Ubuntu 21.10 Beta Released, Download and Test Now.

The Ubuntu team announced that Ubuntu 21.10 Beta “Impish Indri” is now available for download and test. We give you a quick look at the new features and download instructions.

We are nearing the release of Ubuntu 21.10 “Impish Indri”. As per the schedule, the beta .iso images are now ready to be downloaded and tested. Ubuntu 21.10 is the final short-term release of 2021, and it brings moderate updates and bug fixes.

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).

We have covered the new features and updates of this release here. However, let’s recap and take a look at the new features in brief – before you jump on downloading the .iso files.

Ubuntu 21.10 beta release

Ubuntu 21.10 powered by Linux Kernel 5.13.

This release will not feature GNOME 41, due to schedule mismatch and among other reasons. So, you get the updated version of GNOME 40.2. This is the first Ubuntu release which features the new GNOME 40 desktop. Hence, it comes with a twist. The customized GNOME 40 desktop features a fixed left side dock and eliminates the stock bottom dock in GNOME 40. If you are using GNOME 40 already via different distributions, you may feel it a bit weird. However, it is done to reduce the learning curve of the Ubuntu users.

So, initially it would feel a bit strange with have left fixed dock with horizontal workspaces, overview and scrolling. But it would be interesting to observe user reactions and feedback once it releases.

A brand new Desktop Installer which would replace the decade old Ubiquity. This is created in collaboration with Google in Flutter and gives a nice and easy way of installing Ubuntu. We covered more about this installer in detail when it was launched. You can read the coverage here. However, I am skeptical that it would be available in this release as it is still not in daily build.

The default theme would be set to Yaru Light. As per the Ubuntu team, 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, hopefully.

A brand-new default wallpaper is selected featuring the official mascot. This is chosen via a community competition.

A rather controversial is decision is taken by the Ubuntu team in this release. The Firefox will be packaged as snap and instead of .deb. This is going to be interesting as Snap is known to be slower with start time and other constraints. And a popular, most used browser like Firefox is now snap.

The applications and packages sees their respective version upgrades in this release. Here’s a quick summary.

• Firefox 89
• LibreOffice 7.2
• Thunderbird 78.12

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 BETA .iso (desktop) using the following link. However, use caution while using it as it is still a pre-release version. Avoid using it for your daily driver at the moment. You can, however, use it after a couple of days.

Official Flavors

More coverage and details

• All posts of Ubuntu 21.10

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