What’s New On Ubuntu Gnome 14.04, Kubuntu 14.04, Xubuntu 14.04 And Lubuntu 14.04

Hello Linux Geeksters. As you may know, Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr LTS has been officially released in all the traditional flavors: Ubuntu GNOME, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Lubuntu, Edubuntu, Ubuntu Kylin, Ubuntu Cloud, Ubuntu Studio and Mythbuntu.

Canonical considers Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr the best Ubuntu system released so far, due to the fact that it got updated packages, a lot of new features and uses one of the newest kernels (an improved version of Kernel 3.13.9), so it supports the latest hardware specs.

And starting with Ubuntu 14.04, all the official flavors are LTS, being supported for three years.

Ubuntu Gnome 14.04 Trusty Tahr LTS:

Ubuntu GNOME 14.04 is powered by GNOME 3.10, despite the fact that GNOME 3.12 has been already released.

For stability reasons, Canonical has preferred GNOME 3.10 over GNOME 3.12. Also, the new GNOME 3.10 packages (gnome-weather, gnome-maps, gnome-photos, and gnome-music) are available via the default repositories.

To install them, just do:

$ sudo apt-get update $ sudo apt-get install gnome-weather gnome-maps gnome-photos gnome-music

Recommended hardware requirements:

1 GHz CPU
1.5 GB of RAM memory
7 GB free space
CD/DVD drive or USB port

An of course, Gnome Classic Session (Gnome Session Fallback) is also available via the default repositories. If you want to old Gnome 2 look and feeling, do:

$ sudo apt-get update $ sudo apt-get install gnome-session-flashback

Kubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr LTS:

Kubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr is using KDE Plasma 4.13 as default, despite the fact that the stable version has been released a day before the official release of Ubuntu 14.04.

Among others, KDE 4.13 comes with a lot of improvements and new features, including: updates for KMail and KNotes, Okular got support for opening multiple PDF files in one instance, via tabs, while a new Play button has been also added, Konsole got support for controlling tab bars with custom stylesheets, KMix got remote control support via DBUS, GStreamer 1.2 has been made the default multimedia library, some interesting apps have been added by default: KDE Control Module Whopsie 14.04, KDE Runtime Language Support 14.04, Kubuntu Driver Manager 14.04, Kubuntu Notification Helper 14.04, and Ubiquity KDE, Muon has reached version 2.2.0, KDEConnect has bee updated to version 0.5.1 and Phonon 4.7.1 has been implemented.

Xubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr LTS:

Also, Xubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr has got a lot of new features, despite the fact that it did not change that much, compared to the previous versions.

Among others, LightDM GTK+ Greeter login/lock screen has been updated, a new panel layout including the Whisker Menu, Window Buttons, a Notification Area, an Indicator Plugin and a Clock has been added, the Suru-style wallpaper has been set by default, while the six wallpapers voted by the community are also available, Whisker Menu is used by default, the Network, Power and Sound indicators have been updated, Xscreensaver has been replaced by the Light Locker, both the Shimmer Project and Numix Project themes have been made available by default, MenuLibre has replaced Alacarte, the XFCE Compositor has been patched to support zoom, Mugshot has been added by default, the removable drives and media get mounted automatically and a number for bugs have been squashed.

Lubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr LTS:

The last but not least of the Ubuntu flavors, Lubuntu 14.04 has been also released, coming with a few changes only. PCManFM 1.2.0 has received some new options, including: folder settings, dual pane view, and menu editing, lxsession-default-apps got a new interface and new icons and themes have been added.

Being based on LXDE, Lubuntu is very lightweight and requires a computer with a CPU newer than Pentium II and more then 128 MB of RAM memory, being a good replacement for the already dead Windows XP.

How to upgrade from Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander, Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal or Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin to Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr:

If you are running an older version of Ubuntu (or official flavour), but you want to get Ubuntu Trusty, the easiest way to do that is via command-line.

All you have to do is install the Update Manager Core:

$ sudo apt-get install update-manager-core

Run the upgrade process and follow the GUI instructions:

$ sudo do-release-upgrade

Download links: