Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Focal Fossa
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, codenamed Focal Fossa, is the latest long-term support release and was released on 23 April 2020.[336] Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS was released on 6 August 2020.[337]
As an LTS release, it will provide maintenance updates for 5 years, until April 2025. This release is based on the long-term supported Linux kernel 5.4 which adds support for new hardware, including Intel Comet Lake CPUs and initial Tiger Lake platforms, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 and 855 SoCs as well as AMD Navi 12 and 14 GPUs.[338] It also enables support for the exFAT filesystem and the open-source WireGuard VPN, as well as integration with Livepatch which allows for reboot-free kernel updates. A new Linux Security Module named Lockdown, disabled by default, was introduced in this kernel release and aims to prevent high-privileged root accounts from interacting with the underlying kernel by restricting certain kernel functionality, disallowing execution of arbitrary code and enforcing kernel module signatures among others.[339][340]
An updated toolchain offers glibc 2.31, OpenJDK 11, Python 3.8.2, php 7.4, perl 5.30 and Go 1.13. Python 2 is no longer used and has been moved to the universe repository. This release uses GNOME 3.36 which brings improvements to the user interface including a revamped login screen and refreshed Yaru theme. Improvements have also been made to the system menu and the installation screen, which now shows a graphical drive checking routine.[341] Moreover, the OEM logo is now displayed during boot. The Ubuntu Software Center will now install packages from the Snap Store, while it also adds an option for selecting the desired release channel to install from. This release also ended all support for the 32-bit architecture.[342][343]
The recommended minimum system requirements for the desktop edition of this release are:[344]
- 2 GHz dual-core processor
- 4 GiB of RAM
- 25 GB of hard-drive, USB stick, memory card or external drive space
- VGA capable of 1024x768 screen resolution
- a CD/DVD drive or a USB port for the installer media
- Internet access is desirable, but not essential
Reviewer Joey Sneddon noted in OMG Ubuntu, “tradition dictates that Ubuntu LTS releases play things safer than the interim so-called “short-term releases” by only including features that Ubuntu developers can commit to maintain for at least five years. Focal doesn’t buck that trend. But while this means there are few “omg!” changes in 20.04 there are a number of iterative improvements, usability and user interface refinements, and some much needed updates, spread throughout the whole of the system.”[342]
Dave McKay, writing for HowToGeek, concluded, “Ubuntu 20.04 Is a Great Release. This is a polished, good-looking, and fast release from Canonical.”[345]
Writing in It’s FOSS, Abhishek Prakash wrote, “Since it’s an LTS release, stability is of the upmost importance. Canonical team is not going to try any radical changes here. Ubuntu 18.04 LTS users would surely notice the visual changes and performance improvements but I don’t think you’ll see many changes between 19.10 and 20.04.”[346]
In a review in DistroWatch, Jesse Smith detailed a number of problems found in testing this release, including boot issues, the decision to have Ubuntu Software only offer Snaps, which are few in number, slow, use a lot of memory and do not integrate well. He also criticized the ZFS file system for not working right and the lack of Flatpak support. He concluded, “these issues, along with the slow boot times and spotty wireless network access, gave me a very poor impression of Ubuntu 20.04. This was especially disappointing since just six months ago I had a positive experience with Xubuntu 19.10, which was also running on ZFS. My experience this week was frustrating — slow, buggy, and multiple components felt incomplete. This is, in my subjective opinion, a poor showing and a surprisingly unpolished one considering Canonical plans to support this release for the next five years.”[347]
In a 29 May 2020 review in Full Circle, Adam Hunt concluded, 20.04 was a “virtually flawless release”.[348]
