New features in 23.10 Updated Packages
add-apt-repository now adds PPAs as deb822 .sources files (Improvements to PPA management in 23.10 116).
Linux kernel :penguin:
Ubuntu 23.10 includes the new 6.5 Linux kernel that brings many new features.
Notable upstream changes:
Intel’s “Topology Aware Register and PM Capsule Interface” (interface that provides better power-management features).
arm64 permission-indirection extension (technology to set special memory permissions).
RISC-V now supports ACPI.
The Loongarch architecture now supports simultaneous multi-threading (SMT).
Support for unaccepted memory (protocol by which secure guest systems accept memory allocated by the host - Seeking an acceptable unaccepted memory policy 5.
The io_uring subsystem can now store the rings and submission queue in user-space memory.
Ability to mount a file system underneath an existing mount on the same mount point; useful in container scenarios (Merge tag ‘v6.5/vfs.mount’ of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/vfs/vfs 5).
New cachestat() system call (query the page-cache state of files and directories).
Usual set of changes to support new hardware.
Notable Ubuntu-specific changes:
zstd compressed modules (LP: #2028568 11) to shorten boot time.
New Apparmor/Stacking LSM patch set.
Updated shiftfs patch set.
Enabled multi-gen LRU page reclaiming by default (LP: #2023629 1).
.config tuning of the low-latency kernel for desktop-oriented tasks (LP: #2028568 6).
New zfs 2.2.0~rc3.
Ceph support for idmapped mounts.
systemd v253.5
The init system was updated to systemd v253.5. See the upstream changelog 6 for more information about individual features. Netplan v0.107
The network stack was updated to Netplan v0.107 3, introducing support for dummy and veth devices in addition to providing Python bindings to libnetplan in the python3-netplan package. Toolchain Upgrades :hammer_and_wrench:
GCC was updated to the 13.2.0 release, binutils to 2.41, and glibc to 2.38.
Python :snake: now defaults to version 3.11.6, and 3.12.0 is available in the archive.
Perl :camel: at version 5.36.0.
LLVM now defaults to version 16, and 17 is available in the archive.
Rust :crab: toolchain defaults to version 1.71.
Not very exciting…
I think Ubuntu has lost its way. It’s the slowest distro filled with snaps and some commercial messages even.
When was the last time they did something that was good for the users? On the other hand, you look at Pop OS and they are constantly actually improving, even building a desktop environment from scratch.