Yesterday, Canonical announced the release of the new non-LTS Ubuntu 20.10 "Groovy Gorilla" with Linux kernel 5.8, GNOME 3.38, a desktop image optimized for Raspberry Pi 4 and nine months of support until July 2021.
With v20.10, seven official variants of Ubuntu 20.10 have also been released with upstream features and their own improvements. So, let's take a look at them all one by one:
Ubuntu Studio 20.10
As already announced during the 20.04 release, Ubuntu Studio 20.10 eventually switched their default desktop environment from the old Xfce to a newer KDE Plasma. If you want to know the reason for the change, we already wrote about why Ubuntu Studio chose KDE Plasma?
Version 20.10 also includes the latest Ardor 6.3 and KDE Digikam photo editing and cataloging application by default. However, you cannot upgrade directly to Studio 20.10 due to a change in the desktop environment. You should perform a clean install of Ubuntu Studio 20.10 from scratch.
Kubuntu 20.10
New Kubuntu 20.10 provides the KDE Plasma 5.19.5 desktop with a new wallpaper design and the KDE 20.08 Application Bundle, which provides enhancements to several KDE applications such as Dolphin, DigiKam and KStars.
For better use of cloud and container technologies, Kubuntu 20.10 also added LXD 4.6 and MicroK8s 1.19 for resilient micro-clouds, small server clusters providing virtual machines, and Kubernetes.
Lubuntu 20.10
Marking Lubuntu 19th and 5th Lubuntu with LXQt as default desktop environment, last one short term Lubuntu 20.10 comes with LXQT 0.15.0, Qt 5.14.2 desktop and Calamares 3.2.24 installer.
The v20.10 also contains the latest version of Mozilla Firefox 81.0.2, LibreOffice 4.0.2, VLC 3.0.11.1, Featherpad 0.12.1 and the Trojita 0.2 email client.
Ubuntu Budgie 20.10
Although Ubuntu Budgie 20.10 is a normal release, it comes with a ton of new features, improvements, and bug fixes. For example, the application menu has activated search functions to find different parts of GNOME settings.
Additionally, Budgie 20.10 updated Arc Theme, Paper Theme, Slick Greeter, Login Window Preferences, and Budgie Desktop to their latest available version.
Ubuntu MATE 20.10
With the latest MATE 1.24.1 desktop, Ubuntu MATE 20.10 brings upstream features such as Active Directory integration and Linux 5.8 kernel. Additionally, MATE 20.10 has now replaced the Ubuntu indicators with Ayatana and Cheese indicators with Webcamoid as the default webcam tool.
MATE 20.10 also has the latest version of major applications such as Mozilla Firefox 81, LibreOffice 7.0.2, Evolution 3.38 and Celluloid 0.18.
Xubuntu 20.10
On all the flavors of Ubuntu, Xubuntu 20.10 seems the least updated variant containing the same Xfce 4.14 desktop environment as Xubuntu 20.04 in the long run.
Indeed, the upcoming Xfce 4.16 is still in development, with the first preview released last month. So far, Xubuntu also does not have an official press release describing the new changes in version 20.10.
Ubuntu Kylin 20.10
Finally, the Chinese variant of Ubuntu, Ubuntu Kylin 20.10, is an awesome release with a brand new and beautiful UKUI 3.0 desktop environment based on Qt and powered by Linux Kernel 5.8.
Kylin 20.10 also fixed many issues with components such as the Start menu, file manager, and control panel. It also contains important updates such as GCC 10.2.0, Qt 5.14.2, and Python 3.8.6.
The official Seven Flavors of Ubuntu 20.10 "Groovy Gorilla" post that appeared first appeared on Fossbytes.
