Canonical Ltd., the privately-held UK-based computer software company, yesterday officially opened the development cycle of their upcoming Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (codenamed Focal Fossa) Linux Operating System. It’s expected that Canonical will officially release Focal Fossa next spring.
Slated for release on April 23rd, 2020, “Focal Fossa” is the next long-term supported version of the worlds’ most popular Linux distribution.
Daily ISO builds have been available on Canonical’s servers since last week. However, Canonical did not officially start the development cycle until October 24th and did not announce it until today.
The uploaded toolchain comprises several upgraded components and other changes:
- Python 3.8 (as the only Python3 version).
- Perl 5.30Support for IBM z13 systems (On s390x builds)
- Removal of all remaining Python 2 packages
- Continued enhancements related to ZFS/Zsys
- GNOME 3.36 (with a focus on performance improvements)
- Linux 5.5 Kernel
- Mesa 20.0 (along with a plethora of other open-source graphics driver improvements)
- PHP 7.4 (server-side)
As with all Ubuntu releases since Canonical’s first release on October 20, 2004, of Ubuntu 4.10 (Warty Warthog), Ubuntu 20.10 will follow the same six-month development cycle Canonical uses.
Historically, Ubuntu release occurs approximately one month after GNOME releases. Each fourth release, typically occurring in the second quarter of even-numbered years, is designated as a long-term support (LTS) release.
Ubuntu LTS releases are freely supported for five years. Through a paid ESM option, support can be extended longer, up to ten years total.
Non-LTS releases are only supported for nine months.
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Beta is slated for release on April 2nd, 2020, with the official release of release candidate scheduled for final release on April 23, 2020.
While Canonical no longer offers Alpha images for public testing, brave souls can obtain daily ISOs from the Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa) Daily Build website.
As for the rest of us? We’ll have to wait for the Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Beta release on April 2, 2020, for our first look.
