PCMag reviews products, but we may earn affiliate commissions from buying links on this page.It's been less than a month since Ubuntu 18.04 LTS released, but when you work on a six-month release cycle the focus moves quickly to what comes next. Canonical is doing just that by telling us what we can expect to see in Ubuntu 18.10, which arrives in October.If you're only just getting used to Ubuntu 18.04, don't worry, Canonical hasn't forgotten about you. In a, Canonical's desktop engineering manager, Will Cooke, details plans to release 18.04.1 in July. It will fix a number of bugs, but also introduce the ability to, among other things, unlock Ubuntu with your fingerprint. As for 18.10, one of the key focuses everyone will be happy about is power consumption. Cooke admits that there have been options in the Linux kernel to put hard drives, USB controllers, and other power-sipping components into low power states when not in use. Ubuntu hasn't been using them because 'this causes more problems than it solves.'
Ubuntu hasn't been using them because 'this causes more problems than it solves.' But that is changing for 18.10. Time will be spent 'digging in to there low level options' with the aim being to.
But that is changing for 18.10. Time will be spent 'digging in to there low level options' with the aim being to cut power consumption. Everyone running Ubuntu on a laptop will benefit if this proves successful. Other things to look forward to include a new theme developed by the Ubuntu community called CommuniTheme, which you can see a preview of above. The GNOME desktop will also continue to be improved with Cooke promising to embrace the latest GNOME release and integrate it. GNOME developers have been invited by Canonical to work with Ubuntu's design team.It's not just battery life that may be saved with 18.10, your time could be too thanks to faster starting desktop applications. Canonical, working with the package management system, will make desktop applications start much quicker by moving application setup to build time rather than it happening the first time an app is run.There will also be improved DLNA media sharing between Ubuntu and smart TVs, and support for the KDE Connect Android app by default allowing for better communication across devices.
A new metrics website will be created to share basic system info results publicly, and a new installer is being worked on to improve the desktop install experience. It probably won't be completely finished by October, but some changes may make it into 18.10.
Better battery life for laptopsTaking cue from, Canonical (Ubuntu’s parent company) is also working to improve battery life for laptops. Linux kernel has options to switch HDD controllers, USB controllers and other such devices to a low power state when not in use. This lowers the overall power consumption and thus improves the battery life.However, doing this automatically causes problem and this is why Ubuntu didn’t have this behavior enabled in the past. Ubuntu development team is further exploring these options to see what could be done to improve battery life without impacting the stability of the system.
Support for fingerprint scannerUbuntu 18.10 will have support for fingerprint scanner. This means if your computer has a fingerprint scanner, you would be able to unlock your Ubuntu system with fingerprint. Startup time boost and XDG Portals support for Snap applicationsContinuing its focus on packages, Canonical is bringing some useful improvements to it. Snap applications will take less time to start. With XDG portal, you should be able to install Snap in a few clicks from the website.
Linux Kernel 4.18Ubuntu 18.10 has Linux Kernel 4.18. This Kernel version has some improvements for AMD and Nvidia GPU, USB Type-C and Thunderbolt, and performance optimizations in CPUfreq among several other features.
32-Bit support diminishing from flavorsThe default Ubuntu GNOME has stopped providing 32-bit ISO since Ubuntu 17.10 release. Some other Ubuntu flavors like Ubuntu MATE, Kubuntu etc still provided 32-bit iso download till 18.04 release.But it seems to be changing now. Ubuntu Budgie and have also that they are dropping 32-bit release.Existing 32-bit users will still get support till 2023. Faster installation and boot with new compression algorithmsWorking with new compression algorithms like and, Ubuntu 18.10 is supposed to have around 10% faster boot. The installation will be slightly faster as well. Which is definitely a good news for all Ubuntu users. Miscellaneous other changes in Ubuntu 18.10Some other changes in the upcoming Ubuntu 18.10 are as follows:.
UI and UX improvements to GNOME Software (possibility). support for connecting Ubuntu with DLNA supported Smart TVs, tablets and other devices. A new and improved installer (less likely to be completed before 18.10 release).
Ubuntu Software while uninstalling software. Ubuntu Software will show a green verified tick for Snap applications developed by the owner of the brand. The same can be found on the recently. No Android integrationIt was being predicated that. With this feature, you could connect your Android smartphone with Ubuntu and transfer file wirelessly, see Android notification etc.
This would have been achieved by enabling by default in 18.10.Unfortunately, this feature is not ready for Ubuntu 18.10 release. Let’s see if Ubuntu 19.04 will have it. Upgrade to Ubuntu 18.10 from Ubuntu 18.04I wouldn’t advise upgrading to Ubuntu 18.10 from 18.04. This is because 18.10 is supported for nine months only and you will need to upgrade again after nine months. 18.04 on the other hand is supported till the year 2023.But if you like living on the edge, you can upgrade from existing Ubuntu 18.04 install to Ubuntu 18.10.Here is what you need to do to.Go to Software & Updates: Go to Software & UpdatesIn here, make sure that the “Notify me of a new Ubuntu version” is set to “For any new version”:If you run the update manager now, you should be notified that Ubuntu 18.10 is available.
Hitting on the upgrade will download the necessary files and upgrade your Ubuntu 18.04 to 18.10. Your home directory remains as it is but it is always better to make a backup. Download Ubuntu 18.10You can download for now.
This ISO is as good as the final stable release it self.Otherwise, you can look for the Ubuntu 18.10 ISO on Ubuntu’s website. Ubuntu 18.10 is releasing today and it should be available soon. I personally started with Ubuntu around v8-9 and i always find myself coming back to it. It installs/runs pretty similar to windows and has a very large support community.
You can still mess with stuff under the hood via the terminal but for the most part is not required. I do find myself having to do a couple lines now and then to fix a driver issue but it really only takes a couple minutes google searching and you can just copy/paste for the majority, or if not the tutorials/community do a good job of explaining what you’re actually doing/troubleshooting. Just install Ubuntu it’s probably the easiest one to use for a newbie.
It just takes time to get used to, it’s not more difficult than windows. You don’t need to know the ins and outs day one.
Anything you don’t know you can google or youtube the answer. Install an LTS version (in ubuntu it’s the one.04 for April) it just means that this version will get updates from the developer for the next 5 years.as for emails, it’s not connected to the operating system, either you use a browser for your emails or use a software, in windows/mac you have “Outlook” that a lot of people are used to, in Linux Thunderbird is a big one but you have others, just google how to set up your email on Thunderbird or google “top email clients for linux”Cheers. Any PC that is too slow for Windows will also be too slow for Ubuntu. They use similar resources on a desktop setup. On top of that, you will get worse graphics performance (due to driver quality disparity – if you can even get a 1st party driver for Ubuntu at all) and battery life (you will probably lose 30% of your battery life on a Laptop switching from Windows 10 or macOS to practically any Linux distro).I used to run Linux everywhere, but have ditched it for Windows 10 because I use Laptops predominantly these days.Windows Services for Linux is also a thing, these days.I think “older laptops” are the worst candidates for moving off of Windows or macOS to Linux, personally. A lot of hardware that has good 1st party drivers that still work flawlessly on the latest Windows and Mac OSes lack that option on Linux.No one likes laggy desktop rendering and trails when dragging things around.
Power Management is less of an issue on desktops (unless heat generation is causing throttling/crashes), but this is a big deal on Laptops.Older AMD laptops are likely to lose Catalyst Control Center if you move to Linux, which means you won’t be able to control your clock speeds (when Plugged in or on Battery) as easily. I also found Screen Brightness controls to be very very buggy on Ubuntu (sometimes not working at all, no matter what driver I used). OpenSUSE Leap with KDE.Personally, I have a hard time looking at GNOME – especially some applications like GIMP (for example). The theme looks awful and GTK just has awful design for common controls, etc. Qt is way better there, and the OpenSUSE team does some serious theming out of the box, that leaves the system feeling very cohesive. It’s the best Linux distro if you want a polished, great OOTB experience.
Even the Firefox Browser has been modified to work great in their destroy, as has LibreOffice.Fedora was nice back in the day, but I think Linux distros are too susceptible to niching themselves off. Fedora caters to “bleeding edge users,” while Ubuntu caters to “newbies.”OpenSUSE is really the distro that just aims to deliver a great experience with great aesthetics that is, from a practical standpoint, completely competitive with Windows or macOS.I don’t say the same for Fedora or Ubuntu, personally.The only con is the lack of a live disc to try before installing.(OpenSUSE also has YaST, which is the best Control Panel/Configuration software in the Linux Universe).