Canonical released Ubuntu 17.10 today, which is not an LTS release, so it will only be available for nine months until July 2018.

The code name for Ubuntu 17.10 is Artful Aardvark. As you know, the code name for the Ubuntu distribution is made up of two words, an adjective and an endangered animal. Starting with the fourth version, use them alphabetically, starting with D. This is the only letter left in 26 major releases of Ubnutu (the other is C; the first three are not in alphabetical order, W, H, and B).

Here’s an Artful Aardvark.

A major change

While Ubuntu 17.10 is not a major LTS release, and is described on the Ubuntu website as a prelude to next year’s Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, it does have a few female innovations:

  • This is the first major release to drop 32-bit support, although the official flavor version of 17.10 will continue to do so.
  • This is the first time in seven years that the Main Ubuntu release has abandoned the Unity user interface in favor of GNOME, which is currently the latest version of GNOME 3.26.1.
  • For the first time, the Wayland display server is used by default, while the http://X.Org display server is optional. Of course, if your machine does not support Wayland, it will automatically revert to http://X.Org.
  • Python 2 is no longer installed by default, Python 3 has been updated to 3.6.

We can start with the official promotional video:

The new changes

In addition to the big changes above, Ubuntu 17.10 also has these new changes:

The desktop version

  • The New GNOME Caribou on-screen keyboard replaces the Onboard screen, paving the way for future touch-screen experiences.
  • Same user experience. GNOME has changed, but everything from the desktop layout to keyboard shortcuts remains the same, thanks to those themes and extensions.
  • The familiar Dock. The Dock has been a feature of Ubuntu distributions since 11.04, and in this release it continues to be there, unchanged – although now it can be moved to the left, right and bottom at will.
  • Ubuntu 17.10 uses the Linux kernel 4.13.
  • Swap partitions are now swap files, which make it easy to scale and install on a variety of machines.
  • Since the GNOME desktop system is used by default, GDM also replaces LightDM as the default display manager. The login screen now uses virtual terminal 1 instead of virtual terminal 7.
  • For the first time in seven years, window control buttons have moved from left to right.
  • Driverless printing now supports IPP Everywhere, Apple AirPrint, Wi-Fi Direct, and Mopria devices.
  • The Settings app has been redesigned.
  • “System Log” is replaced with “Log”, which is the log viewer from Systemd Journal.
  • Ubuntu GNOME has stopped updating the official flavor version because Ubuntu now uses GNOME.
  • But if you want to try GNOME further upstream, you can install GnOMe-Session and select GNOME from the login screen. If you prefer, you can also install the Vanilla – Gnome-Desktop base package to get more gnOME core applications.

The server version

  • Qemu has been updated from 2.8 to 2.10. Note that mirror locking is added and enabled by default, which is generally more secure, but can be problematic in some older scenarios.
  • Libvirt has been updated to 3.6.
  • DPDK has been updated to the latest stable version 17.05.2, which makes it available for integration with Open vSwitch 2.8. Open vSwitch has been updated to 2.8. Note that yes, from 2.7 onwards, you will need to specify DPDK devices via dPDk-devargs.
  • The DNS server Bind9 update includes the new Key Signing Key (KSK) released on July 11, 2017, which will be used to sign the root zone Key used to sign the actual root zone from October 11, 2017. Existing Bind 9 will automatically update its anchor key according to RFC 5011, while newly installed Bind 9 after the October 11, 2017 rollback event will require this package or manually update the key.

For more changes, see the release announcement.

download

  • Ubuntu desktop and server version of http://releases.ubuntu.com/17.10/
  • Other Ubuntu server http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/releases/17.10/release/ architecture
  • Ubuntu cloud images at http://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/daily/server/artful/current/
  • Ubuntu Netboot http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/netboot/17.10/
  • Kubuntu http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/releases/17.10/release/
  • A nimble http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/lubuntu/releases/17.10/release/
  • Ubuntu Budgie http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-budgie/releases/17.10/release/
  • Optimal kirin http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntukylin/releases/17.10/release/
  • Ubuntu MATE https://ubuntu-mate.org/download/
  • Ubuntu Studio http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntustudio/releases/17.10/release/
  • Still, http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/xubuntu/releases/17.10/release/

The upgrade from 17.04

Ubuntu 16.04 LTS is recommended if you want to use the long term support version. If you are using Ubuntu 17.04, you can upgrade to the latest version by following these steps.

Desktop System upgrade:

  • Open Software and Updates in system Settings.
  • Select the Update TAB.
  • Set the drop-down menu “Remind me when there’s a new Ubuntu version” to “Any new version.”
  • Press Alt+F2 and enter update-manager -c in the COMMAND line window.
  • The Update manager will open and prompt you “new release 17.10 is available.” If it doesn’t work, you can run /usr/lib/ubuntu-release-upgrader/check-new-release-gtk.
  • Click “Upgrade” and follow the on-screen prompts.

Server system upgrade:

  • If not, install the update-manager-core package first.
  • Make sure that Prompt in /etc/update-manager-release-upgrades is set to normal.
  • Run sudo do-release-upgrade from the command line to start the upgrade manager.
  • Follow the on-screen prompts.