Filing out alongside the final stable release of Ubuntu 16.10 is the rest of Ubuntu’s extended family.
That means download links for community flavors, including Ubuntu MATE 16.10 and Ubuntu GNOME 16.10, are now live.
The colorful set of spins each have their own new features, improvements and changes.
Wondering what new features you’ll find in each? Let’s take a look.
Ubuntu GNOME 16.10
Ubuntu GNOME 16.10 ships with the bulk of the GNOME 3.20 stack, and a small sprinkling of software from the latest release, GNOME 3.22.
A new Initial Setup tool helps you configure language and online accounts straight after your first login.
Other changes see LibreOffice 5.2, new community-contributed wallpapers, and (uniquely) no Qt libraries included as part of a default install.
An (entirely optional) Wayland session is also included. If you’re running open-source graphics drivers on a relatively modern card, you can login and try the next generation display server.
Kubuntu 16.10
The shiny Plasma 5.7.5 desktop environment is offered up in Kubuntu 16.10, and brings an improved Krunner ‘action list’, the return of an agenda view in the calendar applet, and per-application volume controls in the sound mixer.
The Breeze GTK theme (which is useful if you run GTK apps on the KDE desktop) also benefits from some attention.
KDE Applications 16.04.3 ups the ante on the productivity side, shipping new versions of core applications like the Dolphin file manager as well as a few new ones, including a brand new screenshot tool called ‘Spectacle’.
Lubuntu 16.10
Lubuntu 16.10 is largely the same as Lubuntu 16.04 LTS as work on switching to the LXQt desktop — expected next release — continues.
Small revision bumps to various applications and libraries are present, but even these see bug fixes and miscellaneous improvements rather than new features.
One notable change is that the Lubuntu Software Center is no longer included. Instead, Lubuntu 16.10 ships with GNOME Software.
Xubuntu 16.10
Xubuntu 16.10 receives a few minor changes over its LTS back in the spring.
There are new versions of some popular apps and plugins, like the Xfce 4 Whisker Menu, LightDM GTK Greeter and Thunar file manager.
The Xfce 4 weather plugin has had a backend API switch, and no longer shows a negative sign when temperature is rounded to 0 °F.
Ubuntu MATE 16.10
Ubuntu MATE 16.10 includes the very latest MATE 1.16 desktop release.
It is the first major Linux distribution to ship a full GTK3+ implementation of the MATE Desktop.
Beyond this (rather large switch) is a raft of improvements to the artwork and theming to ensure that all apps, headers, dialogs and pop-ups look as good as they should.
New versions of Ubuntu Studio and Ubuntu Kylin are also available to download.