Brace yourself, Ubuntu’s coming
As inevitable as the changing seasons, Ubuntu releases another version. But unlike the ever shorter days and colder nights, Ubuntu 15.10 brings with it something far more exciting: ever improving desktop stability and ever improving kernel reliability. As Canonical gears up for the big introduction of Mir (its X replacement) and Unity 8, other essential pieces are falling into place. We’ve had the happy shift to Systemd (which is clearly ten times better than Sysv) and now we have the introduction of the Linux Kernel 4.2 and the new improved package manager Snappy.
All of these pieces make Ubuntu 15.10 the strongest and most stable release in its history. It often feels like overkill but it’s hard to understate just how big a thing an Ubuntu release is to the Linux world. Despite Canonical’s recent tightening of the licence agreement, Ubuntu continues to underpin a huge ecosystem of distros.
No matter if you’re an expert wanting a painless upgrade, a beginner who knows nothing of Linux or just want to see what’s new and exciting in Ubuntu 15.10 jump to page 32 and discover everything you need to know about Canonical’s latest release.
Another new area for Linux is the amount of new games being released. Steam now hosts over 1,500 titles and it’s growing every day. If graphics cards baffle you let our gaming experts guide you to installing and using an affordable 3D card to get gaming on Linux ( seep44).
For the more hardcore, we get to grips with Linux Samba shares on page 68, delve into using RPM package management on page 80, code Conkey widgets in Lua on page 84 and have our usual dose of low-cost Pi fun in Pi User including the amazing Astro Pi all on page 58. The team had a blast planning and putting together this issue, so we hope reading it you do too and, if you celebrate it – have a Happy Christmas!