Ubuntu 20.10 Groovy Gorilla is released. The latest Ubuntu 20.10 code-named “Groovy Gorilla” is available for download after a bit of delay due to last-minute bugs. Check out what’s new.
Ubuntu 20.10 “Groovy Gorilla” is the last short term release in 2020 from Canonical and will be supported until July 2021. This release is the bleeding edge Ubuntu flavor and some of its features will be merged back to the current Ubuntu 20.04 LTS eventually.
Feature-wise, it’s not that big of a release though. Apart from GNOME 3.38, there are not many visible changes in the core Ubuntu modules.
It is normal not to have many features additions on a short term release due to the short iteration time for development.
Let’s take a look at what’s new.
Table of Contents
What’s New in Ubuntu 20.10
Linux Kernel 5.8
Ubuntu 20.10 is powered by Kernel 5.8 at the moment. Although Kernel 5.9 is already in a stable state. But the timeline of both the development didn’t match. Kernel 5.8 fixes the Spectre vulnerability, AMD processor supports for new hardware. It also brings much-needed improvements for EXT4, Btrfs file systems. And of course, it comes with power management, network, and other improvements as well to support all the latest hardware.
GNOME 3.38
The major visual change that you see is the default desktop environment GNOME 3.38. GNOME 3.38 is a big release that introduced many new features – both visually and under the hood as well.
The main application menu is changed completely in GNOME 3.38. You can now arrange the icons using the drag and drop facility.
The icons also can be arranged inside the folder group as well.
With more commercial devices coming with a built-in fingerprint scanner, Ubuntu 20.10 also supports fingerprint scans and login via GNOME 3.38. Provided, the hardware is supported in the Linux Kernel 5.8.
You can also share the Wi-Fi hotspot from your Ubuntu devices via QR code. Simply scan the QR code from your mobile device and off you go.
Have kids who use your Ubuntu? GNOME 3.38 brings parental control to protect certain apps for better management.
Other minor but productive changes include a dedicated Restart option in the system tray menu, The notification bar Calendar popover now shows the events provided you have sync enabled in GNOME Calendar.
Latest Applications
The default application stack is also updated to the latest builds of your favorite applications. Groovy Gorilla brings the latest LibreOffice 7.0, Thunderbird 78 among others.
- Firefox 81
- LibreOffice 7.0.2
- Thunderbird 78.3.2
The native GNOME applications such as Web, Boxes, Games updated as well with their respective upstream version.
Tool Chain
If you are a developer, good news. All the development tools are updated with the latest versions so that you can have the latest development environment.
- glibc 2.32
- OpenJDK 11
- rustc 1.41
- GCC 10
- LLVM 11
- Python 3.8.6
- ruby 2.7.0
- php 7.4.9
- perl 5.30
- golang 1.13
New Default Wallpaper
Following the trends of all releases, Ubuntu 20.10 also features a “Groovy” wallpaper for you. It has the official mascot as well.
Download the high-res version from below:
Groovy Gorilla Wallpapers 598 – (~27MB) – 1080p to 8K in .png and .jpg
Overall, these are the main changes in Ubuntu 20.10. Nothing much to look forward to except the GNOME 3.38 features. Check out the official release notes here.
How to Download Ubuntu 20.10 Groovy Gorilla
Ubuntu 20.10 Groovy Gorilla download links are present below. You can use these guides to create a bootable USB for installation.
So, if you are already running Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, I would recommend to stick with it and not to hop on Groovy. Also, it is not wise to upgrade from an LTS release to a short term release.
If you want the latest GNOME 3.38 you can go ahead and do a fresh install of Ubuntu 20.10.
Also check out Top 10 features of Ubuntu 20.10.
