The first beta for the Ubuntu 15.10 Wily Werewolf flavors (Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Ubuntu GNOME, Ubuntu MATE, Lubuntu and Ubuntu Kylin) was released today. Let's take a quick look at what's new!
Kubuntu 15.10 Wily Werewolf Beta 1
Kubuntu 15.10 Wily Werewolf Beta 1 ships with Plasma 5.4 beta (5.3.95) and KDE Applications 15.08 beta (but the final 15.08 version is already available in the Proposed repository) which includes changes such as:
- a new Audio Volume applet that works directly with PulseAudio;
- a new fullscreen Application Dashboard alternative launcher;
- over 1400 new icons;
- KRunner now remembers your previous searches;
- the Networks applet is now able to display network traffic graphs;
- much improved high DPI support;
- smaller memory footprint;
- a new, much faster desktop search backend;
- new additions to the KDE Frameworks 5-based applications list, including Dolphin, the Kontact Suite, Ark, Picmi and more.
More information and download links
Xubuntu 15.10 Wily Werewolf Beta 1
Changes in Xubuntu 15.10 Wily Werewolf beta 1:
- LibreOffice Calc and Writer have replaced Gnumeric and Abiword;
- a new theme for LibreOffice, libreoffice-style-elementary, is now installed by default;
- updated packages:
- xfdesktop4 4.12.2 (changes since 4.12.0, available in Vivid):
- reinitialize background when reloading desktop;
- monitor the wallpaper file for changes;
- add a xfconf settings to center the text on xfdesktop icons;
- allow dragging desktop launchers to the panel;
- preserve order when moving multiple icons;
- Thunar 1.6.10 (changes since 1.6.6, available in Vivid):
- new tabs and windows inherit the history of the origin view;
- history is preserved across view changes;
- remember the last used application when opening files;
- Catfish 1.3.0:
- the toolbar has been replaced with a Gtk HeaderBar;
- the sidebar has been cleaned up and now clearly indicates selected options;
- the file type and modification date dialogs were replaced with Popover widgets;
- Gmusicbrowser 1.1.14:
- added support for Gstreamer 1.x;
- added an Equalizer Preset widget to change presets;
- WhiskerMenu 1.5.0:
- added a profile picture and command which allows editing it via Mugshot;
- added option to set background opacity;
- customizable limit for recently used;
- many other Xfce components were updated with mostly bug fixes - this includes Xfce Power Manager, Xfce Weather Plugin, Xfburn and more.
You'll find a screenshots with some of these changes below:
Also, Xfce Panel Switch, a layout manager for the Xfce Panel, is now available in the official repositories but it's not installed by default in Xubuntu 15.10 Wily Werewolf beta 1.
More information | download
Ubuntu MATE 15.10 Wily Werewolf Beta 1
Ubuntu MATE 15.10 Wily Werewolf ships with a combination of MATE 1.8 and 1.10 and it includes the following changes:
- MATE 1.10 changes:
- Caja now has an extension manager so plugins can be enabled/disabled at run-time;
improved multi-monitor support;
libmatemixer, an audio mixer library for MATE desktop, has been introduced with MATE 1.10;
CSD and pop-over support; - Mate Welcome was updated with various UI improvements, software categories and new applications on the Software page such as AppGrid, Chromium, Disks, Hardinfo, SpiderOakONE, Ubuntu Software Center (which as you probably know, is no longer installed by default in Ubuntu
- MATE 15.10) and VeraCrypt;
- MATE Tweak has gained support for two new panel layouts: Fedora and Mageia;
- Deja Dup is now integrated with Caja.
There are some MATE packages which are still at version 1.8, like Atril, MATE Panel, MATE Control Center, MATE Power Manager, Engrampa, MATE Applets, MATE Faenza Icon Theme, MATE Sensors Applet and MATE User Share.
More information and download links
Ubuntu GNOME 15.10 Wily Werewolf Beta 1
Ubuntu GNOME 15.10 Wily Werewolf ships with GNOME 3.16 for the most part and it includes the following changes:
- GNOME 3.16 includes some important changes, like:
- a new notification system which has replaced the old Message Tray. The notification history can now be accessed from the date/time menu (Top Bar);
- legacy "tray" icons are now displayed in a "drawer" that used autohide at the bottom left corner of the screen;
- the Activities Overview, login/lock screen, system menus and others have received an updated design (including monochrome icons for the applications menu);
- improved scrollbars, which are now only displayed when needed;
- Redesigned GNOME Image Viewer, which now uses header bars;
- many other changes - you can read all about it (including a video) HERE;
- GNOME Getting Started Guide is now included by default and runs on first login;
- Shotwell has been replaced with GNOME Photos;
- GNOME Music is now installed by default (Rhythmbox continues to be installed by default as well).
Here are a few screenshots with some of these changes:
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| GNOME Photos |
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| New GTK 3.6 scrollbars |
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| GNOME Image Viewer |
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| Notification history / events and calendar |
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| GNOME Music |
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| Legacy tray icons |
While GTK and GNOME Shell was updated to version 3.16 (3.16.3 for GNOME Shell and 3.16.6 for GTK) and so were many GNOME apps, older versions are still used for some applications, like Files (still at version 3.14.2) and Gedit (the ancient 3.10.4 version is still used)
More information and download links
Lubuntu 15.10 Wily Werewolf Beta 1
Like the previous version, Lubuntu 15.10 Beta 1 ships with only bug fixes, as LXQt is still in development and not used by default yet.
More information | download
Ubuntu Kylin 15.10 Wily Werewolf Beta 1
Since alpha 2, Ubuntu Kylin (Ubuntu variant for Chinese users) 15.10 Wily Werewolf has only received various bug fixes.
All the Ubuntu 15.10 beta 1 flavors include Xorg server 1.17.2, Mesa 10.6.3 and the 4.1.0-3.3 Ubuntu Linux Kernel, based on the upstream 4.1.3 Linux kernel.
Up next in the Wily Werewolf release schedule: Final Beta (September 24th), in which the main Ubuntu flavor (w/ Unity) should also take part.
