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What is going on in the world of Xubuntu these days? The most recent release, Xubuntu 22.10, out on 20 October, 2022, gives us some insight into the developers’ priorities for the new release cycle. Xubuntu 22.10 is the first interim release of the cycle, and will be followed by two more interim releases, and then the next long term support version in April, 2024.
Being an interim release, Xubuntu 22.10 has only nine months of support, until July, 2023.
So let’s delve into this new version and see where the developers are doing this time around.
Installation
I picked up Xubuntu 22.10 via BitTorrent from the official source. This download is 2.8 GB in size, which is 500 MB or 18% bigger than the last release for reasons that are not totally clear. All of the Ubuntu family of Linux distributions have been growing in size in the last few releases, so it seems to be an ecosystem-wide phenomena. In comparison, the mainstream Ubuntu 22.10 release is now up to 3.8 GB.
I dropped the Xubuntu ISO file onto a USB stick equipped with Ventoy 1.10.81, and booted it up. Ventoy does all the hard work, unpacking the file and bringing up the desktop for testing.
System requirements
The recommended minimum system requirements for Xubuntu 22.10 have remained the same since 21.04: 1.5 GHz dual-core processor 2 GB RAM 20 GB of hard-drive space
To be honest, 2 GB of RAM is probably a bit skimpy unless you never open your web browser. Firefox alone can eat up 4 GB of RAM these days with just a few tabs open, and it uses less RAM than some other browsers like Chrome or Falkon. More RAM is better.
New
Xubuntu 22.10 uses the Xfce 4.16 desktop, with a few components from 4.17, like Xfce4 Panel 4.17.0. The 4.17 components are a preview for testing for the next big Xfce release, which will be 4.18. The GTK toolkit in use is now up to version 4.81.
As is normal for Xubuntu, this release has a nice, new abstract wallpaper in the usual trademark blue hues found in this distribution. If this new one is not your favorite, then there are 22 other wallpapers provided, many of which will be familiar as they are from recent Xubuntu releases. The Xubuntu developers seem to just keep adding wallpapers from recent favorites as this version has two more than the last release.
Settings
This Xubuntu release continues the use of the default Greybird window theme although it has been further tweaked this time. Once again, there are a total of six window themes provided, consisting of Adwaita, Adwaita-dark, Greybird, Greybird-dark, High Contrast and Numiux. The two dark themes still suffer from blurry window title fonts. There is also a choice of eight icon themes, an increase of two from the last release.
The Whisker Menu remains the same as it has been since it was adopted by Xubuntu with 14.04 LTS, 16 releases ago. Whisker remains popular because it is very flexible and even resizable, something unique in the world of Linux application menus.
Applications
Some of the applications included with Xubuntu 22.10 are: Atril 1.26.0 PDF viewer* CUPS 2.4.2 printing system Catfish 4.16.4 desktop search Firefox 106.0 web browser GIMP 2.10.32 graphics editor Gnome Disk Utility 43.0 disk space and health monitor Gnome Disk Usage Analyzer 43.0 disk display Gnome Software 43.0 package management system Gparted 1.3.1 partition editor* Hexchat 2.16.1 IRC client LibreOffice 7.4.2 office suite Mousepad 0.5.10 text editor Parole 4.16.0 media player* PulseAudio 16.1 audio controller Ristretto 0.12.3 image viewer Rhythmbox 3.4.6 music player Document Scanner 42.5 (simple-scan) scanning utility Software Updater 22.10.4 (update-manager) software update manager Synaptic 0.91.2 package management system* Thunar 4.19.9 file manager Thunderbird 102.3.3 email client Transmission 3.00 BitTorrent client* Wget 1.21.3 command line webpage downloader Xfburn 0.6.2 CD/DVD burner* Xfce4 Panel 4.17.0 desktop panel* Xfce4 Power Manager 4.16.0 system power manager* * indicates same application version as used in Xubuntu 22.04 LTS supplied as a snap, so version depends on the upstream package manager
There have been no changes to the mix of Xubuntu default applications provided.
As has been the case in recent Xubuntu releases, there is no default webcam or video editing application included although there are several choices for each in the repositories available for installation. Xubuntu remains unique in the Ubuntu family of operating systems in providing the GIMP image editor in the default installation.
Xubuntu 22.10 includes LibreOffice 7.4.2 which is complete except for only LibreOffice Base, the database application, which is probably the least used LibreOffice component. It can be installed if desired.
This release does bring some improvements to the applications that are provided. In this latest version, the Mousepad 0.5.10 text editor includes search history and automatic file reloading when files are externally changed. Mousepad has spellchecking, and syntax highlighting with a variety of color schemes too, making it a fully-featured text editor.
The Thunar 4.19.9 file manager has added native search functions including recursive folder search. I am not sure what the user case is for still including the stand-alone Catfish 4.16.4 desktop search application now, but it has been redesigned and allows files, once found, to be opened in a selection of applications directly from Catfish.
Xubuntu 22.10 continues to use PulseAudio as its audio controller even though Ubuntu 22.10 and Kubuntu 22.10 have switched over to using PipeWire instead. Xubuntu 21.10 had previously introduced the use of PipeWire as a PulseAudio adjunct program, but it is no longer installed in Xubuntu 22.10. It will be interesting to see if Xubuntu and the other Ubuntu flavors follow Ubuntu's lead and switch entirely to PipeWire. The newest version of the included Xfce PulseAudio Plugin features a new indicator that shows when an application records audio and provides a notification whenever the microphone volume level is changed. Given the work put into this custom Xfce plugin, the Xubuntu developers may be reluctant to change over to PipeWire.
There are other small changes to many of the Xfce components, with a full list available in the 22.10 release notes.
Conclusions
Xubuntu 22.10 is a really solid release, with nothing bad to report. If the large number of small tweaks is any indication of how the rest of the release cycle will proceed, it looks like Xubuntu fans will be happy with the LTS results in April, 2024. Most of the Xubuntu users I know really like the distribution the way it is, and generally don’t see the need for major changes.
External links
Official website: https://xubuntu.org/