Ubuntu 18.04 LTS

64-bit

Last month’s LinuxFormat went to press too early for us to include the full release of Ubuntu 18.04 so we are making up for it here. Not only do we have the newest LTS Ubuntu, but we’ve built one of our desktop remixes for you. In addition to the default Gnome desktop you can also choose either Budgie or Cinnamon. You can switch between desktops by logging out, selecting the live user at the login screen, and then press the gear icon next to the sign in button to select a different desktop. Alternatively, you can choose a desktop when you boot from the DVD.

Three desktops may seem a little mean to regular readers − after all, we usually include more than that. However, both Ubuntu and Fedora have grown since their previous releases, leaving us with around half a gigabyte less disc space to play with. Part of that growth has been the desktops themselves, so that’s a double whammy as far as available space is concerned. Still, both Ubuntu and Fedora are popular distros with our readers and so we couldn’t consider excluding either.

Because of the way we have to create the remix nowadays (to comply with Ubuntu’s redistribution restrictions) it’s not possible to install Ubuntu from the remixed desktop. Most inconveniently, the installation proceeds almost to the end before failing. Don’t worry, though − you can still install Ubuntu from the Linux

Format DVD by choosing the bottom option from the Ubuntu boot menu. This gives you a standard Gnome desktop, after which you can install the Synaptic package manager, add the universe and multiverse repositories in its settings and then install either ubuntu-budgie

desktop or cinnamon-desktop-environment (or both) to install the respective desktop and all of its dependencies.

While we ran out of space on the DVD − remember when 4.7GB was a lot of space? − your hard disk will be considerably larger, so you can still try some other desktops post-install. Our esteemed editor nearly wept when I told him there was not the space for MATE, but you can add it simply by installing mate-desktop

environment . Similarly you can install kubuntudesktop , lubuntu-desktop or xubuntu-desktop to try one of those flavours without a complete separate distro installation.

Login details: username ubuntu, no password.

Perhaps we should rename this release Bionic Budgie, because here is the Budgie desktop as one of the remix choices.

Ignore this warning at your peril. Installing from the remixed desktops is likely to fail at the point that causes maximum frustration.