Canonical Launches Ubuntu 21.10 For Desktop And Server

The latest version of the world’s most popular Linux distribution, Ubuntu 21.10, codenamed ‘Impish Indy’, has landed on Canonical’s download channels. 

The highlight of the release is the inclusion of GNOME 40 as the default desktop environment, bringing aboard a horizontal workspace switcher and application launcher, and also a set of new touchpad gestures. 

Apart from that, Impish Indri has updated core components and applications to the latest available version, like LibreOffice 7.2, Thunderbird 91, Firefox 93, PulseAudio 15, QEMU 6.0, and Python 3.9.4. Also, Firefox Snap app is now included “out of the box”.

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The Linux kernel has been updated to version 5.13, bringing support for new hardware (upcoming Intel and AMD processors), Microsoft Surface laptops and tablets, and rudimentary support for Apple M1 chips. 

On the security side, Nftables is now the default backend for the firewall, and the file manager supports password-protected zip extraction. 

The ‘Server’ edition of Ubuntu 21.10 comes with ‘needrestart’ enabled by default, includes certified NVIDIA GPU drivers, and offers a ‘minimal’ installation option to accommodate IoT or container installations. 

Canonical’s CEO, Mark Shuttleworth has stated the following on the latest release: 

As open source becomes the new default, we aim to bring Ubuntu to all the corners of the enterprise and all the places developers want to innovate. From the biggest public clouds to the tiniest devices, from DGX servers to Windows WSL workstations, open-source is the springboard for new ideas and Ubuntu makes that springboard safe, secure and consistent. 

It should be noted that Ubuntu 21.10 is not a long-term support release, so it will enjoy support (updates) until July 2022. 

For those of you who prefer to make leaps between more stable versions, Ubuntu 22.04 LTS will be the next one to be releases in April 2022. That version will include all the new features introduced in 21.10. 

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Along with the standard release of Ubuntu 21.10, derivative spins have also been made available, like for example the audio production-focused Ubuntu Studio, or the lightweight Lubuntu. 

For the full list of the Ubuntu 21.10 release notes and download links to all ISOs, you may check out this page. 

Those limited to the 32-bit architecture chips will not be served with an upgrade this time, as support for it was dropped by Ubuntu two years ago. 

If Ubuntu is not your cup of tea, OpenBSD has also released version 7.0 today, with a long list of improvements and additions.

OpenBSD is a Unix-like open-source OS that focuses on portability, proactive security, and integrated cryptography. If that sounds like a fun way to spend the upcoming weekend, you can download the latest ISOs from here.