Distro News - Ubuntu 20.04 'Focal Fossa', Ubuntu MATE and other flavours released

I'm just checking the release, and, omg, it looks and works great, it can be my next daily driver, let's see!

I'm running Ubuntu Mate 20.04 on several machines and Ubuntu Server 20.04 on a raspberry pi and a VPS. It is a super release and I can't thank Martin Wimpress and the team highly enough.

An amazing release, I installed it immediately after the release, it's so stylish and runs so smooth. Everything is working great.

There's 2 "downsides" (which isn't Ubuntu's fault):

1- some trivial thing needs a extension, as a easier way to change the audio output for example.

2- gaming on wayland is curious, it shows more tearing than X when isn't in sync, but it looks and feels better (somehow), I need to do more tests.

I'm very excited with this release.


Last edited by fagnerln on 23 April 2020 at 8:31 pm UTC

It actually looks like a meaningful improvement in most aspects; there were many important updates to hardware support and big applications since 18.04, which I mostly had to backport or install in some way (newer mesa fixed several games, newer KDE had some nice features and look for those of us that use Kubuntu, newer libre office had a few important features, and I expect the version of wine in their repositories will be less awful). Plus generally looking nice and bugfixes, as always.

But the way they keep trying to push snaps almost makes me want to not update at all, or switch distros permanently. I used to assume that snaps weren't that bad, but after actually having more contact with them I was shocked by how horrible it is. First, snaps had ridiculously bad performance problems; so it was not even a "non-technical users wouldn't even notice" - people did notice, for example how ridiculously slow chromium was. Second, as a system it is way too closed and centralized, which is particularly bad for something that is intended to work across distros (other distros can't just host their own snap repositories, the backend isn't FOSS, and it is entirely developed by Canonical without any cooperation with other distros). And third, Canonical are actively pushing for it to replace other alternatives, which means we can't even ignore it if we don't like it.

I'll wait a bit anyway and probably will update to 20.04 if it isn't too obnoxious to avoid snaps for most things, or if at least it works well. But frankly, I'm already looking to jump boat from Kubuntu, and particularly for something better to recommend for newbies.

It's been 2 weeks, approximately, that I've been running Ubuntu 20.04 on my main gaming rig... I just ignored Snap stuff and installed everything I need from the terminal... In my case one command line on a minimal Ubuntu install:

"sudo apt install steam steam-devices numlockx"

Forgot something? Oh yeah! gnome-tweak-tool to remove the desktop icons. Personnal preference.

Comes with Nividia driver 440.84. Quite the best you can get. Gamemode pre-installed... No tearing/stuttering issues, great performances and didn't get a single bug... All my tick boxes are checked. Pretty happy about that release. :)


Last edited by Mohandevir on 23 April 2020 at 9:16 pm UTC

Quoting: eldakingI'll wait a bit anyway and probably will update to 20.04 if it isn't too obnoxious to avoid snaps for most things, or if at least it works well.

sudo apt purge snapd will get rid of snaps entirely. Easy enough.

Ah yes, my next OS has arrived! Thirteen years I've been on Ubuntu, through thick and thin.

Only this time I won't rush to upgrade like I always do, I'll give it some time for early issues to be ironed out, to have more free time myself to properly tweak the system to my liking at to order a NVMe drive to truly enjoy my new OS.

Let me know if someone has installed on ZFS and what are the experiences.

Quoting: CatKiller

Quoting: eldakingI'll wait a bit anyway and probably will update to 20.04 if it isn't too obnoxious to avoid snaps for most things, or if at least it works well.

sudo apt purge snapd will get rid of snaps entirely. Easy enough.

Sure, but will any default programs be removed by that - like say, the calculator? (I legit don't know what would happen to installed snaps)

And will the Ubuntu repositories contain non-snap alternatives for stuff? If they stop maintaining stuff in the repos because they now use snaps, it becomes impractical to use the distro without it. (While, presumably, other distros could still have those normally... at least for now)

Quoting: eldakingBut the way they keep trying to push snaps almost makes me want to not update at all, or switch distros permanently.

Other distros do the exact same thing, except with Flatpak - Linux Mint is a perfect example here, and I doubt they're the only ones...

Quoting: eldakingFirst, snaps had ridiculously bad performance problems; so it was not even a "non-technical users wouldn't even notice" - people did notice, for example how ridiculously slow chromium was.

Flatpak has similar issues... Though once a program is running, it should offer comparable performance.

I have been running Linux Mint for the last 9-ish months - which pushes Flatpak hard - and the only noticeable performance hit is when starting a program after a reboot... Depending on the program, there can be a pretty big delay.

But after initially running a program, it's usually just as quick as a Debian-based program.

My experience has been the same on my tablet - the Microsoft Surface Go - with Snap.

Quoting: eldakingSecond, as a system it is way too closed and centralized, which is particularly bad for something that is intended to work across distros (other distros can't just host their own snap repositories, the backend isn't FOSS, and it is entirely developed by Canonical without any cooperation with other distros).

I agree with this completely.

At the very least, Canonical should commit to eventually making the backend Open Source - though if I am not mistaken, they have not done so, meaning that for the foreseeable future, the backend is unlikely to transition to Open Source...

I think that in the long-term, this will affect the uptake of Snap, and eventually Flatpak will become the dominant of the two - Open Source doesn't always win in the end, but it usually does, especially in the Linux Community.

Quoting: eldakingAnd third, Canonical are actively pushing for it to replace other alternatives, which means we can't even ignore it if we don't like it.

Well you can use other alternatives - it's called "Flatpak" and "AppImage", neither of which is all that difficult to install or manage... There are also other - less common - alternatives , if you're really dedicated.

Quoting: CatKiller

Quoting: eldakingI'll wait a bit anyway and probably will update to 20.04 if it isn't too obnoxious to avoid snaps for most things, or if at least it works well.

sudo apt purge snapd will get rid of snaps entirely. Easy enough.

Or you could just remove Snap support entirely... Personally, I'd just ignore it if I didn't want to use it - but you have the option to remove it, if you prefer.

Quoting: eldakingSure, but will any default programs be removed by that - like say, the calculator? (I legit don't know what would happen to installed snaps)

I can't seem to find the link just now, but certain frequently-used programs - such as the calculator - still use "traditional" packages, largely because of the slow initial start of Snap...

See here.


Last edited by Cyba.Cowboy on 23 April 2020 at 11:13 pm UTC

Quoting: eldakingSure, but will any default programs be removed by that - like say, the calculator? (I legit don't know what would happen to installed snaps)

And will the Ubuntu repositories contain non-snap alternatives for stuff? If they stop maintaining stuff in the repos because they now use snaps, it becomes impractical to use the distro without it. (While, presumably, other distros could still have those normally... at least for now)

That command will get rid of the bit that loads the snaps as well as the snaps themselves. It will give a list of the snaps that are removed so that (assuming you want the applications) you can install them from the package manager (for the calculator and what-have-you) or find a PPA (for chromium).

They want to get real-world usage of snaps (which is why they're included by default), but you won't be missing out (at least for the foreseeable future) by not using snaps. Chromium is an unusual one in that they no longer carry a non-snap version. I forget exactly where I read it but their reasoning was that chromium usage isn't that high (so the test wouldn't inconvenience too many people) and that a browser is exactly the kind of thing that you'd want to be run in a sandbox. That decision doesn't affect me, personally, since I use chromium from a PPA anyway for the hardware video decoding.