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Ubuntu Budgie 18.10 Released!

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UBUNTU BUDGIE 18.10 RELEASED! We are pleased to announce the release of the next version of our distro, the fourth as an official flavor of the Ubuntu family.

18.10 is supported for 9 months; our 18.04 LTS is supported for 3 years.

Based on 18.04 experiences, feedback and suggestions that we have received from our users, the new release comes with a lot of new features, fixes and optimizations

Here is what you can expect with the new release:

showcasing the latest budgie-desktop developments, reworking some of our most used applets to be more efficient, faster adding new productivity applets integrating all of this together with the major GNOME developments of GTK+3.24 and Mutter 3.30 You can read more about what we have been upto via our release notes. Upgrade instructions from 18.04 LTS are included. Please have a read these since there are a number of issues that you need to be aware of.

Download links and installation guide are provided. As always - do check the md5sum hash value of the downloaded ISO - this really does help you get on with a flying start for your install.

If you have any questions, remember, our forum is always open and ready to help you.

Thank you all for your continued support - spread the news!

David, Ubuntu Budgie Project Leader.

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18.10 Release Notes

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Version
Ubuntu Budgie v18.10 (Cosmic Cuttlefish) Release: Oct 18th, 2018 Ubuntu Budgie 18.10 will be supported for 9 months until July 2019. If you need Long Term Support, it is recommended you use Ubuntu 18.04 LTS instead. beta release notes - 27 Sept 2018 In these release notes the areas covered are:
  • New features and enhancements
  • Issues Resolved
  • Upgrading from 18.04 Ubuntu Budgie
  • Known Issues when upgrading
  • Where to download Ubuntu Budgie

New features and enhancements

  • Budgie Desktop "v10.5" (almost) - we are pleased to promote the latest available capabilities made available by the Solus upstream project.
  • Due to overwhelming vote (75% for), Firefox now becomes our default browser. So out goes a chromium-browser icon on both the icon-task-list and plank dock - in comes Firefox
  • ... and for good measure we have added ubuntu budgie welcome as a default program icon to make discovery instant.
  • We have dropped TLP from the default install. The powersavings in the kernel from kernel 4.18 are significant for newer computers. TLP is still available to be installed if the kernel powersavings do not impact you due to using an older CPU.
  • The caffeine appindicator has been dropped - this has been replaced with the native caffeine budgie-applet that comes with budgie-desktop v10.5
  • We've added a new game 2048 as part of the default install - great way to while-away a few hours
  • More new productivity applets are now available from Budgie Welcome
  • Ubuntu Budgie Team Wallpapers for 18.10 - the UB team has decided for this release to choose their favorite wallpapers - quite an eclectic bunch. Hope you like them. We will next run a community contest for the 20.04 LTS
  • Budgie Welcome - Translation team has been very busy - many more languages now available

Budgie Applets

New productivity applets are now available from Budgie Welcome:
  • WeatherShow - Weather forecast every three hours and over five days. This Desktop based weather applet is installed by default and can be added to your panel.
    Weathershow applet
  • Kangaroo - Quick and easy browsing, across (possibly) many folder layers, without having to-do a single mouse click.
Kangaroo applet
  • App launcher - Display your favorite applications in a menu and on the panel.
    Applauncher applet
  • Trash applet (vala based) - Show, hide and restore trash items.
    Trash applet
  • Recently Used (vala based) - Show recently used items in a menu.
    Recentlyused applet
A couple of existing applets have been rewritten from Python based to Vala based. This has been done to greatly enhance the speed of the applets and make them memory efficient; in addition they have picked up a few enhancements so browse around in the applet setting to discover whats new
  • Quick Notes
  • Hot Corners
We are also pleased to show-case many more indie developer applets - to just pick a few:
  • Advanced Brightness Controller - Control the backlight via your graphics driver controller or GNOME's brightness controller.
    Advanced brightness applet
  • Browser Profile Launcher - Launch and create multiple Chromium/Chrome profiles.
Browser profile launcher applet
In total Ubuntu Budgie users have direct install access to twenty-seven applets through budgie-welcome If you want to showcase your applet in UB contact us and let us know about your project.

Budgie Desktop

Whilst v10.5 was not made official by the time of Cosmic Feature freeze, we have grabbed as much as we can to showcase the good work that has been made by Solus and the wider budgie development community. We are particularly proud of Canonical's Iain Lane (Laney) who provided a massive mutter compatible patch. Without it we would not have been able to bring you 18.10. Cheers Iain 🙂 From myself I have built upon Iain's good work to resolve as many GTK+3.24 and Mutter 3.30 introduced issues as we have been able to. From upstream's blog , in no particular order look out for the following:
  • Raven Sound Output widget enables you to do global as well as per-app volume control and output device changing
  • Raven Sound Input widget enables you to do microphone control and input device changing.
  • Ability to mute / unmute applications and an option to allow raising volume above 100%
  • New Raven section in Budgie Desktop Settings. Under this new section, you’re able to show and hide individual widgets as well as enable the ability to raise your volume above 100% in Raven.
  • Ability to enable window focus change to being on mouse enter / leave via the “Windows” section of Budgie Desktop Settings, as opposed to click-to-focus.
  • The “Fonts” section of Budgie Desktop Settings introduces a new Text Scaling option
  • Ability to dismiss individual notifications
  • Notification grouping on an application basis
  • Large Notifications are now truncated to prevent huge notification windows being displayed
  • Caffeine powered - new applet that prevents screen dimming and lock screen triggering. This is now the default on the panel
  • You can now middle click on the Bluetooth applet to toggle Bluetooth airplane mode.
  • You can now middle click on the Sound applet to mute and unmute global audio.
  • We now hide the add workspace button in the Workspace Applet during initialization.
  • Icon Task List Grouping - displayed icons can optionally group the windows of the same application

Key features available to UB from Ubuntu

  • GNOME 3.30 applications
  • Linux Kernel 4.18
  • A shed-load of fixes throughout the Ubuntu stack - congrats on all Canonical, Ubuntu devs, Debian devs and literally all devs in the free software community for all of their hard-work which everyone should be very happy about 🙂

UB Maintained packages

Apart from the above (!) UB maintains a number of Debian packages. New versions available in 18.10 include:
  • rhythmbox-plugin-alternative-toolbar
  • faba-icon-theme
  • slick-greeter
  • GTK+3.24 fixed version of budgie-haste-applet
  • GTK+3.24 fixed version of budgie-screenshot-applet
  • Arc-Theme

Other distros

We are particularly pleased to see our Budgie Applets now available to the wider Linux community. If you are on Arch Linux / Manjaro, look out for "budge-extras" in your official Arch community repository. Debian Buster is now sync'd with Ubuntu and will now continue to receive the latest developments from the UB team.

Issues Resolved:

  • ShowTime crashes & HiDPI positioning
  • Hotcorners activation issues when using HiDPI displays
  • Various display issues for Window Previews

Known Issues:

  • If you find that after the upgrade clicking the menu button crashes the panel, then CTRL+ALT+T to open a terminal then run:
nohup budgie-panel --reset --replace &
  • Window artefacts displayed when using the budgie menu, notifications and alt+tab. For the interim please disable window animations from budgie-settings. We'll continue to investigate.
  • Workspace switching - switching animation is now up/down instead of the usual left/right.
  • Super +D Showdesktop does not work
  • Showtime settings color button is always white
  • Dropby popover does not popup when a USB device is inserted
  • Some apps do not respect left/right decoration placement

Upgrading

How to upgrade from 18.04 to 18.10

IMPORTANT: remember to double-check you have the following vital package before you upgrade: 
sudo apt install ubuntu-budgie-desktop
After the release of 18.10, you will be offered to upgrade when you run Software & Updates - BUT IMPORTANTLY - you need to first switch to being offered updates "For Any Version" in the Update tab of Update Manager - Settings. Alternatively, from a command line run: 
update-manager
IMPORTANT We do not recommend running do-release-upgrade from a Tilix terminal since this will hang during the upgrade. If you want to use do-release-upgrade switch to a TTY and login before running the command. Some of the packages that were installed as part of the Ubuntu Budgie backports PPA (ppa:ubuntubudgie/backports) will be uninstalled as part of the upgrade. Use budgie-welcome to reinstall anything that is removed. We also recommend you reset the panel to benefit from the revised Pocillo theme and applets: 
nohup budgie-panel --reset --replace &
Please refer to the community wiki for more help: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Upgrades Also, Ask Ubuntu has an excellent guide to help you upgrade: http://askubuntu.com/questions/110477/how-do-i-upgrade-to-a-newer-version-of-ubuntu

Download

To download the ISO, head on over to: https://ubuntubudgie.org/downloads

Getting support

Thanks to the generosity of discourse.org, our support site is the key site for all things Ubuntu Budgie. One to book-mark https://discourse.ubuntubudgie.org More information can be found here .
Discourse
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Ubuntu Budgie 18.04.1 LTS Released!

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We are pleased to announce the release of the next version of our distro, our first LTS point release as an official flavor of the Ubuntu family. The LTS version is supported for 3 years while the regular releases are supported for 9 months. The new release rolls-up various fixes and optimizations the Ubuntu Budgie team have released since the 18.04 release in April this year:
  • budgie welcome updates including new applets Desktop Weather, Advanced Brightness Controller, Browser Profile Launcher & Find 'Fast' Kangaroo Applet
  • Lots more translation updates to budgie welcome
  • Fixes to display Settings correctly translated
  • Six bug & stability fixes for various applets
We also inherits hundreds of stability, bug-fixes and optimizations made to the underlying Ubuntu repositories. Many thanks to all the volunteers, Debian & Ubuntu maintainers and Canonical employees who have done such a sterling job packaging the changes that many more developers from all over the world have resolved. The power of FOSS that we are all proud to be part of. You can read more about 18.04 via our release notes . Upgrade instructions from both 16.04 budgie-remix and 17.10 are included. Please have a read of these since there is an extra step you need to do post-upgrade. Download links  and installation guide are provided. As always - do check the md5sum hash value of the downloaded ISO - this really does help you get on with a flying start for your install. Users of Ubuntu 16.04 will soon be offered an automatic upgrade to 18.04.1 via Update Manager. For further information about upgrading, see: As always, upgrades to the latest version of Ubuntu are entirely free of charge. We recommend that all users read the the Ubuntu 18.04.1 release notes, which document caveats and workarounds for known issues affecting all flavours including Ubuntu Budgie. They are available at: If you have a question, or if you think you may have found a bug but aren't sure, you can try asking in any of the following places:

Help Shape Ubuntu

If you would like to help shape Ubuntu, take a look at the list of ways you can participate at: Thank you all for your continued support - spread the news! David, Ubuntu Budgie Project Leader.
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Diving into Vala …

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We thought we just throw some thoughts together as we explore using the programming language Vala for potential future development. Vala is - we understand - a language written initially by GNOME to develop GTK+ applications and interfaces. The Elementary OS developers have embraced this language. Budgie Desktop itself is primarily written in Vala. Why? It is fairly efficient - compiles to small executables and shared object libraries - and hence reduces memory usage. It is fairly memory safe - in that - whilst C can and will enable you to shoot yourself into your proverbial foot/head - at least Vala will hide the major C intracasies leading to more robust code. Well that's the claim anyway. As a team, our profiencies is primarily Python and Go. So exploring Vala is "interesting" - but very slow going since we keep thinking "well we did it this way in python ... so why doesnt Vala work in this way". Why are we looking at Vala? Well, we do want to understand the underlying components of Budgie Desktop - and hopefully fully understand what could & should be backported to 18.04LTS. Longer term - maybe/hopefully helping upstream in its maintainance. So we began by looking for tutorials already written. The valadoc website we have found is the best for beginners. The GTK+ kickstart video is really good - essential viewing. The two longer videos on that site are well worth reviewing and bookmarking. The compile budgie desktop based applets you need to install the package `budgie-core-dev`. Best steer clear from the upstream "budgie-desktop-examples" repo. We couldn't get it to compile - probably because it hasn't been updated to work with budgie-desktop v10.4.x Popovers. Excellent third-parties, Daniel Pinto and Cybre's repositories are excellent reference points.
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Please welcome two new team members

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The Ubuntu Budgie team are pleased to welcome two new team members.

Efkan Isazade

Efkan small
Efkan has joined us in the Project Manager/ Administrator role that was recently advertised. Efkan hails from Azerbaijan and will be ensuring the team meets its goals and schedules for 18.04 LTS and 18.10. Efkan will also be ensuring your donations are continued to be accurately accounted for and managed. A bit about Efkan... "25 years old Master of Business Administration student in Azerbaijan State Oil and Industry University with Georgia State University (Atlanta, USA) Joint program. Major in Electronic Governance. Enjoy a challenge and achieving personal goals. Flexible and Result oriented."

Serdar Şen

Serdar small
Serdar hails from Turkey and has joined the team as a developer - primarily applet writing. A bit about Serdar... "Serdar Şen is a freelance software developer, course instructor, graduate student in computer science. Serdar enjoys learning new technologies. He has interests in artificial intelligence and machine learning. He likes to draw and share pictures."

What about me?

Ubuntu Budgie only moves forwards thanks to its fantastic volunteers. So if you are a keen writer, tester (QA), Debian and/or Snap packager, developer (QT/QML/C++ or GTK+ with Vala or C++) please don't hesitate and step forward. Contact me at fossfreedom at ubuntu dot com David (project lead)
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Become a team member – Project Manager / Project Administrator

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The Ubuntu Budgie team are looking for a new volunteer to join our ranks as Project Manager / Project Administrator. This is a non-technical role and will involve approx 3-4 hours a week dedication? Interested? Duties include ... but not exclusively...
  • Coordinating the team activities across multiple timezones
  • flexible project schedule production
  • Running the monthly team meetings
  • Meeting minutes production and follow-up
  • Finance - maintaining an accurate record, updates to the donation web-page
  • Working with other flavours project admins/team leads - regular engagement via IRC and ubuntu community page
  • Team coordination through Slack app - using your phone, desktop etc
Trustworthy, cracking sense of humour, dedication are all essential attributes. Send me your mini-CV - something short and sweet. email: plain text only (attachments will be ignored) to fossfreedom at ubuntu dot com David (project lead)  
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budgie-remix 16.04 – end of support date

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Budgie remix
With a heavy heart the Ubuntu Budgie team today announce the end-of-support for our 16.04 budgie-remix edition from the beginning of August 2018. We would like to thank the almost quarter of a million downloaders since we first launched budgie-remix back in April 2016 for at least having a look at our fledgling distro. We didnt really expect to support 16.04 for this length of time - we were not an official distro back then but enough people contacted us to convince us to continue rather than the usual 9 months Ubuntu distro support cadence. With a rolling release mechanism for all thing budgie-desktop - the GUI, applets, budgie-welcome, themes etc, the latest 16.04.4 is very much different from the initial 16.04 release.

but I want to continue...

Don't worry! 16.04 Budgie Remix will not self destruct. The underlying pinnings of Ubuntu will keep you updated. Many components share the Ubuntu GNOME support arrangements and will receive updates until May/June 2019. The key linux kernel is updated through Ubuntu itself for 5 years. However our strong recommendation is that you move to 18.04.1 as soon as it is practical for you.

moving forward

18.04.1 will be automatically announced through a prompt for all 16.04 users mid July. Just upgrade when prompted and finally run the "Budgie Complete Installation" menu option to finish. You'll then be on the full 18.04.1 release. Some of the packages that were installed as part of the budgie-remix backports PPA will be uninstalled as part of the upgrade. Use budgie-welcome to reinstall anything that is removed. We also recommend you reset the panel to benefit from the revised Pocillo theme and applets: 
nohup budgie-panel --reset --replace &
Please refer to the community wiki for more help: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Upgrades Also, Ask Ubuntu has an excellent guide to help you upgrade: http://askubuntu.com/questions/110477/how-do-i-upgrade-to-a-newer-version-of-ubuntu As an alternative you might want to backup your important 16.04 data and do a fresh install - good way for a thorough spring clean!
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How minimal is too minimal?

By Nikola Leave a comment
So, with the release of Bionic Beaver (18.04) came a new feature for a "minimal" install. This minimal feature is something that many people have provided excellent feedback on and it appears to be a loved feature. I'm one of those people. But with that, comes to the opinionated concept of how minimal is "too" minimal. Is this just a reduction of apps? Does this include knocking down configuration to the defaults of the upstream packages? Somewhere in the middle? Each person you ask will have a different answer. We had gone more so on the extreme side to allow people to layer up as they saw fit, and many people love this approach. But it is not for everyone. The unfortunate thing is that the installer in its current form does not allow for a middle tier. And, the fortunate thing is that it is pretty darn simple to add a few packages to get the "Ubuntu Budgie" feel and configuration. i.e. panel layout/default keyboard shortcuts such as print-screen, tilix quake mode, dynamic workspaces, window-shuffler, etc. TLDR;
  • Install with the minimal install option.
  • Open a terminal and run:
sudo apt update && sudo apt install budgie-desktop-environment gnome-screenshot && nohup budgie-panel --reset --replace &
  • Reboot to activate all the goodness.
If you come across anything that you feel needs to be added to this set of commands, we invite you over to the forum  to discuss! I'm sure there will need to be some refinement to these instructions. 🙂