Ubuntu 18.04 lts is now available for download

Canonical has released the final version of its Ubuntu 18.04 LTS operating system, also known as the Bionic Beaver, which arrives to consolidate some important changes made with the release of Ubuntu 17.10, including the use of the GNOME desktop environment instead of the Unity desktop.

Ubuntu 18.04 LTS Bionic Beaver now available

With Ubuntu 17.10, Canonical chose to ditch its Unity desktop environment, a GNOME-based shell that came to power netbooks. The move was explained by Mark Shuttleworth as a necessary step as the company prepares to go public. The transition is completed with the release of Ubuntu 18.04 LTS with the latest version of GNOME, 3.28.

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Other major changes include abandoning the 32-bit installer images for the desktop version, and Canonical will now collect system usage data. Although it is turned on by default, users can easily turn off data collection. In addition, the complete set of data collected by Canonical will be available to the public, which will be interesting if what you are interested in is knowing which packages are the most popular among Ubuntu users.

Ubuntu 18.04 also brings the latest Linux Kernel, 4.15, an improved boot speed, and the option to install a minimal version of the operating system, which includes only a web browser, Mozilla Firefox, and basic utilities. Other changes include the return of Xorg as the default display server, which was swapped out for Wayland on Ubuntu 17.10. For those who prefer Wayland, it's still available as an option, but it's no longer the default.

Ubuntu 18.04 LTS is officially supported until April 2023, while the other two currently supported versions of LTS, 14.04 and 16.04, will receive updates until April 2019 and April 2021, respectively.

You can download the Ubuntu 18.04 ISO LTS file from the official site.

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