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 account type will be added - guest to organize guest login to the system, without the right to access other users' files and without the ability to save anything on the disk (all files are automatically deleted after the end of the session).
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- “Private” directory has been added to the user's home directory for storing private data. The directory has access rights 0700, prohibiting access to the directory by strangers, and all data inside it is stored in encrypted form.

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

- Graphic utility for creating installation images for drives with USB interface (converter of the installation LiveCD to LiveUSB).

- Reducing the download time of the distribution, the download of many components occurs after the appearance of the login prompt. Especially noticeable increase in download speed when using KDE.

- Redesign of the installer interface.

- Automatic installation mode optimal drivers, enhanced support for printers. Previously implemented support for automatic installation of graphics cards and wireless devices.

- In the file manager Nautilus appeared implementation of tabs.

- A new quick search mode packages in Synaptic, displaying the most relevant results as you type keywords.

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

- Simplify the installation of the Flash plugin (instead of downloading from the Adobe Download Page, offer the deb package) while maintaining the possibility of choosing open alternatives (Gnash, Swfdec).

- Increased installation speed from a DVD disc.

- Optimized menu structure.

- Improved power management tools for laptops.

- Integration of package management tool PackageKit. 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 for package management - yum, apt, conary, box, alpm, smart, pisi, zypp, etc. Formally, PackageKit is an abstract layer for the D-Bus, which allows the user to manage packages through an API independent of the distribution kit and the system architecture.

- Remembering the parameters of the last successful boot (backup of a successfully loaded kernel), allows you to select the Last successful boot option in the bootloader to boot the system after an unsuccessful update or failure. A new option allowed not to save links to old kernel versions in the bootloader configuration.

- Integration of technology DKMS (Dynamic Kernel Module Support), which allows you to automatically rebuild the current kernel modules with device drivers after upgrading the kernel version. The implementation of DKMS will allow you to automatically install drivers that are necessary for the operation of certain hardware components of the current system, but not in the standard Linux kernel. For developers, DKMS provides driver creation tools that do not look at 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 performance of the most important desktop operations.

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

- Package for automated testing of the performance of Ubuntu for mobile platforms (for example, checking whether all applications work with low display resolutions, touch screen and on-screen keyboard).

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

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

- Adding Clamav and Spamassassin support to the basic Ubuntu Server suite, in order to simplify the rapid deployment of a full-featured mail server.

Updated!

- Improved Flash performance.

- Fix more than 600 bugs in X.org.

- Font management tool.