Ubuntu 23.04 Final is out with these changes

Canonical released the Ubuntu 23.04 operating system (codenamed Lunar Lobster) today. Ubuntu 23.04 is based on the Linux kernel 6.2 as well as the recently released GNOME 44 desktop environment.

The new version of Ubuntu will be supported for nine months. Canonical suggests that users who require longer support stay on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, which is supported for 5 years.

New ISO images are already available on the official Ubuntu Releases server. Interested users may download desktop and server images from the site. The main desktop release has a size of 4.6 gigabytes.

Existing installations of Ubuntu can be upgraded to version 23.04, provided that Ubuntu 22.04 or 20.04 is in use. Earlier releases may need to be upgraded twice, as a direct upgrade path to Ubuntu 23.04 is not available. It is recommended to back up data before running the update operation.

Installations can be upgraded from the command line or by using the Update Tool. On most systems, running the command sudo do-release-upgrade -d should start the upgrade process to Ubuntu 23.04.

Tip: you can check out our review of Ubuntu 23.04 Beta for additional information.

Ubuntu 23.04: the changes

One of the main changes of Ubuntu 23.04 is the new Ubuntu Desktop installer that has been baked into the distribution. It is based on Flutter now, and one of the advantages of it is that the minimal install is now faster than the full install, which was not the case in the old installer.

Canonical notes that the old installer, called legacy installer, is still available, It should be used if issues are experienced when using the new installer.

The new installer improves Enterprise deployment and customization at scale, according to Canonical.  Another Enterprise-related feature in Ubuntu 23.04 is expanded login management with Azure Active Directory.

Canonical claims that Ubuntu 23.04 is the only Linux distribution that provides native user authentication with Azure Active Directory. In other words, Microsoft 365 Enterprise users may authenticate using their Microsoft 365 or Azure credentials on Ubuntu Desktops. IT administrators may want to evaluate the aad-auth feature and provide feedback to Canonical, as it will be backported to Ubuntu 22.04 LTS later this year.

“Active Directory (AD) Integration is one of the most popular Ubuntu Desktop enterprise features and Ubuntu Desktop 22.04 LTS brought Active Directory integration to the next level through ADsys 28. This client enables full Group Policy support, privilege escalation and remote script executions.

In Ubuntu 23.04 we’ve added support for enterprise proxy, app confinement and network shares to further expand its functionality before backporting them to Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and Ubuntu 20.04 LTS later this year.”

Here is a quick overview of other important changes in Ubuntu 23.04:

Linux kernel 6.2 with performance boost for older Intel Skylake CPUs, support for Intel Arc graphics and Sony DualShock 4 controllers, and more.
GNOME 44.
Toolchain upgrades, e.g., Python 3.11, Ruby 3.1 or OpenJDK v17.
Desktop application updates, e.g., Firefox 111, LibreOffice 7.5.2 or Thunderbird 102.10.

Interested users and system administrators may check out the full changelog here. The section on known issues may be of special interest.

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