I have been complaining about the lack of news in Ubuntu for a while, and although it seems that the trend will not change in 2023, at least if there could be some changes that I would describe as interesting. The possible return of Edubuntu and Cinnamon as a desktop in an official version.
Although Edubuntu is still a project, it has in its favor that will be built on the basis of the official version with a change in the pre-installed programs. One of its managers is Erich Eickmeyer, who is in charge of building Ubuntu Studio, perhaps the most complex to build of the official flavors available.
For its part, Ubuntu Cinnamon Remix just depends on bureaucratic approval by the Ubuntu community to become an official flavor.
What Edubuntu and Cinnamon offer
Edubuntu
Edubuntu was between 2005 and 2014 an official version aimed at the educational market. Due to a lack of collaborators, it disappeared in 2016. However, promises to return by the hand of Erich Eickmeyer and his wife Amy who comes from the educational sector.
The original Edubuntu could be installed or used in live mode from a cd or dvd. At the same time it was available as a software collection that could be installed from the package manager in the other variants. It originally came with the GNOME desktop, although the latest releases used Unity.
The Eickmeyer couple's plans include:
- The GNOME desktop will be used as it comes in the official version of Ubuntu.
- The new logo is based on the current version of Ubuntu's traditional circle of friends, but to reflect the flavor's purpose it shows a person raising their hand.
- Regarding the appearance, it will use the red variant of the Yaru theme, not only to maintain consistency with the color of the logo, but also to allow compatibility with applications that use QT libraries that do not usually combine well with dark mode.
- The file manager will come with specific folders for the different subjects.
- An installer will allow you to select which educational packages you want to install on the other versions of Ubuntu.
- An uninstaller to remove Edubuntu applications that are not needed.
Amy Eickmeyer, the new project leader She has a degree in Early Childhood Education and Family Studies from the University of Washington and has 16 years of experience in the field. She is currently a non-profit organization providing early education resources to Somali refugee children.
Ubuntu Cinnamon
Currently known as Ubuntu Cinnamon Remix, This distribution combines Cinnamon, the desktop created by the Linux Mint distribution, with Ubuntu. This desktop is ideal for those who prefer a more traditional user interface. Despite this, Cinnamon is highly configurable and its features can be extended with extensions and applets.
So far there have been 9 releases of Ubuntu Cinnamon Remix including two in extended support. Should it become an official flavor, Ubuntu Cinnamon Lunar Lobster will have support for 9 months and we will have to wait until 2024 to have extended support for 5 years.
The proposal details that its developer team also maintains Cinnamon on Debian and is in frequent contact with the developers of the desktop.
Ubuntu Cinnamon 2304 Lunar Lobster will be available for download on April 20, 2023.
What is an official flavor?
What does it mean that Edubuntu and Cinnamon become official versions?
In practical terms it means that these distributions meet the criteria that Canonical and the Ubuntu community developers require in terms of quality and security in addition to having Canonical's resources for hosting and distributing the images. To this we must add that they have access to the developers of the main distribution, which makes it easier for them to obtain updates and information to solve problems.
It's never going to happen, but if the Ubuntu developers knew what they were doing, Cinnamon would be the main distribution desktop. GNOME is becoming a project of programmers locked in an ivory tower who build an increasingly large and unusable project.
As a deceased sports journalist said
"At least, that is the way I see it"
I don't know what to tell you, I see flavors of Ubuntu as the brand new Ubuntu Unity (which is a full-blown humiliation to Canonical -a 12-year-old boy is developing Unity beyond what this multinational could do in years-), but Ubuntu Cinnamon is anything but new, it will be a clone of Linux Mint and I see it as unnecessary...although it is also true that I do the same but in reverse, that is, I use Linux Mint with Gnome Shell -basically because I installed Linux Mint Cinnamon on my new laptop, and my graphics card and Cinnamon don't mix well, and I prefer Gnome Shell to Xfce or Mate.