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Ubuntu 17.04 'Zesty Zapus', Featuring Unity, Now Available To Download (betanews.com)

Posted by msmash on from the new-ubuntu-release dept.

Brian Fagioli, writing for BetaNews: Ubuntu 17.04 "Zesty Zapus" is available for download. No, this is not an Alpha or Beta, but an official stable version of the Linux-based operating system. Unfortunately, the release is a bit tainted -- it uses Unity as the official desktop environment, which Canonical has announced will be killed. Not to mention, there has been some controversy regarding some comments by Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth. Just yesterday, the CEO of Canonical announced she is leaving the position. With all of the aforementioned controversy and chaos, it is understandably hard to get too excited for "Zesty Zapus," especially as this is not a long term support version. With that said, if you are an existing Ubuntu user that likes Unity, this is certainly a worthwhile upgrade if you are OK with the shorter support. Unity may no longer have a future, but version 7 will continue to be supported -- for a while, at least.

1 of 83 comments (clear)

  1. Re:last letter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    How's about taking this as a chance to just drop the Pokemon theme altogether?

    The "cute" name tells you nothing. Ok, you know that version "U" comes after "T" and before "V". But when was it released? When does support end? Is it LTS? You know nothing!

    If the "cute" name tells you nothing, then it is a useless piece of fluff. And a rather stupid one, I might add, because the developers end up having to hit the encyclopedia real hard to come up with those names, but it just ends up sounding stupid (the crap is a Zapus? Or a Xerus? Or a Xenial Xerus?).

    This wouldn't be so bad if the name didn't subsequently get plastered everywhere. "We provide packages of our software for Ubuntu 'Bugs Bunny' and 'Daffy Duck'". Gee, thanks a lot Mr. package provider, which one do I install on my Ubuntu 21.07 (because, while I might remember the version name, I sure as hell am not going to remember that Pokemon for more than 3 minutes, let alone 3 years)?

    Their versioning scheme is already pretty decent. Version 15.04 was released in April (04) 2015, hence, 15.04. LTS versions get an LTS slapped in front of them. Non-LTS versions are supported for 9 months and LTS versions are supported for 5 years. So support for 15.04 should end somewhere in February 2016.

    Simple. Concise. Useful.

    If the version number is more than sufficient, and provides useful information, for Pete's sake, just use that!