Ubuntu 17.04 (zesty zapus) will arrive on April 13 with unity 7 desktop by default

Now that Canonical is no longer developing the Unity 8 user interface and will start using the GNOME desktop environment starting next year with the arrival of Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, it's time to take a look at what Ubuntu 17.04 will offer us.

Official support for 9 months for Ubuntu 17.04

In just two days from the time of writing this article, on April 13, 2017, Ubuntu 17.04 (Zesty Zapus) will be officially released and will become the 26th version of the well-known Linux-based operating system. The bad news is that the new operating system will benefit from security and software updates for only 9 months, until January 2018.

Ubuntu 17.04 has been in development for the past six months, and is currently in the Final Freeze stage, during which all Ubuntu developers prepare for the final version of the operating system, and try to fix any issues they may have left.

Powered by Linux 4.10, Ubuntu 17.04 arrives with Mesa 17.0 and X.Org Server 1.19

If you have been reading our news about the next version of Ubuntu, you should already be familiar with the new features of the platform, but we will repeat them for those who have not followed our Linux category lately.

First of all, Ubuntu 17.04 will come with the Unity 7 user interface by default, so before you regret that Canonical is leaving Unity, you will be able to enjoy another nine months of this interface if you upgrade to Ubuntu 17.04 on April 13 or sometime next after its launch.

Powered by the latest 4.10 kernel, Ubuntu 17.0 also comes with an updated graphics stack based on the new X.Org Server 1.19.3 graphics server and the Mesa 17.0 3 3D graphics library. This means that Ubuntu gamers with AMD Radeon and Intel graphics cards will benefit from higher performance on Ubuntu 17.04 versus Ubuntu 16.10 or 16.04 LTS.

Ubuntu 17.04 is also the first version to use a Swap file for new installations instead of a Swap partition. In addition, it also has support for Apple AirPrint and IPP Everywhere printers, as well as a large number of packages from the latest GNOME Stack, specifically GNOME 3.24, and with most of the updated applications.

Users who want to can try the Unity 8 user interface, which is available in Preview format from the home screen. But we will give more information about it next Thursday, April 13, when Ubuntu 17.04 will be officially released.