Ubuntu 17.04

It’s been six months since the Yakkety Yak escaped the confines of the build system, which means it’s now time for the Zesty Zapus to roam free.

Spring is here, and that can mean only one thing. Actually it could mean one of many things – hayfever, youthful romances  blossoming in the quad, chthonic Walpurgisnacht celebrations on the hill – but those inconveniences aside, what this springtime is really all about is the new Ubuntu release, numbered and named 17.04 and Zesty Zapus respectively. We’ve scrambled to get it onto our coverdisc, moving press deadlines right down to the wire, pleading with Polish disc replicators and forcing this writer to stay up late drinking gallons of coffee.

While the non-LTS releases aren’t recommended for production systems, they are thoroughly tested and great for showing the direction next year’s LTS will take. Users of previous releases will find the usual refresh of packages and fully updated kernel. But with this release there’s also the sense of a growing undercurrent towards new technologies, namely Snaps (the atomic packaging format) and Unity 8 (see News on page 7 for where this mess is going). They are not mandatory (and in the case of the latter not really ready, as we’ll see) but early adopters will enjoy seeing the potential of these new tools. While the days of deals with advertisers and groundbreaking UI changes (Ha!–Ed) are thankfully behind us, there’s much to explore in 17.04, and in this feature we do just that. You’ll find an overview of what’s changed and what hasn’t, tips to improve the default install, plus we’ll delve under the hood to show you some hardcore tweaks. So intrepid reader, read on!

What does the Zapus bring?