path: root/published/ubuntu1604review.txt

Canonical has released a new version of Ubuntu Linux, Ubuntu 16.04 or Xenial Xerus, as this release is known. Ubuntu 16.04 is a Long Term Support (LTS) release, meaning that Canonical will provide support for the next 5 years.

Typically Ubuntu's LTS releases tend to be conservative in nature, after all no one wants to try to support a brand new, potentially buggy piece of code for half a decade. That, combined with the experience of the last few Ubuntu releases -- which offered almost nothing in the way of new features -- and you'd be forgiven for thinking that 16.04 is possibly the most boring release to date.

The potential is certainly there but happily for Ubuntu users, that's not actually the case. In fact Ubuntu 16.04 is the most exciting release Canonical has put out in recent memory and possibly the best release its had to date.

That's good news for Ubuntu fans, but it's also good news for Canonical which has largely ignored its desktop in favor of mobile dreams. Those mobile plans are still coming, Unity 8, the Mir display serve and the "convergence" those tools will enable are still a big part of Ubuntu's future, but they aren't part of 16.04 (not in stable form anyway).

Instead 16.04 focuses on improvement to the desktop, through perhaps the biggest change comes from Ubuntu's experience on the server-side, namely the container packaging system Canonical calls Snap packages (more on that in a minute). The result is that, for the first time in a long time, Ubuntu's desktop release feels like an actual release rather than something it's obligated to push out every six months.

## Ubuntu 16.04: Now With 100% Less 'Spyware'

[image="ubuntu-01.jpg" caption="At first glance not much has changed in 16.04. Ubuntu's major changes are under the hood."]

For all the new stuff in 16.04, probably the biggest headline grabbing change in this release is actually what's not there, namely the online search results. The controversial search "feature" debuted back in the autumn of 2012 with Ubuntu 12.10. What made it controversial is that it was on by default which meant that everything you searched for in the dash was sent first to Canonical's servers, and then from there on to Canonical's partners. That alone was enough for the Free software Foundation's Richard Stallman to brand Ubuntu "spyware."

Even if Canonical getting a record of your search terms didn't bother you, the feature could still be annoying for its habit of returning totally irrelevant search results, and worse, often potentially NSFW results. One frequently cited example being searches of "Bra" to launch the Brasero CD burning application often also returned Amazon results for bras. 

Canonical dug themselves an even deeper hole when it [went after a site critical of the search feature](http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/11/canonical-abused-trademark-law-to-target-a-site-critical-of-ubuntu-privacy/) for trademark violations. FixUbuntu.com, which showed users how to disable the search features, was asked to "remove Ubuntu word from you domain name and Ubuntu logo from the website." Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth later called the letter a mistake in his blog, saying, "someone at Canonical made a mistake in sending the wrong response to a trademark issue." Whatever its intentions, it merely furthered the PR disaster that was the online shopping results. 

Now the search lens is off by default, which is good for users, but the damage it did to Canonical's image and standing in the free software world is unlikely to be undone at this point. In the end, Canonical managed to generate a tremendous amount of ill will for a feature the majority of its users didn't seem to want and which in all likelihood generated a negligible amount of profit for the company.

If, by chance, you found the search results helpful, you can turn them back on in 16.04 by heading to the system settings app.

## What's new in Ubuntu 16.04

Perhaps the biggest change for Users upgrading from Ubuntu's previous LTS release -- which is two years old now -- is that Ubuntu now uses the systemd init system rather than its homegrown init, Upstart. As with several of Ubuntu's attempts to go its own way, it has since abandoned its efforts in favor of upstream tools. In this case the work of stripping systemd out of Debian just to put in Upstart was deemed more effort than it was worth. 

For most users systemd will be old news, but anyone who sticks with LTS release, well, one of the last ways to avoid systemd is now gone.

In practical terms the move from Upstart to systemd is not particularly difficult, certainly nothing like upgrading straight from an older init system like System V. Still, it is a significant change to be aware of, particularly on servers where Ubuntu's LTS release are incredibly popular.

A more visual change in 16.04 is ability to move the Unity launcher to the bottom of the screen. This long requested feature has actually been possible via third-party tools for some time, but there were always some inconsistencies and odd behavior. Thanks to the work of <a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unity/+bug/1552630">the Ubuntu Kylin developers</a>, it's now an officially sanctioned option (in fact it's the default layout for Ubuntu Kylin, the official Chinese version of Ubuntu).

[image="ubuntu-02.jpg" caption="Ubuntu with the launcher along the bottom of the screen."]

That said, it does still require installing the dconf editor and diving into the options a bit to turn it on. Once you've installed dconf-editor, navigate to com > canonical > unity > launcher > launcher-position to find the option to switch the launcher position (alternately, the third party Unity-tweak-tool supports it as well).

Systemd isn't the only example of an upstream project replacing one of Canonical's own, the Ubuntu Software Center sees a similar makeover, though in this case the replacement is a bit closer -- GNOME Software. 

[image="ubuntu-03.jpg" caption="Ubuntu's new Software Center comes courtesy of GNOME Software."]

[image="ubuntu-04.jpg" caption="The new Software Center retains the familiar feature details, along with user ratings and reviews."]

The Ubuntu Software Center has been largely abandoned for some time. GNOME on the other hand has been pouring considerable effort into its own software app so the move makes sense for Ubuntu. It's just upstream and it's flexible enough that Canonical can customize it, but doesn't have to maintain it directly. If you're already familiar with both apps the first thing you'll notice is that Canonical appears to have just mashed the two together. The result is not, to my eye, quite as nice as GNOME Software on its own, but it does bring in all the reviews and content of the old Ubuntu Software Center (which incidentally, is still in the repos if you want it).

Ubuntu's version of GNOME Software also gets some of the nice new upstream features like support for firmware updates via the Software Center. Provided your firmware is available via the Linux Vendor Firmware Service you'll be able to update your devices with a single click in the Software Center.

If you eschew graphical software apps for the simplicity of the command line, be aware that Ubuntu 16.04 supports the simpler `apt` command alongside `apt-get` in addition to marginally less typing, apt nicely unifies a bunch of apt- commands with better documentation and support for progress bars.

## Snap Packages

Ubuntu 16.04's biggest change looks quite innocuous at first glance. There's nothing graphical to see, but the release brings Ubuntu Snappy to the desktop and with it the possibility to completely change the way you install and maintain software on Ubuntu (and Linux more broadly).

Ubuntu server users have likely already encountered Snappy through the distro's various container deployment options, but this is the first time Snappy has been integrated into the desktop.

To understand what Snap applications are, it helps to first understand how applications are installed in Ubuntu. When you select an application to install in the Software Center it doesn't just install itself, it also installs other applications (in this context, applications are generally referred to as "packages") that it needs. 

Some applications you install might need only one or two other package to work. Others may use hundreds. Application packaging systems like APT do a reasonably good job at working out which additional packages you need along with the application you actually want so that you don't have to worry about. APT also does a reasonably good job of making sure that you get the right version of the packages in question. But what happens when one application you have installed needs package X version 1.1 and another needs package X version 1.2? With APT you've got yourself a potentially system breaking problem. 

Snap packages solve this problem by creating self-contained packages. With Snap packages applications are installed in their own container and all the third-party applications are installed with them so that there are no version conflicts. Snap packages are also smart enough to not install a package more than once so applications installed via Snappy don't take anymore disk space than regular applications.

You're probably wondering why this matters and how it's going to change Ubuntu for the better. The answer is that Snap packages make it possible to install the latest and greatest software without worry about whether or not Ubuntu has updated every component package you might need for the latest and greatest version of your favorite app. For example I like to run the bleeding edge release of Darktable, which is typically at least a point version ahead of what's in the Ubuntu repos. Right now there's a deb maintained by a Darktable developer who does his best to make sure nothing breaks, but essentially one person putting in ton of effort is all that keeps Darktable from potentially breaking the rest of my system. It works, I've never had a problem, but it's hardly idea.

With Snap packages there would be no danger of accidentally breaking your system with an application update because the application is completely self-contained.

This means you could run a very conservative release, like an Ubuntu LTS and still have the latest versions of all your favorite applications. It's the best of both worlds -- a stable system running the latest userland software.

All of this is supported in Ubuntu 16.04, but so far there are very few Snappy versions of desktop applications available. That will likely change in the very near future. Mozilla has already announced that Firefox will be available as a Snap package very soon (web browsers are a great use case for Snap packages since they update frequently) and expect other big projects to likewise embrace Snap package now that 16.04 has launched.

As nice as Snap package is, it does have one problem -- once again Canonical is rolling its own solution when there are several upstream possibilities it could have elected to use instead. Both GNOME's xdg-app and the cross-distro [app-image](http://appimage.org/) system do exactly what Snap packages do, but they're not just for Ubuntu. 

While something like Snap packages have the potential to completely change the way distros work, it remains to be seen if Snap specifically will be what ends up reaching critical mass. It's certainly possible that Snap may prove popular enough to warrant other distros incorporating it. It's also possible that there may end up being more than one way to handle self-contained packages. However, looking at Canonical's track record one is not filled with confidence. Upstart gave way to systemd, the software center gave way to GNOME Software, even simple things like scrollbars get abandoned for upstream solutions. Suffice to say that it very much remains to be seen how Snap packages end up over the long term. Even in the worst case scenario though users shouldn't have anything to worry about, if one day Ubuntu does abandon Snap in favor of another system, all the changes will likely be behind the scenes.

In the shorter term Snap packages should be boon to Ubuntu, allowing users to stick with a stable base system while still leaving them free to try just-released software packages without fear of wrecking the system.

## ZFS, Kernel and Unity Updates

Ubuntu 16.04 is the first release to offer native support for ZFS. That said, ZFS support appears aimed primarily at server and container users. There's no option to use ZFS in the desktop installer. In fact you'll actually have to install the userland components of ZFS yourself, but once you do ZFS should work without a hitch (note that the ZFS support is 64 bit only). For full details on ZFS and how to use it with Ubuntu, check out the [Ubuntu wiki](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/Reference/ZFS).

Under the hood 16.04 uses the Ubuntu Linux Kernel 4.4.0-18.34, which is based on the upstream 4.4.6 Linux Kernel. There's a ton of new hardware support if you're updating from the last LTS release, of particular note is the improved support for Intel Skylake chips, which should translate to better battery life in newer laptops.

There's one spot of bad news in 16.04. The support for the Catalyst/fglrx video driver was dropped because it doesn't support the version of XServer Ubuntu is using. Ubuntu suggests using open source alternatives (radeon and amdgpu), if you relied on the fglrx drivers it's something to check  out before you upgrade because this isn't something you can create a backport for or even just compile yourself. It simply won't work.

The Unity desktop gets a slew of small but welcome updates in Ubuntu 16.04 including better theme support for GNOME's client side decorations (AKA, menus in the toolbar). This makes things look a bit nicer, especially with the new GNOME apps like GNOME Calendar, which is now the default calendar app.

Another interesting change in Unity is the integration between the Unity launcher and the Nautilus file manager. Each item in the launcher now manages its own window. For example, if you click on the Trash icon, the Nautilus window that opens is tied to the Trash icon rather than the Nautilus icon. That means that to, for example, bring that window to the front you would click the Trash icon rather than the Nautilus icon. This can be a bit maddening if you're used to old behavior, but eventually I adjusted (I have been unable to find a way to revert to the old behavior).

The usual set of GNOME applications that ships with Ubuntu have been updated, though not always to the latest version available. In order to retain some file browser functionality, Nautilus remains at version 3.14. The rest of the system remains primarily at GNOME 3.18, except for newer apps like GNOME Calendar which is the latest and greatest at 3.20.

## Ubuntu Flavors

The Unity desktop isn't the only way to run Ubuntu and 16.04 sees quite a few of the various Ubuntu flavors turning out impressive releases. Of particular note are [Kubuntu](https://kubuntu.com/) and [Ubuntu MATE](https://ubuntu-mate.org/xenial/). 

Kubuntu 16.04 will mark the first time LTS users see the new KDE Plasma 5 with its completely different, flat theme. KDE users who'd like to sneak a peek even further into the future can get the [KDE Neon project](http://neon.kde.org/download) installed as well.

[image="kubuntu.jpg" caption="Kubuntu with the new Plasma 5 Oxygen theme."]

Ubuntu MATE continues, despite being a relative newcomer to the Ubuntu family, to be one of the best examples of the MATE desktop available. Ubuntu MATE is in fact so new to the Ubuntu family that this is the first LTS version it has released. As with most flavors Ubuntu MATE 16.04 LTS comes with three years of support (rather than five).

[image="ubuntu-mate-01.jpg" caption="Ubuntu MATE's minimalist MATE desktop."]

If you're looking for a lightweight desktop for older machines, or if you just want a simple fast machine, MATE makes an excellent choice. Ubuntu MATE 16.04 even includes a MATE theme that imitates the look of the Unity desktop -- there's even an applet to move application menus into the top menu bar.

[image="ubuntu-mate-02.jpg" caption="Ubuntu MATE using the Unity-inspired Mutiny theme."]

Also of note, considering the rough-around-the-edges nature of the Unity Software Center is Ubuntu MATE's Software Boutique, possibly the best GUI software installer on any platform. Unity users take note, you can install MATE's Software Boutique in Ubuntu as well (hat tip to the Linux Action Show for pointing this out).

## Conclusion

Canonical's roadmap for Ubuntu currently calls for some massive changes in the next year. The Mir display server and the Unity 8 desktop will likely arrive later this year, bringing with them another big, potentially bumpy, transition for users (note that if you're curious about it now, you can test Unity 8 in 16.04. Canonical refers to it as a "technology preview" which means it's still rather buggy). 

Given the coming upheaval Canonical needed Ubuntu 16.04 to provide a stable perch from which less experimental users can wait out the changes. Thankfully that's exactly what it has delivered with Ubuntu 16.04. 

In fact this might be Ubuntu's best release since the good old days of 10.04. And not only is Ubuntu 16.04 quite well done today, the support for the new Snap packages system means that updated software should continue to be available well into the future (provided the larger FOSS community adopts it, and right now there is every reason to think it will). With five years of support and Snap packages providing the latest versions of your favorite apps it conceivable that you'll have no real cause to update Ubuntu 16.04 until 2021.