Xubuntu 12.10 Arrives in Style

You’ve waited patiently for the last six months for the latest and greatest in Xfce and Xubuntu. October 18th has come and gone and the wait is over. Now presenting Xubuntu 12.10, featuring XFCE 4.10 in its most polished and optimized configuration...

Xubuntu 12.10 Arrives in Style

Introducing the Quantal Quetzal

On April 23 of this year, Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Canonical and father of Ubuntu announced the codename for the latest release.  In a blog post that featured the letter ‘Q’ 40 times across a mere 6 paragraphs (an outstanding feat in and of its own), Mark outlined that the Quantal Quetzal would maintain a continued focus on quality and stability across the development cycle.  The Xubuntu Team maintained these goals throughout the development cycle, and put together yet another top-notch operating system.

What’s New in Xubuntu 12.10?

Everything.  Seriously, see the release notes.  But if you really want me to be specific, here’s the latest:

  • Linux 3.5.0-17 (based on 3.5.5)
  • Xfce 4.10
  • Completely rewritten offline documentation
  • All configuration launchers are now consolidated in the Settings Manager
  • Updated artwork (see below)
  • Updated applications: Abiword 2.9.2+svn, Catfish 0.4.0.2, Firefox 16.0.1, gmusicbrowser 1.1.9, gThumb 3.0.2, Parole 0.3.0.3, Pidgin 2.10.6, Thunar 1.4.0, Thunderbird 16.0.1, Transmission 2.61, Ubuntu Software Center 5.3.14.2, and XChat 2.8.8

How about a little demo video?

Screenshots

What would a new Xubuntu release be without the latest from the Shimmer Project?  Check out the screenshots of Xubuntu 12.10 in action.

Xubuntu 12.10 Desktop
The Xubuntu desktop has received a very modern and clean interface refresh with the latest version of Greybird.
Parole Media Player
Parole Media Player received a very signficant upgrade as it moved to a minimalistic interface and playbin2.
Catfish also had a significant upgrade as it moved to a minimalist interface powered by GTK+3.
Productivity in Xubuntu
Xubuntu has your typical productivity apps: a word processor, calculator, dictionary, and note-taking application.
Mozilla Firefox
Xubuntu ships with the latest version of Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird to connect you to the Internet.

Sacrifices

There were some interesting challenges presented in this release.  Ubuntu has made the push for GTK+3 and Python 3 to be standard.  This is entirely welcome, but can be costly when some applications still depend on previous versions of the same toolkits.  Some sacrifices had to be made to keep Xubuntu 12.10 on a standard CD-ROM (a task other teams have given up on).  The Live CD bade farewell to several games (only Sudoku and Mines remain), GIMP Image Editor, Gnumeric, Synaptic Package Manager, and the Startup Disk Creator.  Thankfully, these are all easily installable from the Ubuntu Software Center!

Get Xubuntu 12.10 “Quantal Quetzal”

Well, you’ve read about it, you’ve heard about it, now why don’t you install it?  First, check the known issues to make sure you won’t be negatively affected.  If you’re good to go, you can either install from the latest disc image from Xubuntu.org or upgrade from Xubuntu 12.04 using these handy instructions.

So, what are your thoughts of the latest and greatest Xubuntu release?  Let me know in the comments!