April 23 held a release of Ubuntu version 20.04, codenamed Focal Fossa, which is the next release of Ubuntu for long-term support (LTS) and is a continuation of Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, released in 2018.A little about the code name. The word “Focal” means “the central point” or “the most important part”, that is, it is associated with the concept of focus, the center of any properties, phenomena, events, and “Fossa” has the root “FOSS” (Free and Open-Source Software - free and open source software), and in the tradition of naming versions of Ubuntu with animal names, Fossa is the largest predatory mammal of the wyverder family from the island of Madagascar.Developers position Ubuntu 20.04 as an important and successful update with support over the next 5 years for desktop computers and servers.
Ubuntu 20.04 was the logical continuation of Ubuntu 19.04 “Disco Dingo” and Ubuntu 19.10 “Eoan Ermine”. In desktop versions, following the latest trends, a dark theme has appeared. So in Ubuntu 20.04 there are three variations of the standard Yaru theme:The Amazon app has also been uninstalled. Ubuntu 20.04 uses the latest GNOME 3.36 as the default graphical shell .Key changes
Ubuntu 20.04 is based on the 5.4 kernel, which was released on November 24, 2019. In this version, several important innovations were implemented, which we will discuss below.lz4
Canonical engineers tested various compression algorithms for the kernel and the initial boot image initramfs, trying to find a compromise between the best compression (smaller file size) and decompression time. The lossless compression algorithm lz4 showed the most noticeable results and was added to Ubuntu 19.10, which allowed it to reduce boot time compared to previous releases (Ubuntu 18.04 and 19.04). The same algorithm will remain in Ubuntu 20.04.Linux Lockdown Kernel
The Lockdown function enhances the security of the Linux kernel by restricting access to functions that can allow arbitrary code to run through code provided by user processes. Simply put, even the root superuser account cannot change the kernel code. This allows you to reduce the damage from a potential attack, even when the root account is compromised. Thus, the overall security of the operating system is also increased.exFAT
The Microsoft FAT file system does not allow transferring files larger than 4 GB. To overcome this limitation, Microsoft created the exFAT file system (from the English Extended FAT - “extended FAT”). Now you can format, for example, a USB drive into exFAT using the built -in exFAT file system support .Wireguard
Although Ubuntu 20.04 will not use the 5.6 kernel, at least right away, it already uses WireGuard backport in the 5.4 kernel. WireGuard is a new word in the VPN industry , so the inclusion of WireGuard in the kernel now gives Ubuntu 20.04 an advantage in the cloud.Fixed a bug with CFS quotas and now multithreaded applications can run faster. A driver has been added that allows working with temperature and voltage sensors of the Ryzen line of processors.All this is far from all the innovations that appeared in the 5.4 kernel. Detailed reviews can be found on the kernelnewbies.org resource (in English) and on the OpenNET forum (in Russian).Using Kubernetes
Canonical implemented in Ubuntu 20.04 full support for Kubernetes 1.18 with support for Charmed Kubernetes , MicroK8s and kubeadm .Install Kubectl on Ubuntu 20.04:# snap install kubectl --classic
kubectl 1.18.0 from Canonical âś“ installed
Using SNAP
Canonical continues to promote the universal package format - snap. This is even more apparent in the Ubuntu 20.04 release. If you try to run a program that is not installed, then first of all it will be offered to install using:# snap install <package>
Improved ZFS Support
Although Linus Torvalds may not like ZFS , it is still a popular file system and experimental support has been added with Ubuntu 19.10.It is convenient enough and stable for data storage, the same home archive or server storage at work (out of the box can do more than the same LVM). ZFS supports partition sizes up to 256 quadrillion Zettabytes (hence the letter “Z” in the name) and can process files up to 16 Exabytes in size.ZFS performs data integrity monitoring based on how it is placed on disk. The copy function during recording ensures that the data used is not overwritten. Instead, new information is written to a new block, and file system metadata is updated to point to it. ZFS allows you to create snapshots (snapshots of the file system) that track changes made to the file system and exchange data with it to save disk space.ZFS assigns a checksum to each file on the disk and constantly checks its status against it. If she finds that the file is damaged, she will try to automatically restore it. A separate item has appeared in the Ubuntu installer that allows you to use ZFS. You can read more about the history of ZFS and its features on the It's FOSS blog .Goodbye Python 2.X
The third version of Python was introduced back in 2008, but even 12 years was not enough to adapt Python 2 projects to it.Back in Ubuntu 15.10, an attempt was made to abandon Python 2, but its support continued. And now, on April 20, 2020, Python 2.7.18 was released , which is the last release of the Python 2 branch. There will be no more updates for it.Ubuntu 20.04 no longer supports Python 2 and uses Python 3.8 as the default version of Python. Unfortunately, there are many projects running Python 2 in the world, and for them, the transition to Ubuntu 20.04 can be painful.You can put the latest version of Python 2 in one command:# apt install python2.7
In addition to Python 3.8, developers can appreciate the updated toolkit, which includes:- MySQL 8,
- glibc 2.31,
- OpenJDK 11,
- PHP 7.4,
- Perl 5.30,
- Golang 1.14.
Goodbye 32 bits
For several years, Ubuntu has not provided ISO images for 32-bit computers. Now existing users of 32-bit versions of Ubuntu can upgrade to Ubuntu 18.04, but they will not be able to upgrade to Ubuntu 20.04. That is, if you are currently using 32-bit Ubuntu 18.04, you can stay with it until April 2023.How to upgrade
Upgrading to Ubuntu 20.04 from previous versions is simple as simple as running the following commands:# sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
# sudo do-release-upgrade
We are pleased to announce that Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa) is already available as an image for virtual machines in our Cloud platform . Create your own virtual IT infrastructure using the latest software!
UPD: Ubuntu 19.10 users will be able to upgrade to 20.04 now, and Ubuntu 18.04 users will be able to upgrade after the release of 20.04.1, the release of which is scheduled for July 23, 2020.