What to expect from Ubuntu 8.10?

In October, a new version of Linux Ubuntu 8.10 will be released. But what can we expect from the Fearless Goat?

- Improved interface.

- New network manager. The updated tool will simplify work in 3G networks, as well as improved ability to configure PPP and PPPOE connections.

- A new type of accounts will be added - guest for organizing a guest login into the system, without the right to access files of other users and without the ability to save anything to disk (all files are automatically deleted after the session is completed).

- The “Private” directory has been added to the user's home directory, designed to store private data. The directory has 0700 access rights prohibiting unauthorized access to the directory, and all data inside it is stored in encrypted form.

- A new tool for cleaning garbage remaining after updating the distribution to a new release (for example, unused packages and old Linux kernels).

- A graphical utility for creating installation images for drives with a USB interface (LiveCD to LiveUSB installation converter).

- Reducing the distribution boot time, loading many components occurs after the login prompt appears. Particularly noticeable increase in download speed when using KDE.

- Redesign of the installer interface.

- The mode of automatic installation of optimal drivers, expanded support for printers. Earlier, auto-installation support was implemented for graphic cards and wireless devices.

- The implementation of tabs has appeared in the Nautilus file manager.

- New Synaptic package quick search mode that displays the most relevant results as you type keywords.

- Integration of dmraid, to support RAID partitions created in BIOS Software RAID / FakeRAID.

- Simplification of the installation of the Flash plugin (instead of downloading from the Adobe Download Page offer a deb package) while maintaining the ability to select open alternatives (Gnash, Swfdec).

- Increased system installation speed from DVD disc.

- Optimized menu structure.

- Improved power management features for laptops.

- Integration of PackageKit package management tool. The main goal of the PackageKit project is to create a single, unified shell for installing and updating packages for all Linux distributions. PackageKit uses standard tools to manage packages - yum, apt, conary, box, alpm, smart, pisi, zypp, etc. Formally, PackageKit is an abstract layer for D-Bus, which allows the user to manage packages through an API that is independent of the distribution and system architecture.

- Remembering the parameters of the last successful boot (backing up the successfully loaded kernel), allows selecting the “Last successful boot” item in the bootloader to boot the system after an unsuccessful update or failure. A new option made it possible not to save links to old kernel versions in the bootloader configuration.

- Integration of DKMS technology (Dynamic Kernel Module Support), which allows you to automatically rebuild the current kernel modules with device drivers after updating the kernel version. The introduction of DKMS will automatically install drivers that are necessary for the operation of certain hardware components of the current system, but are absent in the standard Linux kernel. For developers, DKMS provides a means of creating drivers without regard to the features of various versions of the Linux kernel.

- Script and web-interface for creating images of virtual machines.

- ATK framework for automated testing of the most important desktop operations.

- Readiness for a typical installation of Ubuntu Server to work as an LDAP server, without additional manual manipulations. Switching to configuration storage via “cn = config” (introduced in OpenLDAP 2.3) instead of slapd.conf.

- A package for automated Ubuntu health testing for mobile platforms (for example, checking whether all applications are functional with low display resolutions, touch screen and on-screen keyboard).

- For the 20-30 most popular packages, it is planned to create separate web pages on which to show the status of errors and other useful information.

- For Linux kernels used on LiveCD, use the compcache patch, which saves RAM by compressing the data addressed to the swap partition.

- Adding support for Clamav and Spamassassin to the base Ubuntu Server suite, in order to simplify the quick deployment of a fully functional mail server.

Updated!

- Improved Flash performance.

- Fix more than 600 bugs in X.org.

- Font management tool.