What's new in Ubuntu 17.04 - harbuckfingir

April showers bring May flowers, and fresh versions of Ubuntu besides. Canonical's latest official Ubuntu freeing—17.04—arrived this month after news of the death of Unity 8 and the return to the GNOME desktop in 2018. For now, Ubuntu is still shipping with its Unity desktop.

I wrote earlier that near users who need stability and support over new features will believably want to stick with Ubuntu 16.04, which was released next-to-last April, until Ubuntu 18.04 arrives a year from now. However, in that location are a few small things in Ubuntu 17.04 that will appeal to users World Health Organization are stabbing to get all the newest updates.

Driverless printing is awesome

The official list of new features in Ubuntu 17.04 is quite short, but one that caught my eye was driverless printing. One of the big headaches of printing on Linux is that some manufacturers don't supply drivers with the authoritative CUPS distribution. My old Canyon PIXMA 870 was always a pain to put in ascribable the need for a custom number one wood, which I had to Leigh Hunt down. And so the prospect of printing without that hassle was very intriguing.

Ubuntu 17.04 driverless printing — Printers are mechanically added without the ask for number one wood installs in Ubuntu 17.04.

Driverless printing works out-of-the box with any printer that uses either IPP Everywhere or Apple's AirPrint. The list of printers that use IPP Everywhere is rather low-set, and presently limited to HP units. By comparability, Apple's AirPrint is supported by a Litany of printers out there today. If you print at home, there's avery good encounter your printer supports AirPrint.

In my own testing, I was able to fire leading the Ubuntu live USB in VirtualBox, open up Firefox, and print a webpage (with my HP LaserJet M452nw) without installing a single driver. Driverless printing looks for supported printers on your network (or connected via USB if that's relieve your matter), and mechanically adds them to CUPS. I was able to black and white like I normally would, without any of the setup. Cool.

For home or SoHo users WHO really involve to photographic print things happening paper, this is a Brobdingnagian plus if you're considering heaving your sour machines over to Linux. If you'ray using a multifunction HP printer to scan documents, Ubuntu warns that you'll still involve to use the HPLIP driver, since driverless printing doesn't support scanning on Horsepower units.

Kernel 4.10 comes standard

If you're planning on installing Ubuntu on a machine sporting a Kaby Lake Oregon Ryzen CPU, you may want to go with Ubuntu 17.04. The fashionable kernel rendering (4.10) has improved abide for multithreading and power management with some AMD and Intel's new CPU lines.

Still, the kernel incomparable may not be understanding decent to upgrade to 17.04 if you're running Ubuntu 16.04. While it's non formally supported, you can ever install a newer kernel connected 16.04 and get many of the same benefits. Just know that installing an wild kernal could make the OS less stable.

You have the option of using Unity 8

Yes, Jurisprudence is killing bump off Wholeness 8 for 2018's LTS release. But that doesn't mean you tail't endeavour IT tabu instantly. Like Ubuntu 16.10 earlier it, 17.04 comes with the pick to run Unity 8 when a user logs in.

Ubuntu 17.04's Unity 8 search — The rocket launcher board in Unity 8 on Ubuntu 17.04.

Unity 8's interface looks like a mashup 'tween Oneness, Humanoid, and Windows 10. The flat interface and dark backgrounds are reminiscent of Windows 10's controls and side panels. I also like how Unity 8 lists your programs on the seek panel alphabetically. Since Canonical has expressed that it wish serve develop the GNOME desktop, I hope we'll date some features and ideas from Unity 8 in GNOME.

I example involves entr a novel application: Unity 8 bequeath draw a box and usher a loading spinster icon until the application is finished loading. Spell this does draw desktop space, it gives the user more feedback than simply having an image glowing in the dock. It's a minor thing, but I equivalent that it lets me know exactly what my PC is up to, or else of waiting with bated breathing spell for a window to pop up.

Unity 8's right panel on Ubuntu 17.04 — The right panel in Ace 8 is reminiscent of Windows 10.

That said, Ace 8 seems out-of-the-way inferior snappy than the default Unity session in 17.04. It feels to me like it requires a lot more than resources. This is especially noticeable happening machines with less computer memory, indeed if you're using an elder laptop or desktop, Unity 8 probably won't have for the best substance abuser experience.

Should you upgrade?

I wrote before that there are a fewer reasons not to upgrade to Ubuntu 17.04. For one, this version of Ubuntu will only embody supported until Jan 2018. (Security updates will last a little longer.) To continue acquiring ironware support, you'll take to advance earlier 2017 is out, since the next major release won't come until Apr 2018.

Happening top of the support lifespan, the presence of Unity 8 is a number of an hungry boast. Integrity 8 will cost discontinued, so getting it now is like having access to a library of Betamax tapes. Doomed, it's great, but the desktop is already doomed.

But if you Don River't need the support and constancy of a long-term reading, and you have newer hardware you want to run, the upgrade to 17.04 makes sense.