We have another Ubuntu long-term support release, Ubuntu 22.04 “Jammy Jellyfish”. The release contains a significant number of modifications since its previous release with at least 5 years of support.
In this article, we will provide an overview of what is new in Ubuntu 22.04 “Jammy Jellyfish”.
Ubuntu 22.04 will be supported for a period of five years, until April 2027. If you use an Ubuntu server, you are probably aware that the support can also be increased with ESM (Extended Security Maintenance).
Most notable features in Ubuntu 22.04
Ubuntu Accent Colors
If you want to change the colour of your accents to make your Ubuntu seem more interesting, Ubuntu now has 10 accent colours to pick from. Open the settings menu, navigate to Appearances, and select one of the 10 accent colours available.
GNOME 42, which includes a number of new features and updates, is used by Ubuntu Jammy Jellyfish. GNOME 42 now has official support for a system-wide dark mode theme. It was previously possible to use dark mode on Ubuntu using Gnome tweaks, but thanks to Gnome 42, we can now enable dark mode through system settings.
One of the most significant changes in this release is the introduction of Wayland as the default display manager. On the system login screen, however, the option to switch to a non-wayland is also available.
Updated Software for performance enhancements
Linux Kernel & Nvidia Drivers
Depending on where you use your Ubuntu, it comes with different kernel versions. For example, on the most recent generations of certified devices, Ubuntu Desktop will automatically choose Linux kernel v5.17, whereas on all other hardware, Ubuntu Desktop will choose Linux kernel v5.15. The non-rolling LTS kernel v5.15 is included with Ubuntu Server 22.04.
Since Ubuntu 22.04 adds linux-restricted-modules of Nvidia drivers on ARM64, users on ARM64 will be able to install and configure Nvidia drivers from the Ubuntu Archive using the ubuntu-drivers utility.
nftables as default firewall backend
The transition to nftables as the default backend firewall is one of the security enhancements in the new Ubuntu release. All programmes on the system must determine whether to use newer nftables or legacy xtables as a backend.
Besides the above notable features/apps, the new release has updated most major applications to their latest versions.
Firefox 99
Firefox is now available as a snap in Ubuntu. It is maintained directly by Mozilla, which provides faster access to new Firefox versions and the opportunity to switch to a different flavours via snap channels.
