Canonical has released its latest version of Ubuntu, 16.10 – Yakkety Yak. The release will be supported for just nine months until July 2017. For those waiting for the new Unity 8 desktop, Ubuntu 16.10 includes the new desktop environment as a technical preview, which can be selected from the login screen.
Aside from Unity 8, there are not very many big features that ship with this release, but there are some upgrades to existing software. By default, Ubuntu uses Unity 7; in this release, Unity 7.5 is shipped, bringing with it minor bug fixes, systemd units for the shell and related services, and an improved low graphics mode which will make Ubuntu perform better in virtual machines.
The Nautilus file manager has been bumped to version 3.20, up from 3.14, which Ubuntu 16.04 LTS shipped with. New features in Nautilus include a built-in file transfer progress icon, and pop-up bubbles when renaming files and folders.
The last two major components that you’ll want to look out for are the updated core apps. Here are some apps and their new version numbers: LibreOffice 5.2.2, Firefox 49, Thunderbird 45, Ubuntu Software 3.20, Rhythmbox 3.4.1, GNOME Terminal 3.20, and Shotwell 0.22. The other major component to see an update is the Linux Kernel which is now on version 4.8. With this kernel, there are improvements to system stability, performance, power efficiency, and file system handling. Some key highlights include support for Microsoft Surface 3 touch screens, support for overclocking AMD graphic cards, and support for a wider range of drivers for audio devices and webcams.
You can find other flavours of Ubuntu 16.10 available for download including Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Ubuntu GNOME, Ubuntu Kylin, Ubuntu MATE, Ubuntu Studio, and Xubuntu. Head over to the Ubuntu website to grab the new release.