Ubuntu 20.10

The Groovy Gorilla is out. Jonni Bidwell wonders if he might finally meet his spirit animal, or if he’ll be maimed.

- Jonni Bidwell

SPECS

Minimum Processor: 2GHz

RAM: 4GB

Disk space: 25GB disk space

IN BRIEF

Probably the world’s most popular Linux distribution. Now with a smoother Gnome desktop and even more Snaps. See also: Linux Mint, Pop!_OS, elementary OS, Solus OS.

We really enjoyed the last Ubuntu release, and indeed the slew of Ubuntu-derivatives (such as Mint and Pop!_OS) that have been rebased on 20.04. We’re still waiting patiently for elementary OS 6 though…

For those unfamiliar with Ubuntu’s release cycle, this is the first of three interim, short-term release (STR) versions that Canonical and the community will use to shape the next LTS (long-term support) release in 2022. If you’re looking for stability and would rather nothing broke, we’d strongly advise you to stick with the LTS. On the other hand, if you want to see newer software, Gnome improvements and the occasional new and exciting bug, then the Groovy Gorilla is for you. It’s supported for nine months, by which time the next STR (21.04) will be ready.

Consistency via snaps

Snap, Canonical’s packaging format and sandboxing mechanism, continues to be the default offering for applications in the