Lenovo Offering anUbuntu 20.04 Option

Although 2020 has been a challenging year on so many levels, for the Linux desktop it's actually been quite good. With manufacturers left and right offering their take on laptops and desktops preinstalled with one flavor or Linux or another, the market is truly burgeoning for the open source platform.

Nowhere is that more evident than with Lenovo. Back in June, Lenovo began certifying a large number of its desktops and laptops for Linux. Not one to rest on reputation, Lenovo has decided to one-up itself by launching Linux-ready ThinkPad and ThinkStation hardware preinstalled with Ubuntu. This new launch includes nearly 30 Ubuntu systems for the manufacturer. Included with that lineup are 13 ThinkStation and ThinkPad P series and 14 ThinkPad T, X, X1, and L series laptops.

All but one of the Lenovo devices will ship with Ubuntu 20.04 (the one exception being the L series, which ships with Ubuntu 18.04).

Igor Bergman, vice president of PCSD Software & Cloud at Lenovo, said, "Lenovo's vision of enabling smarter technology for all really does mean 'for all'." He continues, "This is why we have taken this next step to offer Linux-ready devices right out of the box."

These Ubuntu-powered devices will start rolling out in September and continue rolling out in phases through 2021.

Read the official announcement at https://news.lenovo.com/pressroom/press-releases/lenovo-launches-linux-ready-thinkpad-and-thinkstation-pcs-preinstalled-with-ubuntu/.

Linux deepin 20 Released

Fans of elegant desktops rejoice, deepin 20 has been released. But this new release isn't just about refreshing the most beautiful desktop environment on the market, it also has a really nifty trick up its sleeve that other distributions might consider taking advantage of.

Deepin 20 is built upon Debian 10.5 (aka "Buster") and nearly every element of the user interface was improved: icons, animations, multitask viewer, windows, and dialogs. Every element of the desktop has been polished. You'll find support for light and dark themes, color temperature settings, transparency adjustments, and an improved power/battery settings tools.

But the best feature found in deepin 20 is the choice of kernels during installation. This new option allows users to select the kernel they want installed for the desktop. You can either opt for an LTS kernel or the 5.7 series. The one caveat to this is that the 5.7 series has already reached its end of life (EOL). So chances are pretty good you will want to go with the LTS kernel. Hopefully, the deepin developers plan on updating this so that the bleeding edge option at install will be capable of choosing a stable kernel that hasn't reached EOL.

Finally, for NVidia users, the proprietary drivers are now working out of the box.

Even with that EOL question looming over the 5.7 kernel, deepin 20 is even more beautiful and polished than ever.

Grab your copy of deepin 20 and enjoy (https://www.deepin.org/en/download/).

Zorin OS 15.3 Now Available

Zorin OS is one of those distributions that users love, because it offers tons of options. Users can work with a typical Linux desktop, one that resembles Windows, or a desktop that is decidedly very macOS-like. No matter which interface you use, it's still very much Linux underneath.

With the latest release of Zorin OS, you'll find new versions of software, as well as Zorin Connect, which allows you to easily connect your Android phone to the desktop. The latest version of Zorin Connect improves the auto search for devices on trusted WiFi networks, adds quick buttons to send files and clipboard contents, supports the latest Android release, and includes performance and stability enhancements. Zorin OS 15. 3 also includes the latest security patches for every piece of included software.

The one caveat to the included software is that the installed LibreOffice version is 6.4.6. If you want to upgrade to the latest version (7.0.1.2, as of this writing), you'll have to do that manually.

Zorin OS 15.3 is powered by the Linux 5.4 kernel, which brings support for more hardware (such as Intel's 11th generation CPUs and the upcoming AMD CPUs and GPUs). Zorin 15.3 is based on Ubuntu 18.04.5 and will be supported until April 2023.

Unfortunately, Zorin has yet to release their much-anticipated Zorin Grid (https://zorinos.com/grid/) admin tool. Hopefully that will come with the next major release.

Get your copy of Zorin OS 15.3 from the official download page (https://zorinos.com/download/).