Ubuntu 23.10 release features (from Canonical)

[Jason]

Canonical recently released Ubuntu 23.10 with a list of changes. New Gnome version, default minimal install, new AppCenter and more.

https://ubuntu.com/blog/ubuntu-desktop-23-10-mantic-minotaur-deep-dive

I'm wondering if Fox has given it a try yet. He's our resident Ubuntu guy.

[fox]

Of course I have; I'm posting on it now. I use it on a 2019 iMac which has 3 systems on it: the latest Ubuntu, Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and MacOS. I installed it by upgrading from the previous version (23.04); the upgrade went smoothly as they always do in Ubuntu. To be honest, I don't notice much in the way of change; just newer versions of what was there before. No complaints though; it works well.

When I turn on the computer, I get my choice of operating systems through a piece of software called Refind. It shows the icons of the systems available and defaults to the last one booted into. Ubuntu 23.10 is my daily driver. I boot into the others mostly to keep them up to date. Ubuntu 20.04 is there as a just-in-case, but in all the years I have been using Ubuntu I have never had to revert to the LTS version.

I also have the latest Mint on an external drive. It also works very well on my iMac. I boot into it periodically to update the software. I have always kept an operating version of Mint on my iMac ever since I used a 2015 iMac, which for some reason took 4 minutes to boot into Ubuntu but 30 seconds to boot into Mint. I used Mint as my active distro until I upgraded the iMac to my current version, which never had the Ubuntu booting problem.

[Jason]

Thanks for letting us know about your experience, Fox. I'm guessing that you haven't used the AppCenter yet since you upgraded from the previous version. Let us know what you think if you do use it later.

The major reason for using an LTS version is so that you don't have to upgrade, not because the point releases aren't stable. So I'm not surprised that you haven't had to revert although I'm impressed that it's gone through so many upgrades and keeps on ticking.

The LTS release is for those who don't want to upgrade the OS every six months because it's a hassle or could break mission-critical software. With the LTS version I'm using on our web server, I only have to upgrade it every 10 years now. It's normally every five years but Ubuntu has an extended service that is free for a limited number of computers. I do it because I'm lazy.

[buster]

"I get my choice of operating systems through a piece of software called Refind."

When I found it the name was rEFInd. And if understand correctly it is installed in front of all the distros. Would it be difficult to uninstall if you wished?

[fox]

Buster, you are correct that it is technically spelled "rEFInd". It is not difficult to uninstall; instructions are on the website. FYI, I have never used it on a Windows computer or with Windows installed on a Mac. I think it is intended specifically for Macs, but I could be wrong.

The other thing to note is that rEFInd is installed on the Mac side, not on the distro side, so you only install it in one place. Unfortunately, every time you upgrade the Mac OS, you have to reinstall rEFInd. Not a big deal, though. It really does make it easy to boot into the OS you want when you start up the computer and the icons it installs on the startup screen are very nice aesthetically. They are specific to the distro.

[Jason]

Buster, you are correct that it is technically spelled "rEFInd". It is not difficult to uninstall; instructions are on the website. FYI, I have never used it on a Windows computer or with Windows installed on a Mac. I think it is intended specifically for Macs, but I could be wrong.

From what I read on their website, it's OS-independent. It's an EFI boot manager so it starts before the OS. It looks like it's easiest to install it using the version for Mac or Linux but you can do it Windows, too. I've never tried it though so I can't say how easy it is to install using Windows.

From rEFInd's website, under Platform Support, it says,

Installation is best done via a script that runs in macOS and Linux. (Linux packages may run the install script automatically.) Manual installation procedures for Linux, macOS, and Windows exist, too. An option to install rEFInd from a rEFInd USB flash drive or optical disc also exists. See the Installing and Uninstalling rEFInd page for details.

[fox]

Unlike the Mac, there isn't a compelling reason to install rEFInd in Windows. In Windows, Grub works well in automatically setting up the boot screen, allowing one to choose which OS to boot into. Not so on the Mac. If I recall correctly, Grub does identify the Mac OS and gives one an option to boot into it, but selecting that option doesn't work. rEFInd does set that up correctly and it also makes the boot screen look nice by the use of icons to indicate the OSes available. The only possible reason I can see in using rEFInd on a Windows computer is to make the boot screen look nicer. I do have a PC (my Dell xps13), and I just use Grub for the boot screen; although visually enhanced with Grub Customizer.

[Jason]

I wasn't referring to installing it if you just have Windows, just that you could install it from within Windows, i.e. it's not dependent on Linux or Mac. The website appears to say it was to have a full-featured way of configuring the EFI setup, not just boot, but I may have misread the details.

As you point out though, it sounds like it's a necessity for dual-booting with a Mac and Linux any may have limited use for other OSes.