The first beta for the Ubuntu 14.10 Utopic Unicon flavors (Xubuntu, Kubuntu, Ubuntu GNOME, Lubuntu and Ubuntu Kylin) was released yesterday. Let's take a quick look at what's new.
The article also includes Ubuntu MATE 14.10 beta 1, even though it isn't an official Ubuntu flavor yet.
Xubuntu 14.10 Utopic Unicorn Beta 1
Changes in Xubuntu 14.10 Utopic Unicorn beta 1:
- The display dialog has been updated, multiple dispays can now be arranged by drag and drop;
- The power manager can now control the keyboard-backlight and features a new panel plugin, which shows the battery’s status, other connected devices with batteries and controls the display’s backlight brightness;
- Xubuntu minimal install available – information on installation and testing will follow shortly;
- Inxi, a tool to gather system information, is now included by default;
- To allow users to use pkexec for selected applications instead of gksu(do), appropriate profiles are now included for Thunar and Mousepad;
- The display dialog has been updated, multiple dispays can now be arranged by drag and drop;
- The themes now support Gtk3.12;
- The alt-tab dialog can now be clicked with the mouse to select a window;
- Setting-related menu items earlier available only under Settings manager are now shown and searchable in Whiskermenu;
- Presentation mode in Xfce4 power manager is now working;
- apt-offline should work now;
- Updated packages: Catfish 1.2.1, Xfwm4 4.11.2, xfdesktop 4.11.7, xfce4-panel 4.11.1, lightdm-gtk-greeter 1.9.0, xfce4-appfinder 4.11.0, xfce4-notifyd 0.2.4, xfce4-settings 4.11.3, xfce4-power-manager 1.3.2, Whisker Menu 1.4.0, Light Locker Settings 1.4.0, Menulibre 2.0.5 and Mugshot 0.2.4;
- XChat was removed from the default installation.
Ubuntu GNOME 14.10 Utopic Unicorn Beta 1
Changes in Ubuntu GNOME 14.10 Utopic Unicorn beta 1:
- Includes GNOME Shell 3.12 by default;
- GNOME Weather and GNOME Maps are installed by default.
Kubuntu 14.10 Utopic Unicorn Beta 1
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| Kubuntu 14.10 beta 1 - Plasma 4 ISO |
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| Kubuntu 14.10 beta 1 - Plasma 5 ISO |
Changes in Kubuntu 14.10 Utopic Unicorn beta 1:
- Two new ISOs are available for download: Plasma 4 Stable and Plasma 5 tech Preview (64bit only for now);
- The Stable Plasma 4 ISO includes KDE Applications and Platform 4.14
Lubuntu 14.10 Utopic Unicorn Beta 1
For Lubuntu 14.10 Utopic Unicorn beta 1 there's no changelog available - the wiki page mentions that the "Lubuntu development is currently focused on the transition away from GTK+ to the Qt framework. This is not stable enough for everyday use, so the focus this version is on fixing bugs". For now, Lubuntu 14.10 beta 1 didn't switch LXQt yet.
It's also important to mention that there are no PPC images due to a lack of official testing.
Ubuntu Kylin 14.10 Utopic Unicorn Beta 1
Changes in Ubuntu Kylin (an Ubuntu variant for Chinese users) Utopic Unicorn beta 1:
- Ubuntu Kylin Software Center updated to 0.3.3;
- Sogou IM updated to 1.1.0;
- Wiznote updated to version 2.1.12;
- "Some interesting new features are still under development".
Ubuntu MATE 14.10 Beta 1
Ubuntu MATE is not an official Ubuntu flavor yet, but it has pretty good chances of becoming one. Here are the changes in Ubuntu MATE 14.10 beta 1 since alpha 2:
- Added community contributed wallpapers, Plymouth theme, SYSLINUX theme and Ubiquity slides;
- Added Ambiant-MATE and Radiant-MATE desktop and icon themes;
- Added Ubuntu MATE LightDM theme;
- Updated the default Qt4 style to match the Ambiant-MATE theme;
- Added OpenDyslexic a font created to increase readability for readers with dyslexia;
- Added a screen magnifier for indiviuals with low vision;
- Added patent-free S3TC compatible implementation that provides texture compression to Mesa;
- Added service discovery on a local network via the mDNS/DNS-SD protocol suite;
- Added colord to manage, install and generate accurate colour profiles;
- Added ntp time synchronisation daemon;
- Added policykit-desktop-privileges which fixes, among other things, auto mounting of disks without requiring a password;
- Added a PAM module that will automatically unlock the keyrings using your login password, making gnome-keyring usage transparent without losing its security benefits;
- Added GVFS backend (FTP, SSH, WebDAV, Samba) to Déjà Dup;
- Added GStreamer backend to LibreOffice;
- Fixed installation failures when there is no active Internet connection;
- Fixed hiding the im-config icon from MATE;
- Improved support for 3G/4G USB dongles, iPod and MTP devices, on-demand codec installation and hardware detection and support;
- Updated the language packs in the Live CD based on the Top 10 countries that visit https://ubuntu-mate.org;
- Removed ffmpegthumbnailer, light-themes and ubuntu-artwork.
All the Ubuntu 14.10 beta 1 flavors include Xorg server 1.15.1, Mesa 10.2.6 and the 3.15.0.6 Ubuntu Linux Kernel, based on the upstream 3.15 Linux kernel which includes mixed mode UEFI support as well as improvements to suspend and resume times and more.
Up next in the Utopic Unicorn release schedule: Final Beta (September 25th), in which the main Ubuntu flavor (w/ Unity) should also take part.
Up next in the Utopic Unicorn release schedule: Final Beta (September 25th), in which the main Ubuntu flavor (w/ Unity) should also take part.
