 (or use Debian stable). It would be nice to see Ubuntu's x.10 releases return to something a bit edgier and more experimental.</p>
<p>That said, you actually can get something very experimental in this release, something so experimental in fact that it isn't quite ready for even a .10 release, you'll need to install it yourself -- Ubuntu running Unity 8.</p>
<p>Yes, the very thing that has made Ubuntu a tad boring lately -- as all development effort has been focused on Ubuntu Mobile and the new Unity 8 desktop -- is actually <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Unity8inLXC">relatively easy to install</a>. It's still very buggy though, which is why it's available as an LXC container, which helps keep it fully isolated from your production machine.</p>

[image="ubuntu1510-unity-8.png" caption="Unity 8 as a log in option. This is likely the approach Canonical will take at least for the first few releases -- Unity 8 as a separate log in option."]

<p>I took it for a spin and, well, here's the thing about Unity 8: it's buggy and unstable, but it's getting really close. It's possible to experience what Canonical has in mind and it actually looks pretty great.</p>
<p>The real exciting part of Unity 8 though isn't on the desktop, but on Ubuntu Mobile and Canonical's vision of "convergence". Convergence, for Canonical, means the mobile device becomes, which the addition of a larger screen monitor, a full desktop PC. To make this possible Canonical has developed Unity 8, which will bring the same underlying code base to both the desktop and mobile versions of the OS.</p>
<p>The most impressive Unity 8 demo I've seen comes from Canonical engineers, who have posted a couple of <a href="https://plus.google.com/+MichaelHall119/posts/HBRyD8npeJk">video demos of GIMP</a> running on an Ubuntu Mobile device.</p>

[Note to eds, I can't figure out how to embed that video...]

<p>The point isn't that GIMP is on your phone, that's more a novelty since the interface would be unusably small and, in the end, pointless beyond the "hey look at that" factor. The point is that you plug your phone into a monitor and all the sudden you have the full power of GIMP running on a device that fits in your pocket (and reverts to a mobile OS when you unplug it from the monitor). It sounds good and now, for the first time, it actually looks believably good.</p>
<p>What you can see in the desktop version is the opposite portion of Canonical's convergence, mobile applications scaling up to run on the desktop device, along with some new visual splashes like the 3D app switcher and flatter visual look showcased in the video below.</p>
<p>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiw1XDVopjc</p>
<p>It won't be for everyone, but if you're underwhelmed by iOS and Android's attempts to provide a desktop-quality experience with the applications you already use, Ubuntu Mobile is looking like it might finally deliver the goods.</p>
<p>Ubuntu Mobile is also the reason you have boring .10 releases like Wily Werewolf. Canonical is getting its ducks in a row for Unity 8. There will be a day soon when the minor, perhaps unremarkable releases like 15.10 are a thing of long lost memories. There will no doubt be growing pains involved with the transition to Unity 8.</p>
<p>If you want a desktop that's reliable, solid, but also pushing things forward, which is to say if you want the experience Unity has been providing for the last three, perhaps even four releases, then you will likely want to get the 16.04 LTS release coming next April. It will likely be the last Unity 7 release.</p>
<p>If you want to live on the edge, Unity 8 will likely be, if not the default, at least only a login screen away come this time next year. In the mean time enjoy your quiet days of Ubuntu 15.10.</p>