Ade Malsasa Akbar contact
Senior author, Open Source enthusiast.
Wednesday, March 15, 2017 at 10:51

A Short Review of Ubuntu GNOME 17.04 Beta 1



If you curious about GNOME 3.22 and later, and about the next-release of Ubuntu GNOME, then it's good to see what's inside Ubuntu GNOME 17.04 "Zesty Zapus" pre-release. Here I write an overview of its Beta 1 release and showing some interesting aspects such as memory usage, new additions (Flatpak & Snappy), new features (Night Light etc.), and its default apps (LibreOffice 5.3 etc.). This Beta 1 is already very nice and exciting to use. I hope you enjoy Ubuntu GNOME 17.04.

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Highligts


According to official release notes (see References), Ubuntu GNOME 17.04 will ship with:
  • GNOME 3.24, but not for all programs
  • Linux kernel 4.10
  • Wayland, but not as default desktop session
  • Flatpak included
  • Snappy included
  • GNOME Software can install .flatpak packages
Despite the release notes, actually in Beta 1 the kernel version is 4.9.0.


Release Date


Ubuntu GNOME 17.04 "Zesty Zapus" will be released at April 2017 along with another official Ubuntu Flavors.

Where To Download


This review uses Beta 1 image that can be downloaded here http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-gnome/releases/zesty/. I downloaded at March 13th, the "2017-02-19" timestamped ISO image. If you want daily build images, see here http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-gnome/daily-live/current/.



Memory Usage


Ubuntu GNOME 17.04 consumes around 1.4 GB or RAM at idle time. It's surprisingly huge, especially when compared to Ubuntu 16.10 (1 GB), deepin 15.4 (~500MB), and KDE Neon 5.8 (~300MB). Seeing this, any mid-low computer can not run it.


The Beta 1 version I run has GNOME Shell 3.23. The most consuming process is gnome-shell, for around 270MB of RAM.


New: Night Light


Since GNOME 3.24 got new Night Light feature, Ubuntu GNOME 17.04 got it too. This feature is similar to Redshift in case you can prevent eye-strain by reducing blue light from your screen. To enable it, go to GNOME Control Center > Display > switch Night Light on.




New: Flatpak Included


Flatpak is now installed by default. And the Software Center can install .flatpak package now because GNOME Software included is 3.22. You can now do right-click on a .flatpak package and choose Open with Software Install.



New: Snap Included


Beside Flatpak, Snappy system is now also installed by default. This including the command lines snap and snapctl, and of course the service snapd. The Software Center now can search and install Snap packages like the default APT repo system.


New: Wayland


Ubuntu GNOME 17.04 ships with Wayland. But the default display server is still X11, while Wayland session is not enabled by default.

Default Applications


For Beta 1, the default applications are these:

  • Mozilla Firefox 50.1.0
  • LibreOffice 5.3
  • GNOME Software 
  • GNOME Books 3.22
  • GNOME Weather 3.20
  • GNOME Control Center 3.23
  • GNOME Tweak Tool 3.23
  • GNOME Terminal 3.20.2
  • GNOME Calendar 3.23
  • Nautilus File Manager 3.20
  • Gedit 3.22
  • Rhythmbox 3.4.1
  • DConf Editor 3.23
  • Totem 3.23


Known Problem


The Nautilus file manager in Beta 1 cannot show image thumbnails preview. This is the most noticeable problem we can experience directly.

References



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