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Canonical recently released Ubuntu 15.10, nicknamed Wily Werewolf.
Typically Ubuntu's Autumn releases have been more experimental affairs -- not quite update-at-your-own risk, but often packed full of new features that were not fully baked.
Ubuntu One first debuted in 9.10, the Unity desktop became a default in 11.10 and the Amazon search results made their debut in 12.10 (not every experiment has been particularly welcome). Whereas Spring .04 releases tended to be stable (and every two years packaged as LTS releases) Autumn was a time to experiment.
Unfortunately -- or fortunately, depending on your viewpoint -- that's not a case with Wily Werewolf. There are a few new features worth mentioning 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.
After that comes Unity 8. More on Unity 8 in a minute. But first, Ubuntu 15.10.
## Ubuntu 15.10
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 and plenty of application updates, all of which make it well worth the update.
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 on GNOME's defaults. The change appears to based more on code maintenance effort than any strong aesthetic feelings from Canonical. It would seem that writing and maintaining your own scrollbar code is more work than its worth. The visual change is minor and solves quite a few bugs in Canonical's home-grown scrollbars, making on the whole a win for users as well as the programmers tasked with maintianing the old code base.
Most of what's interesting in this release is not directly from Canonical though. The most exiting thing in Ubuntu 15.10 is probably the updated kernel, which is now based on the upstream 4.2.
There have not been many changes to Unity in this release, though it does recieve a slight version bump with some bug fixes and 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 too for good measure.
Linux game afficandos will be happy hear that this release ships with support for the newish Steam controller.
Stability-wise Ubuntu 15.10 has been rock solid in my testing. I have had some trouble installing 15.10 via chrubuntu on a new Dell 13 Chromebook, primarily related to trackpad drivers, but otherwise it's been very stable 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 >> displays it's possible to downsize the entire UI, which gains you some precious real estate on smaller screen. 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.
kernel 4.2
stateless persistant interfaces
gnome 3.16
gtk upstream gnome scrollbars
python 3
Steam controller
fullscreen menubar
Virtualbox updated with guest additions for Windows 10
Don't change things so much that you can't get work done.
Online search is still enabled by default.
LibreOffice has been upgraded to 5.0.1.2, a major update for LibreOffice users. Firefox on the version that we tested is sitting at 41.0.2. By the time you read this, it will most-likely be updated again and you may see a newer version be pushed out through the Ubuntu Repositories.
Radeon GPUs, flash-friendly file system, live patching kernel code, dmcrypt updates.
## Flavors
Kubuntu and mention MATE for raspberry pi
## Unity 8
Why the disappointment of a release? 15.10 is canonical getting its ducks in a row for Unity 8. You can in fact play about with Unity 8 in 15.10, using and LXC container.
It's here that you'll find the highly experimental things that used to come along in .10 release. So experimental in fact they aren't quite ready for even a .10 release, hence the container version that's isolated from your actual production machine. Here's the thing about Unity 8, it's buggy and unstable, but it's getting really close.
There will be a day soon when the minor, perhaps unremarkable releases like 15.10 are a thing of long lost memories.
Unfortunately, there will be growing pains.
It depends why you like Ubuntu. 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 LTS release coming next April in 16.04. This will likely be the last Unity 7 release.
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.
Canonical's vision of convergence... etc
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