14 DAY TRIAL // Canonical announced today the general availability of Ubuntu 18.10 (Cosmic Cuttlefish), the most recent version of the Linux-based operating system featuring all the latest GNU/Linux technologies and Open Source software products.
Dubbed Cosmic Cuttlefish, Ubuntu 18.10 has been in development during the past six months, during which it received numerous improvements over previous releases. Ubuntu 18.10 features the latest GNOME 3.30 desktop environment and it's powered by the most recent and advanced kernel, Linux 4.18.
Ubuntu 18.10 (Cosmic Cuttlefish) will be supported by Canonical for the next nine months with software updates and security patches. It's now available to download as Ubuntu Desktop, Ubuntu Server, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Lubuntu, Ubuntu MATE, Ubuntu Budgie, Ubuntu Kylin, and Ubuntu Studio flavors.
"Ubuntu is now the world’s reference platform for AI engineering and analytics," said Mark Shuttleworth, CEO of Canonical. “We accelerate developer productivity and help enterprises operate at speed and at scale, across multiple clouds and diverse edge appliances."
Here's what's new in Ubuntu 18.10
Probably the most important new feature of the Ubuntu 18.10 (Cosmic Cuttlefish) operating system is the new Yaru theme, formerly Communitheme, which gives Ubuntu a fresh look, while improving usability with the careful use of semantic colors and better integrating with the GNOME desktop environment.
Other highlights include VeraCrypt support in GNOME Disks, smoother desktop zoom and window preview effects, support for unlocking your Ubuntu PC with fingerprints, Snap support to XDG Portals, mobile phone integration with GS Connect, as well as support for managing Thunderbolt devices in the Settings panel.
To reduce load and increase FPS counts for games, Ubuntu 18.10 brings several performance improvements like the ability to cache more shell components into GPU RAM. It also features a new option that lets the operating system automatically submit error reports to the error reporting dialog window.
Ubuntu the hood, Ubuntu 18.10 comes with an up-to-date toolchain consisting of GNU C Library (Glibc) 2.28, GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) 8.2, OpenSSL 1.1.1, Python 3.6.7 (default) and 3.7.1, Boost 1.67, Ruby 2.5.1, Perl 5.26.2, PHP 7.2.10, Golang 1.10.4, Rust 1.28, and OpenJDK 11.
"OpenSSL, the secure communication library using TLS protocol, is upgraded to 1.1.1 long-term support series. It supports for the recently approved TLSv1.3 standard. Multiple client and server applications have been enabled to use TLSv1.3 by default in Ubuntu 18.10 with many more to come in the next release," said Canonical.
It also features support for POWER memory protection keys, KVM support for AMD Secure Encrypted Virtualization, Open for Business (OFB) support, zcrypt support on IBM Z systems, enablement of Shared Memory Communications remote and direct (SMC-R/D), as well as an cross-compile support for ARM targets.
On the server side of things, Ubuntu Server 18.10 features the QEMU 2.12 virtualization software, libvirt 4.6 virtualization toolkit, DPDK (Data Plane Development Kit) 17.11.x, Open vSwitch 2.10 distributed virtual multilayer switch, cloud-init 18.4 cloud instance customization and configuration tool, and curtin 18.1.59 bare bones installer.