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Ubuntu Desktop Director and Ubuntu MATE maintainer Martin Wimpress announced earlier on Twitter that the popular Ubuntu Linux distribution will get a brand-new installer for the Desktop flavor.
It was about time for Canonical to replace that old Ubiquity installer within Ubuntu, and it looks like it’s finally happening! Work has already started on a brand-new installer that will be used for the Ubuntu Desktop flavor, the one that uses the GNOME desktop environment by default.
Besides an obvious new design, what’s very interesting about the upcoming new Ubuntu Desktop installer is that it will use the Flutter open-source UI software development kit created by Google for the desktop frontend.
This would probably allow Canonical and the Ubuntu developers to provide a consistent installer experience across the entire Ubuntu product portfolio, especially that Ubuntu Server already received a new installer called Subiquity with the Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa) release.
“Consolidating the installer for server and desktop on common technologies will mean we can deliver a consistent, robust, installation experience across the Ubuntu family and focus our efforts on maintaining a single code base,” said Martin Wimpress.
The new Ubuntu Desktop installer will be available as a technical preview in the upcoming Ubuntu 21.10 release later this year, but it should be ready for mass consumption starting with the next LTS (Long-Term Support) release, Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, due for release in April 2022.
Martin Wimpress also said that Ubuntu’s current installer Ubiquity will still be available and maintained in the archives for any of the official Ubuntu flavors or third-party derivatives to use in their images.
However, since it looks like Canonical doesn’t plan to add new features to Ubiquity, I believe most official flavors will probably switch to the Calamares universal installer, which is already used by Kubuntu and Lubuntu.
Work on the new Ubuntu Desktop installer is taking place at GitHub if you want to get an early taste, become a tester, or contribute code. For general discussion about the new Ubuntu Desktop installer visit the Ubuntu forums.
Image credits: Canonical
Last updated 3 years ago
