• Hello and welcome to MSFC. We are a small and close knitted community who specialises in modding the game Star Trek Armada 2 and the Fleet Operations modification, however we have an open field for discussing a number of topics including movies, real life events and everything in-between.

    Being such a close community, we do have some restrictions, including all users required to be registered before being able to post as well as all members requiring to have participated in the community for sometime before being able to download our modding files to name the main ones. This is done for both the protection of our members and to encourage new members to get involved with the community. We also require all new registrations to first be authorised by an Administrator and to also have an active and confirmed email account.

    We have a policy of fairness and a non harassment environment, with the staff quick to act on the rare occasion of when this policy is breached. Feel free to register and join our community.

Ubuntu & Linux News

CABAL

<< ■ II ▶ >>
Staff member
Administrator
Star Navigator
Rogue AI technocrat
Joined
15 Aug 2009
Messages
3,511
Age
32
Since Ubuntu 15.10 Wily Werewolf is almost out, this seems like a good time to start this news thread up.

The purpose of this thread is to provide news and general information about the development and release of various Linux things, with a focus on the Ubuntu distro, overall similar to the Windows 10 thread. @Terra_Inc and myself will be the main people working on this, but feel free to post things that we've missed.
 

Terra_Inc

MSFC's Cheshire Cat
Staff member
Site Manager
Necromancer/Troll hunter
Kitten Commander
Joined
16 Dec 2009
Messages
3,121
Age
34
Alright, Ubuntu 15.10 - named "Wily Werewolf" - is out and I've just upgraded my PC. Like the previous releases, this one's unremarkable.

Here a few notes on the new version:
  • Some standard software has been updated. Firefox, Chromium, LibreOffice are all up-to-date now.
  • Ubuntu now uses the proper GNOME scrollbars. This looks much better and is more comfortable.
  • Behind the scenes, Ubuntu now uses Linux Kernel 4.2. This mostly means updated drivers for a bunch of things. Most notably, the new AMDGPU driver.
Full release notes can be found here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/WilyWerewolf/ReleaseNotes

While this version still uses Unity 7, you can actually install a preview version of Unity 8 now. It's not completely finished yet, so it might still break, but it's certainly a step forward. Supposedly the next LTS (long-term support) version, 16.04 "Xenial Xerus" will be the first version to come with full Unity 8.

I might try the Unity 8 preview later. If I do, I'll post about it here.
 

CABAL

<< ■ II ▶ >>
Staff member
Administrator
Star Navigator
Rogue AI technocrat
Joined
15 Aug 2009
Messages
3,511
Age
32
I know there was talk a couple months ago of a near-future version of the Linux kernel including support for updating the kernel without having to reboot the system as a standard feature. Do you know if that was 4.2 or a different version?
 

Terra_Inc

MSFC's Cheshire Cat
Staff member
Site Manager
Necromancer/Troll hunter
Kitten Commander
Joined
16 Dec 2009
Messages
3,121
Age
34
I know there was talk a couple months ago of a near-future version of the Linux kernel including support for updating the kernel without having to reboot the system as a standard feature. Do you know if that was 4.2 or a different version?
Yes, that's been added in version 4.0 back in April. :thumbsup:
 

CABAL

<< ■ II ▶ >>
Staff member
Administrator
Star Navigator
Rogue AI technocrat
Joined
15 Aug 2009
Messages
3,511
Age
32
Ubuntu's Software Center will be replaced with Gnome's plainly titled Software in 16.04. The replacement app will have plugins to integrate it with Software Center's collection of user ratings and comments.
 

Terra_Inc

MSFC's Cheshire Cat
Staff member
Site Manager
Necromancer/Troll hunter
Kitten Commander
Joined
16 Dec 2009
Messages
3,121
Age
34
So, considering the official release of Ubuntu 16.04 is tomorrow, who else is upgrading their system this week? It's a LTS version this time, so support is guaranteed for the next 5 years. As last year, I'll be posting a short report on everything that's new, and also let you know how my update worked out. :thumbsup:
 

dvatreknerd314

Lieutenant, Junior Grade
Clone Force 99
Joined
31 Jul 2012
Messages
1,363
Age
32
I want to convert my laptop to Ubuntu, but since it's an HP laptop, it won't let me.
 

Terra_Inc

MSFC's Cheshire Cat
Staff member
Site Manager
Necromancer/Troll hunter
Kitten Commander
Joined
16 Dec 2009
Messages
3,121
Age
34
Okay, I did my upgrade yesterday and everything went just fine. Here's a short summary of what's new in 16.04 "Xenial Xerus":
  • The old Ubuntu Software Center is being replaced with its GNOME equivalent. (I don't know if this happens as part of a regular upgrade too though, as the old one was still there on my system.)
  • You can move the Unity bar to the bottom of the screen now. Still no Unity 8 in sight though...
  • The much-criticized online dash search is now disabled by default.
  • Ubuntu runs the 4.4 Linux kernel now.
  • Warning: If your system has AMD Radeon graphics, be careful. AMD no longer offers the proprietary driver Ubuntu used to come with, and the open-source replacements don't offer comparable performance yet.
  • Ubuntu now includes support for the ZFS file system.
  • Last but not least, the usual updates to standard software. Most notably, Ubuntu only comes with Python 3 now.
Full release notes can be found here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/XenialXerus/ReleaseNotes

After an update like this, I like to do some virtual house-cleaning. I also went and installed a new GTK theme and icon set. Take a look at the attached screenshot! I like this one a lot.
 

Attachments

  • desktop.png
    desktop.png
    1.4 MB · Views: 11
Top