Discover the latest and greatest features in our most recent Mantic Minotaur Ubuntu release.
Fast, friendly and fun, introducing the new App Center.
The standout new feature of Ubuntu Desktop 23.10 has to be the new App Center, which replaces Ubuntu Software for users going forward. Combined with the new installer, these two apps give us a much deeper level of ownership of the first time user experience on Ubuntu Desktop and a strong base to iterate on going forward.
Built in Flutter and leveraging the metadata available with snap packages, this first release provides a fast and intuitive new way to manage both deb and snap packages on your machine. We also created a new ratings service, built in Rust. By combining user ratings with snap metadata we’re excited to be able to offer more dynamic ways to discover applications in future updates, including new categories like ‘most popular’ and ‘recently updated’.
Freeing firmware updates.
A related new application is the firmware updater. Previously Ubuntu Software would be responsible for checking for new firmware updates, but to do so it needed to run permanently in the background, impacting system performance. By splitting out firmware management from the App Center we’ve reduced that resource overhead with a much lighter weight background process and a separate, single purpose GUI for managing hardware-related updates.
Augmenting the administrator experience.
One of the unique benefits of Ubuntu is how it delivers the same secure, stable OS for home users and hobbyists that it does to high-end research and development projects.
The ability to administer Ubuntu Desktop at scale is critical to providing that long-term value to those building their skills and it’s important to ensure that sysadmins have the tools and controls to do their job simply and securely.
In Ubuntu Desktop 23.10 we’ve provided new tools for administrators as part of Ubuntu Pro, which are available to everyone free of charge on up to five machines. There first is a new `pro enable landscape` command that makes it easier to quickly enrol devices to Canonical’s fleet management tool. The second is a new addition to ADsys, the Active Directory GPO client, that improves networking configuration with certificate auto-enrollment so those managing mixed Ubuntu and Windows estate can further unify their workflows.
