Kubuntu 20.04 LTS has already been released, know what's new

Following the part of the releases of the different flavors of the new version of Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Focal Fossa, in this article it's time to talk about Kubuntu 20.04 LTS which is one of the official Ubuntu flavors and in which a series of changes are included.

As many of you will know Kubuntu is one of the official Ubuntu flavors that unlike the main version that makes use of the Gnome desktop environment, Kubuntu uses the KDE desktop environment.

What's new in Kubuntu 20.04 LTS Focal Fossa?

Among the novelties that stand out of this new version of Kubuntu 20.04 LTS mostly correspond to Ubuntu 20.04 LTS as they are:

• The inclusion of version 5.4 of the Linux Kernel along with all the news and features of this version.
• The use of the LZ4 algorithm to compress the kernel and the initial boot image initramf, reducing the startup time due to faster decompression of data.
• The ability to use ZFS to install on the root partition.
• That the distribution will have 5 years of support, which means that it is compatible until 2025, while for companies, Ubuntu 20.04 LTS will be compatible for 10 years as an “extended maintenance version” (ESM).
• There is no 32-bit version, only support is maintained for packages that remain only in 32-bit form or require 32-bit libraries, plus compilation and delivery of a separate set of 32-bit packages with libraries is provided. .
• Among other things.

Of the characteristics that differ Ubuntu 20.04 LTS in the foreground es the desktop environment, which in Kubuntu we can find the new version of KDE Plasma 5.18 LTS which means that this version of the desktop environment will be updateda and keepa by KDE contributors for the next two years.

Regarding the news of this version highlights the complete redesign of the notification system, integration with browsers, redesign of system settings, improved support for GTK applications (using color schemes, supporting global menus, etc.), improved management of multiple monitor configurations, support for Flatpak “portals” for integration with the desktop and access to settings, night lighting mode and tools to manage devices with a Thunderbolt interface.

Also stands out the semoji elector which is launched by pressing the Meta key (Windows) and the period key (.) and will appear. On the part of the parcel we can find that KDE Applications included 19.12.3 and Qt 5.12.5 frame.

Another important change that stands out from this new version of Kubuntu 20.04 is that now PBy default, the Elisa 19.12.3 music player is used, which replaced Cantata.

latte-dock was updated to the version 0.9.10, the new version of KDEConnect 1.4.0 is included, Krita was updated to version 4.2.9, Kdevelop 5.5.0. On the other hand, it is mentioned that the support for the KDE4 and Qt4 applications was discontinued.

And what else an experimental session based on Wayland was proposed (After installing the plasma-workspace-wayland package, the optional item "Plasma (Wayland)" appears on the login screen).

Finally if you are interested in knowing more about it Regarding this new version of Kubuntu 20.04 LTS, you can download the system image from its official website and install it on your computer or in a virtual machine to get to know everything that this new LTS version of the system offers in depth.

Download and install Kubuntu 20.04 LTS

For those interested in being able to download this new version of Kubuntu 20.04 LTS, they will be able to do it from the Ubuntu repositories, the link is this. Since the links to download the new version have not yet been updated on the official Kubuntu page, it is best to open a terminal and type the command «sudo do-release-upgrade». If the new version does not appear, it can be updated by installing "update-manager" and using the command "update-manager -c -d".

It is important to mention that if you experience a low speed in the download of the system image, you may choose to download it via torrent, since it is much faster.

To save the system image you can make use of Etcher.