Linux distribution
Ubuntu 23.10
Nate Drake dives into the labyrinth and finds Canonical has released another solid offering with its Mantic Minotaur iteration of Ubuntu.
IN BRIEF
Far from being labyrinthine, Ubuntu 23.10 offers an easy setup, along with a revamped Gnome desktop, making tiling and arranging workspaces much easier. Searches are global and there’s a new App Center.
SPECS
CPU: 2GHz dual-core
Mem: 4GB
HDD: 25GB
Builds: x86_64, ARMv8, AArch64
The Ubuntu blog describes the word Mantic as being “used to describe one’s ability to prophesy or reach into the future”. This is exactly what the LXF team is attempting to do in testpiloting a daily build of the OS prior to the official release on 12/10/23.
The Minotaur was a mythical halfman, half-bull who guarded the halls of the impenetrable labyrinth of Crete. Luckily, this is totally at odds with our experience of Ubuntu 23.10 Mantic Minotaur, which fully lives up to the OS’s philosophy of openness and ease of use.
We’re partial to new desktop backgrounds and found the default understated image inspiring. There’s also a less distracting dark variant. If you prefer something less abstract, there are 10 other Minotaur-themed wallpapers, including one rendered lovingly in pixel art.
While we’re talking about desktops, the version we chose for review uses Ubuntu’s default Gnome environment, updated to version 45. Changes include the new Tiling Assistant extension. This means that by default Gnome tries to solve the issue of floating windows by adding a Windows-like snap assist to the desktop, enabling you to drag windows to automatically use quarter or half-tiling on your workspaces. Tiling popups and tiling group features are also supported, enabled or disabled by going to Settings > Ubuntu Desktop.