The latest version of Ubuntu is here, bringing a number of performance enhancements, bug fixes, and software updates to the popular Linux-based operating system.

Ubuntu 18.10 Cosmic Cuttlefish is now available for download from Ubuntu.org.

Among other changes, Ubuntu 18.10 uses the Linux 4.18 kernel which brings better support for Thunderbolt 3 and USB Type-C ports, support for AMD Radeon Vega M graphics and better support for the Raspberry Pi 3B and 3B+.

The operating system supports a variety of desktop environments, but the default version of Ubuntu now includes the GNOME 3.30 desktop environment, with a number of performance updates and a new default theme named Yaru (formerly called “Communitheme“).

Ubuntu 18.10 also comes with Firefox 63, LibreOffice 6.12, and a bunch of other updated apps pre-installed. But overall this is a relatively modest updated over Ubuntu 18.04, which is the LTS (long term support) version of the operating system that shipped earlier this year.

There aren’t many major changes to the core apps or features and many of the app updates are available to Ubuntu 18.04 users now that they’re available as Snap packages. So if you don’t need the improved hardware support or performance updates that come with the kernel and desktop environment updates, there might not be that much reason to update — especially since Ubuntu 18.04 will be officially supported through early 2023, while Ubuntu 18.10 only gets 9 months of security updates, ending in mid-2019.

You can read more about changes in Ubuntu 18.10 in the release notes.

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8 replies on “Ubuntu 18.10 released (new default theme, performance improvements)”

  1. I used to be a big fan of Ubuntu based Linux Mint. But I noticed a huge performance difference when I switched to Debian based Linux Mint Debian Edition. Stuff just seems to work better with Debian instead of Ubuntu.

    1. Linux Mint DE tends to need a bit more effort to get everything to work. I like Linux Mint Mate because when I install it everything works out of the box on every PC I install it on. Sure, I may lose some performance, but Linux Mint is lighter than Windows so I am still ahead of the game. If more performance is needed, I can always swap out Mate for LXDE.

  2. I use stock raspbian for raspberry pi 3 and 3B+. I have not encountered a case where I package that I wanted was not available in raspbian. I’m hoping that by 20.04 they will have wayland as the default.

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