Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa) released

[Iain Lane]

The Ubuntu team is very pleased to announce our eighth long-term support
release, Ubuntu 20.04 LTS for Desktop, Server, Cloud and Core.

Codenamed "Focal Fossa", 20.04 LTS continues Ubuntu's proud tradition
of integrating the latest and greatest open source technologies into a
high-quality, easy-to-use Linux distribution. The team has been hard at
work through this cycle, introducing new features and fixing bugs.

The Ubuntu kernel has been updated to the 5.4 based Linux kernel,
with additional support for Wireguard VPN, AUFS5, and improved support
for IBM, Intel, Raspberry Pi and AMD hardware.

Ubuntu Desktop 20.04 LTS features the latest version of the GNOME
desktop environment, 3.36. Notable changes from 18.04 LTS include
performance improvements, a new lock screen design, and support for
fractional scaling under X11. 20.04 LTS also features a new
look-and-feel: the “Yaru” theme, available in both light and dark
variants.

20.04 LTS also brings support for installing an Ubuntu desktop system on
top of ZFS. The latest version brings performance enhancements and
optional encryption support. Zsys, Ubuntu’s ZFS system tool, provides
automated system and user state saving. Tight integration with GRUB
allows a user to revert to any system state on boot and go back in time
to pave the way to a bulletproof Ubuntu Desktop.

Ubuntu 20.04 LTS includes Python 3.8 as the default version but Python
2.7 is still available in the Ubuntu archive.

Ubuntu Server brings major updates to industry-standard packages
available on private clouds, public clouds, containers or bare metal in
your datacentre. Included are an updated HA/Clustering stack, PHP 7.4,
Ruby 2.7, Postgres 12, MySQL 8 and updated OpenSSH with U2F support for
security.

The newest Ubuntu Budgie, Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Ubuntu Kylin, Ubuntu MATE,
Ubuntu Studio and Xubuntu are also being released today.

More details can be found for these at their individual release notes:

    https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FocalFossa/ReleaseNotes#Official_flavours

Maintenance updates will be provided for 5 years for Ubuntu Desktop,
Ubuntu Server, Ubuntu Cloud and Ubuntu Core. All the remaining flavours
will be supported for 3 years. Additional security support is available
with ESM (Extended Security Maintenance).


To get Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
-----------------------

In order to download Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, visit:

   https://ubuntu.com/download

Users of Ubuntu 19.10 will be offered an automatic upgrade to 20.04 LTS
via Update Manager shortly. Users of 18.04 LTS will be offered the
automatic upgrade when 20.04.1 LTS is released, which is scheduled for
July 23rd. For further information about upgrading, see:

   https://ubuntu.com/download/desktop/upgrade

As always, upgrades to the latest version of Ubuntu are entirely free
of charge.

We recommend that all users read the release notes, which document
caveats, workarounds for known issues, as well as more in-depth notes
on the release itself. They are available at:

   https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FocalFossa/ReleaseNotes

Find out what's new in this release with a graphical overview:

   https://ubuntu.com/desktop
   https://ubuntu.com/desktop/features

If you have a question, or if you think you may have found a bug but
aren't sure, you can try asking in any of the following places:

   #ubuntu on irc.freenode.net
   https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users
   https://ubuntuforums.org
   https://askubuntu.com


Help Shape Ubuntu
-----------------

If you would like to help shape Ubuntu, take a look at the list of ways
you can participate at:

   https://discourse.ubuntu.com/contribute


About Ubuntu
------------

Ubuntu is a full-featured Linux distribution for desktops, laptops, clouds
and servers, with a fast and easy installation and regular releases. A
tightly-integrated selection of excellent applications is included, and an
incredible variety of add-on software is just a few clicks away.

Professional services including support are available from Canonical and
hundreds of other companies around the world. For more information about
support, visit:

   https://ubuntu.com/support


More Information
----------------

You can learn more about Ubuntu and about this release on our website
listed below:

   https://ubuntu.com

To sign up for future Ubuntu announcements, please subscribe to Ubuntu's
very low volume announcement list at:

   https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-announce


On behalf of the Ubuntu Release Team,

-- 
Iain Lane                                  [ iain at orangesquash.org.uk ]
Debian Developer                                   [ laney at debian.org ]
Ubuntu Developer                                   [ laney at ubuntu.com ]
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