The latest update to the Linux-based Ubuntu operating system — Ubuntu 10.10 — has been officially released at 10:10:10 GMT on October 10th, 2010. Ubuntu 10.10 with the codename “Maverick Meerkat” comes with a lot of new and updated applications and features.
What is new in Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat:
- Incredibly fast booting time.
- The default email application Evolution has been updated and optimized to run much faster compared to the version in Ubuntu 10.04.
- Shotwell has replaced F-Spot as the default photo manager in Ubuntu.
- Desktop social application Gwibber has been updated with support for Twitter’s new authentication service ‘OAuth’, resulting in a more secure way to log in.
- The ‘Sound Menu’ applet has been greatly enhanced with music player controls and ‘now playing’ track metadata retrieved from Rhythmbox.
- New look for the Ubuntu Software Center.
- Lots of updates with new fonts, Ubuntu cloud storage, and new themes.
- And many more minor updates.
But Ubuntu 10.10 still has not updated compatibility with Intel graphics. So laptops with Intel graphics cards still have video issues. This was first reported when Ubuntu Jaunty was released. Until now there have been a few fixes to optimize Ubuntu to work with Intel graphics, but the issue persists. I believe the Ubuntu team is still working on it, but it was not addressed in this release. I don’t know why.
So after Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat was released, what’s next? Well, the next version of Ubuntu would be 11.04. From some sources I got the codename: Natty Narwhal. It is still a blueprint. The blueprint suggests that GNOME Shell isn’t ready for prime time for use in Ubuntu, and probably won’t be by April next year when 11.04 is scheduled for release. Rather than ship with GNOME Shell, the blueprint author Kenny Strawn has proposed that a “desktop-oriented form factor of Unity [should be used] instead of GNOME Shell in the Natty Narwhal.” What makes this interesting is that the idea has been approved for active discussion at UDS by Mark Shuttleworth himself, after he initially said that Unity was for netbooks only earlier this year.