Ubuntu 24.04 LTS Review: solid, unexciting release (+all flavors)

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Timecodes:
00:00 Intro
00:44 Sponsor: SquareSpace
01:42 Installer
04:00 GNOME 46 changes
08:29 Under the hood
11:13 Ubuntu Flavors
13:50 Parting Thoughts
14:58 Sponsor: Tuxedo Computers
16:05 Support the channel

#ubuntu #ubuntu24.04 #linuxdistro #linuxdesktop

The main event in Ubuntu 24.04 is GNOME 46, it you improved notifications, that can be expanded, or collapsed, and they'll now show a little symbolic icon next to their title. More interesting, you get experimental support for variable refresh rate. It's not enabled by default, you'll need to use dconf to turn it on.

Fractional scaling also got better, with fonts now looking less blurry and properly aligned when using fractional scaling, and you can now login to a GNOME user through RDP, instead of having to remote into a session where someone was already logged in.

Nautilus, the file manager, now finally lets you edit the file path by clicking on the path bar, it will also search faster, and through the entire filesystem by default now, file transfers are now moved to the sidebar, and you can also change a folder's icon from the properties panel of that folder. Finally, you also get a new option to change how dates are displayed.

The main system Settings changed a bit as well, with a new "system" page, default apps have been merged into the main "apps" settings page, which also includes the default actions you can configure when you insert removable media.

The mouse and touchpad settings now let you configure how you trigger the right click, and there's a new mouse test page to make sure these settings work for you. You can also turn off the touchpad when typing.

The GNOME Online accounts also received some love for its backend: it now uses the default browser for authentication into accounts. You can also add a WebDAV account, or a Microsoft Personal Account as well, which will give you access to your OneDrive storage straight from Nautilus.

Ubuntu 24.04 comes with the kernel 6.8, the latest available right now. The main thing in here is the new P state drivers, meaning your Intel CPUs will be able to hit their advertised boost speeds, but also that using it on laptops should yield better batter life, whether you have an AMD or Intel CPU, especially since Ubuntu 24.04 now uses better power profiles based on these new P State drivers.

Ubuntu also moves to Netplan, a network management tool that shouldn't change anything for regular users that just connect to wifi, but will definitely improve the life of people who have to create complex network configurations.

For gamers, you're also getting a better experience here: the virtual memory mapping limit was increased by a factor of 16 in 24.04, meaning that games that could crash at launch, or after a few hours of play time will no longer do so, at least if the crash was related to them trying to grab a lot of memory. It's a change that Arch also recently made.

Another interesting change is that all services that are affected by a library update will automatically be restarted, to ensure that these services will be running with the latest security fixes apps one, there'slied. It's more important for servers than desktops, but it's a good change, that you can disable if you don't like it.