Ubuntu 21.04 (Hirsute Hippo) ISO’s are ready to download

Shortly after the release of the final beta version of Ubuntu 21.04, Canonical announced the release of the first stable version of Ubuntu 21.04 Hirsute Hippo. The latest version of the popular Linux distribution can be downloaded from its official website. Canonical also announced that to celebrate the release, an Indaba will be hosted on the 23rd of April and the company will host a webinar to share the new features in Ubuntu Server 21.04 on May 26th, 2021.

What’s new in Ubuntu 21.04?

Ubuntu 21.04, which uses Wayland, is designed to provide better security. The latest version also offers smoother graphics and better fractional scaling with applications built with Electron and Flutter taking advantage of Waylan automatically. Flutter SDK snap build integration also makes it easier to publish multi-platform Flutter app.

With Linux kernel 5.11, Ubuntu 21.04 is able to support more hardware and improve its performance with Radeon RX 6800 graphics cards. It also offers new device drivers, bug fixes, better filesystem performance.

Ubuntu 21.04 also brings visual changes. The new redesigned dark theme, named Yaru also comes with new file icons. The accessibility improvement allows users to navigate easily. Yaru is maintained by the community, backed by Canonical.

Ubuntu goes dark

The most notable visual change in Ubuntu 21.04 is the dark theme by default for the GNOME Shell UI. The Ubuntu team also introduced some new icons with the latest release. It also supports drag and drop, better sizing and spacing, and more settings to configure with its default desktop icons extension.

Open-source apps in Ubuntu 21.04

As expected, updated versions of open-source apps are included in Ubuntu 21.04, such as Mozilla Firefox 87, Thunderbird 78.8, and LibreOffice 7.1. Although Ubuntu 21.04 isn’t using GNOME 40, it still offers some of its apps are included by default, such as updated versions of the System Monitor, the Characters app, and Disk Usage Analyser.

Joint solution from Microsoft and Ubuntu

Ubuntu 21.04 comes with native Microsoft Active Directory integration, Wayland graphics by default, and a Flutter application development SDK. Canonical and Microsoft also announced performance optimization and joint support for Microsoft SQL Server on Ubuntu. The duo will provide integrated support for Ubuntu with Microsoft SQL Server deployed both for on-prem or from the Azure Marketplace.

According to the announcement, enterprise performance and scalability work from this release have been backported to Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS, in support of Microsoft SQL Server. On optimized Ubuntu images on Azure, The database management system and command-line interface are available to provide a highly available database platform with ten years of security maintenance.

The partnership offers performance enhancements. Persistent memory provides high-performance data storage without any additional configuration. Additionally, the entire platform is highly available, backed by Corosync and Pacemaker.

Mark Shuttleworth, CEO, Canonical, said,

“Native Active Directory integration and certified Microsoft SQL Server on Ubuntu are top priorities for our enterprise customers. For developers and innovators, Ubuntu 21.04 delivers Wayland and Flutter for smoother graphics and clean, beautiful, design-led cross-platform development.”

Download Ubuntu 21.04 (Hirsute Hippo) ISO

• How to install Ubuntu 21.04 Desktop
• How to install Ubuntu 21.04 Server

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