path: root/ubuntu-1904review.txt

Canonical recently released Ubuntu 19.04, the latest version of its flagship GNOME-based Linux desktop. 

The latest version of the venerable Ubuntu desktop packs quite a few tempting reasons to upgrade, especially for Linux gamers. Ubuntu 19.04 makes the leap to the Linux kernel 5.x series, which offers much improved graphics support. 

Still, while there are some nice updates to the desktop, the emphasis in this release is on Ubuntu as a tool for infrastructure development, server deployment and the good old Internet of Things. The server version of Ubuntu ships with all the latest cloud computing tools and is already available in optimized builds on the major cloud services.

If you're a desktop user you might feel a little left out, but despite all the talk of developer tools and enterprise deployment stacks -- Canonical has taken to calling Ubuntu the "leading OS for cloud operations" -- Ubuntu 19.04 is still a worthwhile upgrade that will leave you with a faster, more polished desktop than its predecessors offered.

## GNOME

The default desktop for 19.04 looks, aside from the new wallpaper, more or less like previous releases. There are no major changes to be seen, but there are plenty to be felt. 

Thanks to work both in the upstream GNOME project, along with some contributions from downstream, Ubuntu 19.04 is the snappiest version of GNOME I've ever used. In fact, Ubuntu's GNOME desktop finally feels like it's about on par with the old Unity, at least in terms of speed and responsiveness. 

Much of the credit here goes to the GNOME project, which has been hard a work speeding things up and to be completely fair to GNOME, they've actually made even more speed improvements that didn't make it into Ubuntu 19.04. Ubuntu is looking to incorporate some more of those improvements down the road. It's also worth noting that nearly all the improvements to GNOME in 19.04 have been [patched into 18.10](https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/gnome-3-32-performance-ubuntu-19-04/10208) and will eventually make it to the 18.04 LTS release as well.

Suffice to say that, if you're a GNOME user, the huge, very noticeable speed boost in Ubuntu 19.04 will make you very happy. 

Another trickle down win from the upstream speed improvements is the inclusion of GNOME's indexing tool, Tracker, which is installed by default in Ubuntu 19.04. Previously Tracker was considered too slow to ship with Ubuntu. You've probably never heard of Tracker, it runs behind the scenes and indexes and stores metadata for use in searches throughout GNOME, but adding tracker enables some new features for 19.04. Tracker means you can use the batch rename tool with metadata tags and that searching in the Files app is now full-text.

While Ubuntu 19.04 doesn't make any radical changes to the basic GNOME user experience, there are a couple of visual improvements worth noting. The new default theme for Ubuntu (known as Yaru) has been further refined and includes a new icon theme that looks more unified -- nearly everything gets a rounded square icon now (except of course for any applications you install that aren't part of the icon set). 

Another immediately noticeable change to the user experience is that alt-tab now switches windows by default. You can cycle through your applications with super-tab. Naturally you can change this using the settings app.

I should also note that, as with all things GNOME, the many steps forward come with a backward step as well -- you can no longer put icons on the desktop in GNOME 3.32. Ubuntu has worked around this change by including a new GNOME Shell extension aptly named "Desktop Icons". So far so good, but there's a catch: the extension doesn't allow you to drag and drop files or apps onto the Desktop. Instead you'll have to do that using the Nautilus file manager. Drag and drop your file into the desktop folder and you'll see it show up on the desktop. It's a small annoyance easily worked around, but an annoyance nonetheless.

One much-requested new feature in GNOME 3.32 is support for fractional UI scaling, that is the ability to set the interface to something other than 100 percent (1080p and smaller screens) or 200 percent (for HiDPI screens). With GNOME 3.32 you can scale in 25 percent increments -- not arbitrary, but certainly better than previous releases. The catch is that it really only works (in my testing) running under Wayland. 

There is some experimental support for Xorg sessions, but you'll need to enable it yourself. Instructions can be found on the [Ubuntu Community site](https://community.ubuntu.com/t/x11-hidpi-scaling-available-for-testing-on-disco/10293), but in my testing it was pretty buggy, especially with GIMP. My suggestion would be to use Wayland, after all, if your hardware includes a HiDPI screen, it's probably perfectly capable of running Wayland.

Several releases ago, Canonical began collecting metrics from willing users (it still does, you can opt out after installation), and one of the bits of data the company mentioned it has learned from that collected data is how often Ubuntu is installed as a virtual machine. Lo and behold, Ubuntu 19.04 will now automatically install the open-vm-tools package (to improve VM integration) when it sees its being installed virtually. It's a small thing, but one that really helps if you spin up a lot of VMs since saves you the hassle of adding those tools by hand after the fact. With Ubuntu 19.04 you can just start up a virtual machine and when its done installing your clipboard will work inside the guest, you can easily share folders, and you'll get a much improved graphics experience, all without doing anything extra.

## Flavors

When I said earlier that Ubuntu 19.04 is the snappiest version of GNOME I've ever used, the emphasis there is on GNOME. In the broader scheme of Ubuntu desktops there's really nothing particularly snappy about GNOME. In fact, in my experience it's the slowest of the bunch. Fortunately, if you're looking for a faster desktop that uses less system resources, and offers a more "traditional" experience, Ubuntu's various flavors have you covered. 

All of the under the hood improvements, which I'll get into below, apply to the flavors as well as the main release, so when I say very little has changed, I mean very little in that flavor's desktop. And the truth is, very little has changed for most desktops with this release. There's plenty of improvements in the Ubuntu base packages that all these flavors are built upon, but the user experience in most cases remains largely unchanged.

After the GNOME-based version, the biggest changes to an Ubuntu flavor come in Ubuntu Budgie. Budgie 19.04 is notable for replacing the Nautilus file manager with Nemo, the file manager found in Linux Mint. This change is Budgie's way of dealing with the inability to show icons on the desktop in GNOME 3.32. Having tested both Ubuntu and Ubuntu Budgie's methods of fixing this feature removal, I'd have to give the edge to Budgie.

Nemo is simply a better file manager. Not only do you get desktop icons, but you also get some useful features GNOME long ago ripped out like a split screen view and tree-view.

Ubuntu MATE 19.04, which would be one of my top picks in the Ubuntu flavors world, looks to be a relatively minor update with some bug fixes and a couple new features, but it's probably most notable for what's not included -- the latest version of MATE. 

Ubuntu MATE 19.04 ships with MATE Desktop 1.20 rather than the recently released 1.22. The MATE blog [notes](https://ubuntu-mate.org/blog/ubuntu-mate-disco-final-release/) that this is for stability reasons. MATE 1.22 introduces some API changes that some third party applications have not yet incorporated, making them unstable. Look for MATE Desktop 1.22 to land in 19.10 later this year.

As you would expect from and Xfce-based flavor, Xubuntu is more or less the same as the previous release. Indeed the lack of change is one of the best reasons to use Xfce. That said there are some changes in this release that should welcome news to Xfce-users' ears: more GTK 3 apps. Xubuntu 19.04 ships with GTK 3 versions of the Xfce file manager and app finder. Xubuntu's transition to GTK 3 continues to progress and may even be finished by next year's Xubuntu 20.04 LTS.

Other Ubuntu flavors like Lubuntu (LXDE-based), Kubuntu (KDE-based) and the oft-overlooked Ubuntu Studio have updates for 19.04. The latter deserves special mention for 19.04 since it's now possible to install Ubuntu Studio's configuration and metapackages on top of an existing Ubuntu installation. That means you can have your stock Ubuntu (or other flavor) desktop and get all the Studio goodness as well. If you've ever wanted a complete audio/video Linux workstation, without the pain of configuring low level audio and video setting, Ubuntu Studio is the way to go.

## Under the hood

While Ubuntu's various desktop options all get a little love in this release, most of what's new and improved in Ubuntu 19.04 lies further beneath the surface, especially all the way down in the kernel, which is now at 5.0.

There's a good bit of new stuff in the Linux 5.x line, but the notable new features include support for AMD  FreeSync (great news for anyone with a compatible monitor, you shouldn't see an tearing or latency in video and games), NVIDIA Xavier display support, support for swap files on Btrfs, and support for the Raspberry Pi Touchscreen. There's also a new 16x32 sized Terminus console font in there as well, which, while not super useful for Ubuntu, might come in handy next time you install Arch on a HiDPI screen.

Ubuntu 19.04 also includes Mesa 19.0, the latest development release of the open-source graphics driver. There's quite a few performance improvements in 19.0, including everything you need to get the kernel-supported FreeSync working. Ubuntu's attention to graphics in this release doesn't stop there, in 19.04 you can go ahead and install proprietary NVIDIA drivers for your NVIDIA graphics card. Just be sure to check the option during installation to "Install third-party software for graphics and Wi-Fi hardware and additional media" (note to Canonical, might be time to split that into multiple options). 

The NVIDIA support It's not earth-shattering, but it's one less thing to do after Ubuntu is installed and it goes a long way to making the overall experience even more hassle free for new users. And anyone who tells you the open source Nouveau drivers are good enough has obviously never used it for gaming.

There's a little tease in this release as well, if you open up the Software and Updates app you'll see a new tab label Livepatch, which does... nothing -- it's just there so it can be backported to 18.04. Canonical's Livepatch feature, which applies security updates that don't require a system restart, only supports long term releases. Previously it was only available in Ubuntu server and required configuration through the command line. Now it will be available to Desktop users with a handy GUI -- just not 19.04 users. If you stick with 18.04 LTS, look for this feature to arrive soon.

Ubuntu is also shipping with an impressively up-to-date set of developer tools in this release. Python is at 3.7.3, golang 1.10.4, rustc 1.32.0, and GCC 8.3, with the option to go ahead and use GCC 9. Normally this warrants a sentence and that's about it, but I think 19.04 shows something of a shift for Ubuntu, which previously was more conservative about updating programming languages. I think this change is indicative of a change in direction for Ubuntu -- it's becoming a more developer-focused distro.

Another example of this focus on developers can be seen in Snaps, Ubuntu's containerized app distribution system. In this release you can now install multiple instances of a snap. This means developers can install production alongside development versions of their app (it also paves the way for users to be able to install more bleeding edge versions of apps if they like). That's a huge win if you're building out a continuous integration environment

There's also a noteworthy new Snap app available that will make some developers happy -- Microsoft's Visual Studio Code. Yes, in 19.04, with a single click you can install an open source Microsoft app on your Linux box. I'll be honest, that's not a sentence I ever expected to write.

But one of the reasons Ubuntu is the closest thing Linux has to a household name is because it focused on making Linux newcomer-friendly and easy to use. Now it seems to be bring that experience to bear on a subset of the Linux user market -- developers.

To some extent Ubuntu was and often still is the first place people, including developers, experience desktop Linux. That's a huge part of how Ubuntu became a household name. Since people were comfortable with it on the desktop, they turned to it on the server as well, which is a big part of Ubuntu's growth in server space over the past decade. 

Now I think that's coming back around -- a new generation of developers who are familiar with Ubuntu on the server are turning to it on the desktop as well. But to capture that developer mind share Ubuntu needs to make the developer experience as smooth as it has made the desktop experience for everyone else. I believe that's why this release is so focused on developer tools and updated version of programming languages, and yes, even Microsoft apps.

## Server and IoT

Another, more prosaic, reason Ubuntu is popular in the server world is that it provides optimized builds for all the major cloud platforms. This release is no different, optimized Ubuntu Server 19.04 and Minimal Ubuntu 19.04 images are already available on your favorite cloud hosting service. 

That's not unusual for an Ubuntu release, but more telling is Ubuntu's [press release](https://blog.ubuntu.com/2019/04/18/open-infrastructure-developer-desktop-and-iot-are-the-focus-for-ubuntu-19-04) for 19.04 which is entitled "open infrastructure, developer desktop and IoT are the focus for Ubuntu 19.04." 

Despite being a press release, it's worth considering that headline for a minute. Ever since Canonical turned its back on "convergence" and laid off the majority of the developers working on the Ubuntu desktop, these three things -- infrastructure, developer tools and the Internet of Things -- have been the core focus of its resources.

It's also worth noting that this is a trinity of goals that have long served the Fedora project well, producing a quality no-frills desktop loaded with developer tools, a set of server management tools and Fedora's various cloud-based tools. They also trickle down to Red Hat Enterprise Linux, which in turns is a big part of IBM's acquisition, which is to say that Canonical is following in some very well established footprints here and the release of 19.04 shows its paying off. 

Not only is this a solid desktop release for developers (as well as everyone else), it shows the considerable progress Canonical has made in providing an entire tool chain for it's customers. From the bare metal server management system MaaS, to Juju, to LXC/LXD, to Ubuntu Server, to it's integrated OpenStack and Kubernetes tools, Ubuntu has something for every part of the enterprise stack.

That makes Ubuntu a compelling alternative to public clouds, as well as an integral part of those clouds. Seemingly no matter what enterprise opts for Canonical wins. This trickles down as well since Canonical's continued investment in the desktop we users enjoy is made possible, at least in part, by its success elsewhere. And with 19.04 Ubuntu looks to be in a good position to continue growing in both use and mind share.

Ubuntu 19.04 is not a Long Term Support release and will only be supported for nine months. For the average user that's not a huge deal, though the question of should you upgrade is complicated by the fact that most of the improvements to the desktop will eventually make their way to the most recent LTS release (last year's 18.04). My suggestion would be for LTS users to stick with 18.04. If you already upgraded to 18.10, you'll definitely want to make the jump to 19.04. If you'd like to do so now you can follow [Canonical's instructions](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DiscoDingo/ReleaseNotes#Upgrading_from_Ubuntu_18.10), or just wait a few weeks for the first bug fix release, after which Ubuntu should prompt you to upgrade.