The final release of 2021 for Ubuntu – Ubuntu 21.10 Impish Indri is here, and we round up the release in this page.
Following the trend, Ubuntu 21.10 is code named “impish indri” as we are at “I” based names. The “Indri” refers to “babakoto, is one of the largest living lemurs, with a head-and-body length of about 64–72 cm and a weight of between 6 to 9.5 kg. It has a black and white coat and maintains an upright posture when climbing or clinging” (from Wikipedia).
This release brings a new GNOME 40 desktop experience, the latest Linux Kernel, improved desktop and new applications. Here’s a summary of what’s new.
Table of Contents
Ubuntu 21.10 What’s New
At the heart of Ubuntu 21.10 is Linux Kernel 5.13 which brings usual latest hardware updates for CPU, GPU and Storage devices into the table.
This release is the first Ubuntu version which brings GNOME 40’s intuitive desktop experience. So, you get the horizontal workspaces, different activities overview. However, there is a slight difference between the GNOME 40 vanilla look and Ubuntu 21.10. A fixed left dock is retained by Ubuntu in GNOME 40.
Version wise, this release features GNOME 40.3. Although GNOME 41 is out, it didn’t make it due to schedule conflicts.
The default theme would be set to Yaru Light in this version. The reason behind this decision is, it is difficult to maintain a mixed theme with both and dark and light together.
In the prior Ubuntu 21.04, the Wayland display server is made default. In this release, NVIDIA driver users also would be able to Wayland.
A brand-new wallpaper, featuring the mascot “Indri” is introduced. You might want to take a look at all Ubuntu default wallpapers till date here. A nice trip down the memory lane for you.
The applications and packages sees their respective version upgrades in this release. Here’s a quick summary.
- Firefox 89
- LibreOffice 7.1
- Thunderbird 78.12
- PulseAudio 15
A rather controversial is decision is taken by the Ubuntu team in this release is to feature Firefox as Snap package. This is going to be interesting as Snap is known to be slower with start time and other constraints. In case you want to get rid of Snap version of Firefox, here is a guide we wrote for you.
Official Flavors
The official Ubuntu desktop flavors would have their respective version upgrades. Here’s a quick update.
- Xubuntu with Xfce 4.16
- Ubuntu MATE with MATE 1.24
- Kubuntu with KDE Plasma 5.22
Download
You can download the Ubuntu 21.10 release .ISO copy from the below link.
Other official flavors
| Ubuntu Flavor | Official Download Link to .ISO (64 bit) |
|---|---|
| Ubuntu 21.10 Desktop (GNOME) | https://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/releases/21.10/release/ |
| Xubuntu 21.10 | https://cdimage.ubuntu.com/xubuntu/releases/impish/release/ |
| Ubuntu MATE 21.10 | https://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-mate/releases/impish/release/ |
| Ubuntu Kylin 21.10 | https://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntukylin/releases/impish/release/ |
| Lubuntu 21.10 | https://cdimage.ubuntu.com/lubuntu/releases/impish/release/ |
| Kubuntu 21.10 | https://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/releases/impish/release/ |
| Ubuntu Budgie 21.10 | https://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-budgie/releases/impish/release/ |
Upgrade
If you are running Ubuntu 21.04, then wait for a couple of hours/days to get the upgrade packages via distribution package manager. Check out our complete step-by-step upgrade guide here.
Closing Notes
Ubuntu 21.10 is to be supported for 9 months from now and this release creates the base for the next LTS release due to April 2022. Although, feature wise, this is a mundane release, only core updates. However, it is a good test bed for GNOME 40 adaptation among millions of users and eventually leads to the next LTS version.
