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The new Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

Exactly today, April 23, 2020, the new Ubuntu operating system release 20.04 LTS with the animal codename "Focal Fossa" (see image) was released. It offers a wealth of features (including new ones) that many other operating systems could take a whole lot from (yes, especially Windows!).

... By Markus Fleschutz 🕓 April 23, 2020.

Here are the features that the new release offers:

It's free and no one has to miss out on features or security just because they didn't pay. While donations are gladly accepted and there are paying customers, they will only receive longer support.
Planned releases released every year in April and October. And every two years comes an LTS release with especially long update support, like today's release 20.04.
Updates for 5 years: the LTS stands for Long Term Support, this means 5 years supply with security updates as well as normal updates (otherwise it is 3 years). For paying customers this period is even extended to 10 years. Of course it is possible to change to another release at any time.
Sensible editions: there is the edition "Desktop" for computers with graphical desktop interface, "Server" for server use, "Cloud" for cloud computing as well as "Core" for IoT devices (Internet of Things). In addition, each system can be upgraded or downsized at any time via the installation package management.
Great platform support: no matter what processor is used, whether ARM 64, Raspberry Pi 2/3/4, PowerPC 64, s390 or Intel/AMD x86, Ubuntu supports it. In addition, Ubuntu is also available in the Windows Store.
Kernel Live Patching: this technique in the Linux kernel can close security gaps in the kernel without rebooting during operation. This brings the high availability of the computer within reach.
Open Source: the source code is completely open and one can see the operating system up into the last angle "under the hood". In addition, you can build your own operating system and also bring your own changes.
Performance: the latest benchmarks have shown that even Clear Linux, which is highly optimized by Intel, is barely faster than Ubuntu 20.04.
Fast VPN: with WireGuard, a Virtual Private Network (VPN) with an encrypted connection is set up particularly quickly (for example, to the company network). WireGuard is particularly simple in design and uses only a limited, secure set of algorithms.
ZFS: this file system actively protects all data on hard disks and SSDs. It offers features like checksums, copy-on-write, RAID, compression, encryption, deduplication and snapshots. Especially the latter is done every 20 minutes as well as before new updates, in case of errors can then be immediately reset to a previous, safe state.
Snaps: with this technique apps are completely isolated from each other and always contain all necessary libs. No matter how bad one app is, it does not affect the other apps.
Encrypted user directory: only when the user logs in, his user directory is decrypted by the personal password and thus usable. The user directory contains all personal data, configurations and files. When logging out, it is securely encrypted again and is thus protected against spying or manipulation.
Dangerless testing - simply download the appropriate Ubuntu ISO file, transfer it bootable to a USB stick and then boot the computer from the USB stick. Now you can test Ubuntu extensively and install it only if you like it.

The new Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

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