Ubuntu 18.04 Released
“Bionic Beaver” comes with hardware-focused improvements and Gnome as the default shell.
Canonical has announced the release of Ubuntu 18.04, aka Bionic Beaver. It’s an LTS (long term support) release that’s suitable for enterprise customers and servers. Ubuntu 18.04 LTS will be supported for 5 years for Ubuntu Desktop, Ubuntu Server, and Ubuntu Core.
Ubuntu 18.04 is also the first Ubuntu LTS, after years, that ships with Gnome as the default desktop shell. In recent releases, Canonical has used its own Unity Shell on top of Gnome to gain more influence and control over the user experience.
Ubuntu 18.04 comes with a customized version of Linux kernel 4.15 that adds support for the latest hardware and peripherals. Some of the hardware-focused improvements that this kernel brings to Ubuntu include CPU controller for the cgroup v2 interface, AMD secure memory encryption support, the latest MD driver with software RAID enhancements, and management for systems with SATA Link Power Management.
Java users will continue to use OpenJDK 8, which has moved to universe and will remain available for the life of 18.04. The move is intended to help developers with migration issues for packages, custom applications, or scripts that can’t be built with OpenJDK 10 or 11.
Security is one of the core features of Ubuntu 18.04. In a conference call, Mark Shuttleworth, the founder and CEO of Canonical, said that Ubuntu 18.04 is fully protected against Spectre and Meltdown.
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