Showing posts with label flavor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label flavor. Show all posts
Sunday, September 17, 2017
Ubuntu MATE 15 04 Vivid Vervet Beta 1 Released Gets Official Ubuntu Flavor Status
Ubuntu MATE 15 04 Vivid Vervet Beta 1 Released Gets Official Ubuntu Flavor Status
Ubuntu MATE 15.04 Vivid Vervet Beta 1 was released today. Lets take a look at whats new since alpha 2.
Unfortunately I didnt have time to test the other flavors (and for most of them, theres not much to say anyway), so Ill only cover Ubuntu MATE for this first beta release. However, Ill add links to the other flavors release notes (download links included), below:
- Ubuntu GNOME
- Kubuntu
- Xubuntu
- Lubuntu
- Ubuntu Kylin
You may also want to read:
- Ubuntu Flavors 15.04 Vivid Vervet Alpha 2 Available For Testing
- Ubuntu MATE 15.04 Vivid Vervet Alpha 2 Released
I should also mention that as usual, Ubuntu (w/ Unity) doesnt take part in alpha and first beta releases.
Now back to Ubuntu MATE 15.04 Vivid Vervet beta 1. The most important news is that Ubuntu MATE is now an official member of the Ubuntu family.
The first Ubuntu MATE release was 14.10, followed by 14.04 (thats not a typo, the 14.04 release was after 14.10 because the Ubuntu MATE devs wanted to provide a LTS, since non-LTS versions are only supported for 9 months), but both versions were unofficial and used PPAs to provide the latest MATE Desktop 1.8, which is no longer the case with Ubuntu MATE 15.04 Vivid Vervet beta 1.
Since Ubuntu MATE is now an official Ubuntu flavor, all the packages it ships with are now available in the Ubuntu repositories - that include MATE Menu, MATE Tweak, its default GTK theme(s) and so on.
Speaking of MATE Tweak, the tool has received a pretty important new feature, which allows switching between different panel layouts, including: Ubuntu MATE (default), Eleven (with a top panel for the menu, systray, etc. and Plank at the bottom, as the app switcher/launcher) and more:
This also means that Plank, the default elementary OS application launcher, is now installed by default in Ubuntu MATE (but its not used by default).
+Martin Wimpress posted a video which demonstrates this new MATE Tweak feature so check it out HERE. Note that in the video there are more panel layouts than there are available in Ubuntu MATE 15.04 Vivid Vervet beta 1 by default, because it depends on the packages installed on the system and for instance, the Ubuntu Indicator Applet, which was available in previous Ubuntu MATE releases, is no longer available in Ubuntu MATE 15.04 Vivid Vervet beta 1.
The reason for this is that the default Indicator Applet / Ubuntu Indicators dont support GTK2 by default. For the previous Ubuntu MATE releases, the Indicator Applet was patched to support MATE and it was available in a PPA, but since Ubuntu MATE 15.04 is now an official Ubuntu flavor, it cant ship with PPAs enabled by default and thus, it cant use Ubuntu Indicators out of the box.
However, you can install the Ubuntu Indicator Applet along with the Sound Indicator package (patched for MATE) in Ubuntu MATE 15.04 by following THESE instructions.
Another change in the latest Ubuntu MATE 15.04 Vivid Vervet beta 1 is the addition of Folder Color by default:
Folder Color is a tool which allows changing individual folder colors (useful to organize your folders, make some important folder stand out, etc.) and besides Caja, it supports Nautilus and Nemo.
Other changes include:
- added menu categories to System > Preferences;
- LightDM GTK Greeter Settings was updated to version 1.10;
- updated the default GTK theme (Yuko) with better GTK 3.14 support;
- thanks to a GTK2 bugfix, MATE should have better multi-monitor support;
- MATE Tweak allows switching between Marco and Compiz without requiring a logout/login;
- added PowerPC as an officially supported architecture;
- updated LightDM GTK Greeter to 2.0.0 which now includes a MATE logo in the session switcher;
- merged MATE Compatibility integration into upstream Compiz .
Here are a few more Ubuntu MATE 15.04 Vivid Vervet beta 1 screenshots:
This being a beta, there are a few known issues, most importantly: MATE 1.8x is not fully compatible with glibc>=2.43.1 and while this was fixed upstream, its not available in 15.04 yet so for now, youll have to use a PPA to get the fixes.
Other known issues include: the notification tray crashes on first start and randomly from time to time (32bit only), live switching between Compiz and Marco is experimental and may result in missing window decorations on some old GPUs (and in VirtualBox, at least that was the case in my test) and more.
Default applications/packages
Ubuntu MATE 15.04 Vivid Vervet beta 1 ships with the following applications installed by default: Caja 1.8.2, Pluma 1.8.1, Firefox 34, Thunderbird 31.4.0, LibreOffice 4.4.0, VLC 2.2.0, Rhythmbox 3.1, Shotwell 0.20.2, Pidgin 2.10.9, HexChat 2.10.1, Transmission 2.84, Cheese 3.14.1, two terminals - MATE Terminal 1.8.1 and Tilda 1.2.2 (which can be triggered via the F12 key), and Eye of Mate 1.8.0, on top of MATE Desktop 1.8.1.
Under the hood, the first Ubuntu MATE Vivid beta ships with the Ubuntu Linux Kernel 3.18.0-13, based on the upstream 3.18.5 Linux Kernel, Xorg server 1.16.2.901 and Mesa 10.5.0 RC1 (with RC2 available in the Proposed repository).
Download Ubuntu MATE 15.04 Vivid Vervet beta 1
Download Ubuntu MATE 15.04 Vivid Vervet beta 1
The link above includes the official release notes so make sure you read them before testing the latest Ubuntu MATE 15.04 beta 1!
Up next: Ubuntu MATE (and flavors) 15.04 Vivid Vervet final beta, which should be released on March 26th. All the Ubuntu flavors as well as Ubuntu (w/ Unity) will take part in the final beta release.
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Thursday, September 7, 2017
Ubuntu Budgie Becomes An Official Ubuntu Flavor
Ubuntu Budgie Becomes An Official Ubuntu Flavor
Quick update: Ubuntu Budgie is now officially an Ubuntu flavor. The team behind Ubuntu Budgie aims at making 17.04 (expected in April, 2017) its first release.
 |
| Budgie Remix 16.10 |
Initially called Budgie Remix, the Budgie-desktop powered Ubuntu flavor has its first unofficial release back in April (16.04).
Budgie Desktop is essentially a shell for GNOME, and it features a libmutter-based window manager, a customizable panel which includes an applet, notification and customization center, as well as a menu that offers both compact and category views.
Like Budgie Remix, Ubuntu Budgie should use GNOME applications by default, such as Files (Nautilus), Gedit, and so on, with extras like Plank dock, and various customizations.
Check out the official announcement HERE.
via Web Upd8 - Ubuntu / Linux blog http://www.webupd8.org/2016/11/ubuntu-budgie-becomes-official-ubuntu.html
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Saturday, August 12, 2017
Ubuntu MATE 15 04 Released First Version As An Official Ubuntu Flavor
Ubuntu MATE 15 04 Released First Version As An Official Ubuntu Flavor
Ubuntu MATE 15.04 was released today, this being the first version as an official member of the Ubuntu family. Compared to the previous releases, when the distro was an unofficial flavor, there are numerous changes, including new default applications, a built-in panel layout switcher, new default theme and much more.
For those who are not familiar with MATE, this is a GNOME 2 fork which lets you use the old GNOME 2 desktop interface and applications but it also allows you to use new applications so for instance, you can use Gedit 3 if you want, etc.
Changes in Ubuntu MATE 15.04 (Vivid Vervet)
Note: the changes below are between Ubuntu MATE 15.04 and 14.10. Some of these changes were already present / were backported to Ubuntu MATE 14.04 LTS (which was released after 14.10).
One of the most interesting changes for regular desktop users in Ubuntu MATE 15.04 is MATE Tweak, which is installed by default and comes with a couple of new features which many MATE users will love.
Firstly, the app now allows switching between Compiz and Marco, just like in Linux Mint 17.1 MATE, without having to restart the session:
CompizConfig Settings Manager, the tool which allows enabling various Compiz plugins and tweaking its settings, is not installed by default though.
And secondly, the tool can now be used to switch between various panel layouts, including: Ubuntu MATE (default), Eleven (with a top panel for the menu, systray, etc. and Plank at the bottom, as the app switcher/launcher) and more:
Depending on the packages installed on your system, more layouts can show up here. For instance, if you install the Ubuntu Indicator Applet from the PPA linked below, youll get an extra panel layout with Ubuntu Indicators.
Another change compared to the previous (unofficial) Ubuntu MATE releases is that Ubuntu MATE 15.04 doesnt support Ubuntu/Unity Indicators out of the box because they dont support GTK2:
The Ubuntu Indicator Applet version used in previous Ubuntu MATE releases was patched to work with GTK2 and it was available in a PPA - since Ubuntu MATE 15.04 is an official Ubuntu flavor, it cant use PPAs by default and thus, the patched Indicator Applet is not provided on a fresh installation.
However, you can install the Ubuntu Indicator applet along with the Sound Indicator package (patched for MATE) from a PPA by following THESE instructions.
As for the artwork, Ubuntu MATE 15.04 ships with a new default theme, called Yuyo Dark, as well as a light "Yuyo" alternative:
However, Ambiant MATE is still used for the LightDM Greeter (login screen), probably because Yuyo still needs some tweaks to work to properly support it.
Also, compared to Ubuntu MATE 14.10, the default icon theme (Ambiant MATE) now uses green icons (this was already available in Ubuntu MATE 14.04), as you can see in the screenshots above.
Other changes in Ubuntu MATE 15.04 (Vivid Vervet):
- enabled restating X via Ctrl+Alt+Backspace;
- enabled screen reader activation via LightDM indicators and LightDM key bindings;
- enabled touch to click by default for touchpads;
- added menu categories to System > Preferences;
- thanks to a GTK2 bugfix, MATE should have better multi-monitor support;
- merged MATE Compatibility integration into upstream Compiz;
- Ubuntu 15.04 has adopted multilib GObject introspection runtime (gir) which means Caja plugins now work "out of the box";
- more.
Default applications / packages
The latest Ubuntu MATE 15.04 ships with MATE 1.8.2 and compared to Ubuntu MATE 14.10, it comes with quite a few new default applications:
- MATE Tweak (a MintDesktop fork) - lets you configure which icons to show on the desktop, enable/disable compositing, change the window buttons layout, show/hide icons in menus and buttons and more;
- MATE Menu (a MintMenu fork) - a searchable menu for the MATE panel. This is not the default menu, but you can add it to the panel by right clicking the panel, selecting Add to Panel and then adding "MATE Menu";
- Totem has been replaced by VLC;
- Plank, the elementary OS dock, is now installed by default in Ubuntu MATE (but its not used by default);
- Tilda, a Quake-like drop-down terminal;
- Folder Color, a Caja (it also supports Nemo and Nautilus) extension which allows changing individual folder colors (useful for organizing your folders, make some important folder stand out, etc.), as well as change all the the folder colors or add emblems;
- guvcview, an app that uses your webcam to take photos and videos;
- LightDM GTK+ Greeter Settings, a tool which allows modifying various login screen settings such as the theme, font, background and much more.
Here are screenshots with some of these new default apps:
Besides the new default apps, Ubuntu MATE 15.04 ships with Firefox 37, Thunderbird 31.6.0, LibreOffice 4.4.2, Transmission 2.84, Shotwell 0.20.2, Rhythmbox 3.1, Pidgin 2.10.9, Brasero 3.12, Deja Dup 32 and HexChat 2.10.1, as well as the MATE 1.8.x core apps like Caja (file manager), Pluma (text editor) and so on.
Just like Ubuntu 15.04, the latest Ubuntu MATE release ships with the Ubuntu Linux Kernel 3.19.0 based on the upstream 3.19.3 Linux Kernel, Mesa 10.5.2, Xorg server 1.17.1, PulseAudio 6.0 and systemd 219 (and uses systemd as the default init system).
Download Ubuntu MATE 15.04
Download Ubuntu MATE 15.04 (now also available for Raspberry Pi 2)
Before installing it, make sure you read the official release notes! Also, note that Ubuntu MATE 15.04, like all non-LTS Ubuntu flavors, is supported for only 9 months!
To see whats new in Ubuntu (with Unity) 15.04, check out THIS article.
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