Following 25 weeks of development, Canonical today released Ubuntu 19.10. Highlights include new edge capabilities for Kubernetes, an integrated AI developer experience, and the fastest GNOME desktop performance yet. You can download Ubuntu 19.10 from here.
Kubernetes (stylized as k8s) was originally designed by Google and is now maintained by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF). Kubernetes is an open-source container-orchestration system. MicroK8s, meanwhile, is a CNCF-certified upstream Kubernetes deployment that runs entirely on your workstation or edge device.
Ubuntu 19.10 brings strict confinement to MicroK8s, ensuring complete isolation and a tightly secured production-grade Kubernetes environment. MicroK8s add-ons (like Istio, Knative, CoreDNS, Prometheus, and Jaeger) can now be deployed at the edge with a single command. Raspberry Pi 4 supports Ubuntu 19.10, meaning you can orchestrate workloads at the edge with MicroK8s for just $35.
Additionally, Ubuntu 19.10 ships with the Train release of Charmed OpenStack. The included live migration extensions let users move machines from one hypervisor to another without shutting down.
GNOME 3.34 makes Ubuntu 19.10 the fastest release yet with performance improvements even on older hardware. Responsiveness aside, users can drag and drop icons into categorized folders, select light or dark Yaru theme variants, and try the experimental ZFS filesystem support.
Integrated AI developer experience
Companies across industries are pushing their developers to adopt AI and ML, who in turn face scaling and integration challenges. Ubuntu 19.10 is the latest attempt from Canonical to help developers balancing containers and AI.
Kubeflow is now available as an add-on to MicroK8s for improved AI and machine learning capabilities. Developers can set up, develop, test, and scale to their production needs “in minutes.” Kubeflow and GPU acceleration work out the box with MicroK8s. All dependencies are included with automatic updates and transactional security fixes so users can spend less time configuring and more time innovating.
Ubuntu 19.10 ships with Nvidia drivers embedded in the ISO image. That means out-of-the-box improvements to performance and overall experience for gamers and AI/ML users with Nvidia hardware. Ubuntu 19.10 also uses the Linux 5.3 kernel, which introduces support for the AMD Navi GPUs and Zhaoxin x86 processors for workstations.
“In the fifteen years since the first Ubuntu release, we have seen Ubuntu evolve from the desktop to become the platform of choice across public cloud, open infrastructure, IoT and AI,” Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth said in a statement. “With the 19.10 release, Ubuntu continues to deliver strong support, security and superior economics to enterprises, developers, and the wider community.”