Ubuntu fans! It’s time to get excited about the next big release which is Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. In this article, we’re going to go over some of the features we’re most excited about, and cover a lot of the differences between Jammy Jellyfish and Ubuntu’s previous LTS release, Focal Fossa. Read on as we take you through some of the upcoming changes.
Ubuntu 22.04 Release Schedule
The stable version of Ubuntu 22.04 is scheduled to be released on April 21, 2022. The development is already going in full swing and it will follow this release schedule:
- February 24, 2022: Feature freeze
- March 17, 2022: UI freeze
- March 31, 2022: Beta release
- April 14, 2022: Release candidate
- April 21, 2022: Final stable release
Ubuntu 22.04 Features – What’s New?
A new version of Ubuntu means there has been a few changes, but of course it has also remained faithful to the same old Ubuntu that you’ve come to know and trust for years. We’ll go over some of the most noteworthy new elements in this section.
GNOME 42.0
Ubuntu 22.04 ships with GNOME 42.0 installed. Of course, you will still have your choice to download Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Xubuntu, and a slew of other flavors, just in case you don’t like GNOME. The new version of GNOME has better settings with regards to colors and themes, including dark theme. The new dark theme is better respected across desktop applications and adheres to a standard of colors that make more sense.
GNOME 42 also makes use of libadwaita and GTK 4, so expect things to be looking a little different. The newest version of GNOME will introduce a new screenshot tool and text editor. Since Canonical employs a custom version of GNOME, we have to see if all these new settings will carry over to Ubuntu 22.04.
A new way to update firmware
For years, the Software Center in Ubuntu has handled the updating of firmware. With the release of Ubuntu 22.04, a new GUI application will be unveiled, which is really just a front-end for the fwupd command line utility. This is a right step in the direction of user friendliness and clarity about system updates.
New Ubuntu installer
The installation prompts for Ubuntu 22.04 are going to look a little different, because the installer itself has actually been completely revamped. It sports a much more modern and sleek look, while still reflecting the simplicity of Ubuntu. It was created using Google’s Flutter UI development kit.
Expanded Raspberry Pi support
The new Ubuntu 22.04 will support Raspberry Pi models with as little as 2 GB of RAM, something that it accomplishes through the use of zswap.
PHP 8.1
Ubuntu 22.04 makes the upgrade to PHP 8.1. This is mostly relevant for web developers that like to program in the PHP language. Jammy Jellyfish gives coders easy access to the latest interation of PHP, so they can keep up with the always-changing web technology.
OpenSSL 3.0
A new standard for OpenSSL was released in September 2021. This will be the new version included in Ubuntu 22.04, which will increase security with regards to encryption and man in the middle attacks on the new operating system.
Ruby 3.0
Ruby programmers will be delighted to know that Ubuntu 22.04 has made the upgrade to Ruby 3.0, which was officially released back in 2020.
Golang 1.18
The Go programming language is quickly sweeping the tech world. Canonical has recognized this and included Golang 1.18 with the latest version of their operating system, Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish.
Python 3.10.0
Python 3.10.0 version will be shipped as a default with Ubuntu 22.04
Grub 2.06
There’s a new version of grub, which isn’t very noteworthy by itself, but it may effect some users that have a dual boot system, including Windows or other Linux distributions. Grub 2.06 won’t automatically probe for other OS installations and add them to the boot menu. Luckily, there’s a simple fix of adding GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false to the /etc/default/grub file and then running sudo update-grub.
Closing Thoughts
Although Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish is only two new years newer than the previous LTS release, technology moves fast and there have been many improvements made. And while most of these changes take place under the hood, Jammy Jellyfish’s new look and smooth feel is unmistakable, even to the most casual of users.
This article explained Ubuntu’s release schedule and touched on some of the most major changes coming to Jammy Jellyfish. We like the new version of Ubuntu and are excited to see its widespread adoption. Stick with us for more guides on Ubuntu 22.04, as we continue to poke around and share our findings with you.
