A day later than expected Canonical has released the beta version for the October 17 expected Ubuntu 19.10 »Eoan Ermine« for desktop, server and cloud. According to the announcement, Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Ubuntu Budgie, UbuntuKylin, Ubuntu MATE, Ubuntu Studio, and Xubuntu are also taking part in addition to Ubuntu itself.
Current GNOME desktop
Common to all derivatives is kernel 5.3 as a base. In Ubuntu comes as a desktop environment, the current GNOME 3.34 is used. With this, users of the Intel platform can also benefit from a flicker-free boot process in Ubuntu, among other things. In addition, the GNOME shell can now better organize by application icons can be grouped by drag and drop into groups.
Two major changes
Ubuntu 19.10 is a release with only nine months support. These releases are commonly introduced with major enhancements, which in this case will be tested until April when Ubuntu 20.04 LTS is released. Two of these major changes were announced for 19.10, however, the beta contains only one of them.
Nvidia driver on board
With Ubuntu 19.10 gamer can be particularly pleased to find the proprietary Nvidia driver now for easy installation on the installation medium. On the second change, I was curious, she promised at least experimentally a simple touchdown of ZFS directly from the installer out.
ZFS is missing in the installer
Although the necessary packages are available on the image for the Ubuntu desktop, the integration in the installer is still missing. The reason is probably disagreement about how ZFS should be integrated in the installer. So it remains to be hoped that this will be redelivered to fulfill this promise. However, nothing is found in the release notes.
Many cosmetics
In addition, Ubuntu 19.10 offers mainly cosmetic changes, such as the revamped theme Yaru Light and nine new wallpapers from the Wallpaper contest. It remains to be seen whether the integration of ZFS, which already exists in the server and cloud editions, will make it into the desktop.
Ubuntu MATE in front
The derivatives once again stand out for Ubuntu MATE with agile development. This is where MATE Desktop 1.22.2 comes in. Compiz and Compton are no longer on the image, but can be installed later. VLC has been replaced with GNOME MPV, now called Celluloid.
Xubuntu 19.10 is based on Xfce 4.14 and does not change much otherwise. Even with Ubuntu Budgie 19.10 hardly anything happens because there is no new release of the Budgie desktop. Kubuntu relies on KDE Plasma 5.16, KDE Applications 19.04.3 and Qt 5.12.4. New on offer here are apps like Latte Dock and Kdenlive.
Ubuntu Studio offers OBS Studio the popular game streaming tool for the first time on the image. In addition, the Ubuntu Studio Controls have been improved and now show the respective state of the audio server Jack. Lubuntu, the offshoot with the LXQt desktop mentioned on the announcement of the beta just another wallpaper contest, the results of which must be added before the release on 17 October. Links to download the different variants are available on the website Get Ubuntu.
