Ceci est une ancienne révision du document !
With their 22.10 “Kinetic Kudu” release, the Ubuntu Budgie developer team seem to be bucking the trend that has been set by the other Ubuntu flavors. Most of the other flavors have started off this new development cycle with an interim release with only some very small changes, pointing to a cycle of just some incremental adjustments before the next long term support (LTS) version comes out in April, 2024. But not so with Ubuntu Budgie 22.10; this distribution’s developers have dived right into some substantial changes right at the beginning of the cycle. This is actually a good way to approach development, with the big changes in the first interim release, using the next two to refine things prior to the LTS release, which is all about getting everything right for the users.
In a way, a raft of changes is a bit unexpected, as Ubuntu Budgie 22.10 is the 13th release for this distribution and the 11th since it became an official Ubuntu flavor. You expect big changes when a distribution is new and fewer as it gains maturity.
Released on 20 October, 2022, Ubuntu Budgie 22.10 is an interim release which is supported for just nine months, until July, 2023.
Installation
I downloaded the ISO file for Ubuntu Budgie 22.10 from the official source on http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-budgie/. The download is 3.1 GB in size and I retrieved it via BitTorrent. Once done, I carried out an SHA256 sum check on it from the command-line to ensure a good download.
I dropped the Budgie ISO file onto a USB stick equipped with Ventoy 1.0.82 and booted it up from there. Ubuntu Budgie is officially listed as supported by Ventoy and, as expected, it ran with no issues.
System requirements
The recommended minimum system requirements for Ubuntu Budgie 22.10 have not changed and remain: Intel or AMD 64-bit processor 4 GB RAM
New
Ubuntu Budgie 22.10 starts with a new version of the Budgie desktop, 10.6.4, which brings a number of refinements. These include improved fractional scaling and a revised Budgie Control Center, which is based on Gnome Settings.
There is also a new “preferred style” in the Budgie Desktop Settings that allows setting a dark or light style for the Gnome 42 and libhandy-based applications. It should be noted that this feature is still a “work-in-progress” at the Budgie desktop project.
The Budgie menus have also been re-worked. There are still two selectable menu styles, grid view and category view. The former is pretty slow and clunky to find applications on, as it has five menu pages to click through to find anything. The category view is a bit better, but, overall, it is still quicker to use the search box to find an application, as long as you know what you are looking for. The Budgie menus are still a weak point compared to almost any other Linux desktop these days.
The same as Ubuntu 22.10, Ubuntu Budgie 22.10 has changed its audio controller from PulseAudio to PipeWire, which should bring some more hardware support and performance improvements.
Ubuntu Budgie 22.10 also now fully supports the WebP image format in both its image viewer and file manager. This is useful as WebP is becoming more common as an image format and may eventually replace JPG, GIF and PNG.
This release includes 12 wallpapers to choose from, but, interestingly, the default wallpaper is the same one used for the last eight releases, since 19.04. While the provided wallpapers do cover a variety of styles, unlike in the other Ubuntu flavors, none feature a kudu, so the developers get points for avoiding that bandwagon.
Also, many more small changes are incorporated, which are too numerous to mention.
Settings
As in past releases, Ubuntu Budgie’s user settings are scattered far and wide. Some are in the Budgie Control Center, while others are in Budgie Desktop Settings, Budgie Extras, and Budgie Makeovers & Layouts, all of which are in turn split between Accessories and System Tools on the main menu.
Are you looking for the preferences for the Budgie dock, Plank? They are found via a ctrl+right click on the dock menu. I had to do a web search to figure that out, or I never would have found it. Once you find where all the settings are hidden away, it is not too hard to customize your desktop, but Budgie does have a steep learning curve when it comes to user settings.
Budgie Desktop Settings is where you find the window theme selection, oddly under Style - Widgets. There are 14 window themes provided, with the default theme Pocillo-dark, named for the diminutive Latin-American cup of coffee. There are better light themes provided, including Pocillo-light. Overall, this release does have more light theme choices than in the past, so if you are not a fan of dark themes, then Ubuntu Budgie 22.10 will be appealing.
If you don’t want to customize your Budgie installation piecemeal by choosing a window theme, wallpaper, and icon set, all separately, then Budgie Makeovers & Layouts is where you find one-button wallpaper, window theme, and icon packages. There are eight packages to choose from, although only three of these are actually installed. The others have to be downloaded for use, although there are buttons provided for that.
Budgie Extras is where the desktop applets are hidden away. 39 applets are now included, two more than in the last release. These add small programs, like clocks and other functionality, to the desktop.
Applications
Some of the applications included with Ubuntu Budgie 22.10 are: Archive Manager (File Roller) 43.0 archiver Atril 1.26.0 PDF viewer Budgie Screenshot Applet screenshot tool CUPS 2.4.2 printing system Deja Dup 43.4 back-up tool Document Scanner (Simple Scan) 42.5 optical scanner Drawing 1.0.1 image editor Firefox 106.0 web browser Goodvibes 0.7.2 internet radio Gnome Disks 43.0 disk manager Gnome Software 43.0 package management system Gparted 1.3.1 partition editor Gpodder 3.11.0 podcast player gThumb 3.12.2 image viewer Guvcview 2.0.8 webcam application LibreOffice 7.4.2 office suite Lollypop 1.4.35 music player Mate System Monitor 1.26.0 system resource monitor Nemo 5.4.3 file manager Parole 4.16.0 movie player Pipewire 0.3.58 audio controller Text Editor (gedit) 42.2 text editor Thunderbird 102.3.3 email client Tilix 1.9.5 terminal emulator Transmission 3.00 bittorrent client* * indicates same application version as used in Ubuntu Budgie 22.04 LTS supplied as a snap, so version depends on the upstream package manager
Many of these applications are new to the default mix.
Removed this time are: Celluloid movie player (replaced by Parole) Cheese webcam application (replaced by Guvcview) Document Viewer (Evince) PDF viewer (replaced by Atril) Gnome Calendar desktop calendar (not replaced) Gnome Maps desktop calendar (not replaced) Gnome Screenshot screenshot tool (replaced by Budgie Screenshot Applet) Gnome System Monitor system resource monitor (replaced by Mate System Monitor) PulseAudio audio controller (replaced by PipeWire) Rhythmbox music player (replaced by Goodvibes, Gpodder and Lollypop)
Only Gnome Calendar and Maps were removed and not replaced, the rest were swapped for equivalent applications from other desktops. The developers explain that the reason for all these changes is to avoid Gnome applications which use libadwaita, which they indicate makes it harder to gain a common look. The current mix of applications certainly shows a trend of moving away from Gnome applications and more towards Mate. Expect to see more adjustments in the application mix over this development cycle, as many of the remaining Gnome applications have been flagged for future assessment.
The Ubuntu Budgie file manager is Nemo, from the Mate desktop. It works quite well but is still missing a bulk file renaming capability. This has been promised, but it is still a pretty important feature to be missing today.
The Ubuntu Budgie 22.10 web browser remains the same as all the other Ubuntu flavors, including Firefox as a Snap format package. LibreOffice 7.4.2 is the office suite and it is supplied complete except for the database application, LibreOffice Base.
This release continues to use the Gnome text editor, gedit 4.2, although the Budgie developers list its future in the distribution as “undecided”. This iteration has seven syntax highlighting schemes, including four light and three dark themes. As always, gedit includes spell checking by default.
Conclusions
Overall Ubuntu Budgie 22.10 is a good release and one that seems to portend further changes coming over this development cycle before we get to the next long term support release, Ubuntu Budgie 24.04, due out in April, 2024.
With more light theme options, Ubuntu Budgie 22.10 should have a wider user appeal than some past versions. Its one weak spot remains its scattered user settings, but perhaps we will see that addressed over time as well.
External links
Official website: https://ubuntubudgie.org/