The latest interim release of Kubuntu, the 21.10 Impish Indri, brings a host of changes and improvements featuring the new KDE Plasma 5.22, KDE Frameworks 5.86, and others
What’s new in Kubuntu 21.10:
- New features and changes in 21.10:
- Core desktop and applications:
- Plasma 5.22: simple by default, powerful when needed
- Plasma 5.22 has been developed to make it smoother to use while retaining the familiar setup.
As usual, the launch of any version of Ubuntu brings forth a slew of new versions for other official and unofficial Ubuntu flavors.
Kubuntu 21.10 has been released on October 14, and, being an interim release, is set to receive support only for 9 months.
Most important changes
This new version of Kubuntu inherits most of the changes from Ubuntu 21.10 (such as the new 5.13-based kernel) but comes with a series of specific changes and improvements as well.
The main highlights of this release are the new KDE Plasma 5.22, KDE Frameworks 5.86, and KDE Gear 21.08.
While the new Plasma version brings a series of improvements and eye-pleasing changes (such as adaptive transparency, an overhauled System Settings section, and some nifty changes in the tray area – Calendar being the main one), it remains quite familiar to use.
Other noteworthy changes
Of course, this latest version of Kubuntu comes with various updated apps as well. Krita, Kdevelop, Yakuake are just some of them. The list is rounded up with Firefox 92 as being the default browser (and thankfully, one that uses the native Debian (.deb) package, and LibreOffice 7.2.1.
Users should also know that Kubuntu 21.10 ships with Qt 5.15.2, and that Latte-dock is updated to the new 0.10 version that brings a hefty series of new features and improvements.
Even though Plasma Wayland is bundled within this version of Kubuntu, it’s not enabled by default. To start a Wayland session, users have to select it within the login screen.
Not without issues
Even though Kubuntu historically is renowned for coming with lots of “stuff” built-in, this latest iteration of the OS can’t run Electron apps (as they all crash upon launch).
Other issues include some installer and live sessions bugs (i.e. clicking on URLs in Kubuntu Installer Slideshow does nothing) and an older bug that makes Apport-kde crash when reporting bugs.
Verdict
Kubuntu 21.10 Impish Indri is an interim release which means that some experimentation and potential failures should not be extremely frowned upon.
Be that as it may, it does a good job of moving things along and preparing everyone for the next LTS release of Kubuntu, but it’s somewhat a shame that it can’t run Electron apps.
