Canonical released Ubuntu 19.04, focused on open infrastructure deployments, the developer desktop, Internet of Things (IoT), and cloud to edge software distribution.
According to Mark Shuttleworth, CEO of Canonical, “The open-source-first on Ubuntu movement in telco, finance, and media has spread to other sectors. From the public cloud to the private data centre to the edge appliance or cluster, open source has become the reference for efficiency and innovation. Ubuntu 19.04 includes the leading projects to underpin that transition, and the developer tooling to accelerate the applications for those domains.”
Open infrastructure from cloud to edge
Ubuntu 19.04 integrates recent innovations from key open infrastructure projects – like OpenStack, Kubernetes, and Ceph – with advanced life-cycle management for multi-cloud and on-prem operations – from bare metal, VMware and OpenStack to every major public cloud.
OpenStack Stein brings AI and NFV hardware acceleration with GPGPU and FPGA passthrough. Ceph Mimic provides multi-site replication and the latest Kubernetes 1.14 enables enterprise storage and the new containerd direct runtime.
Optimised Ubuntu Server 19.04 and Minimal Ubuntu 19.04 images are available on all major public clouds.
IoT ecosystems for gateways, robotics and smart displays
Control decisions move to the edge with smart appliances based on Ubuntu, enabling edge-centric business models. Amazon published Greengrass for IoT on Ubuntu, as well as launching the AWS DeepRacer developer-centric model for autonomous ground vehicle community development, also running Ubuntu. The Edge X stack and a wide range of industrial control capabilities are now available for integration on Ubuntu based devices, with long term security updates. Multiple smart display solutions are also available as off-the-shelf components in the snap store.
Developer productivity
Microsoft Visual Studio Code joined the list of popular developer tools published as snaps including IntelliJ, pyCharm, Postman and microK8s. AI, machine learning and data science platforms continue to prefer Ubuntu for rapid adoption and fast project iterations.
In Ubuntu 19.04, multiple instances of the same snap can be installed for CI/CD, testing or phased rollouts. For example, two versions of a database or two versions of the golang compiler can be installed at the same time. Snap epochs control when and how data migration happens between major version upgrades.
More than 2,000 independent software publishers now distribute their applications to Linux desktops, appliances and cloud VMs through the snap store, growing 30% since October 2018.
Developer desktop integrated with VMware
Ubuntu 19.04 introduces GNOME 3.32 with higher frame rates, smoother startup animations, quicker icon load times and reduced CPU+GPU load. Fractional scaling for HiDPI screens is now available in X-org and Wayland. Installing Ubuntu on VMWare will automatically install open-vm-tools for bi-directional clipboard, easy sharing of files and graceful power state management.
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