A minotaur is a mythical creature that is half man, half bull; but when it comes to Linux, it's not a myth, it's the code name for the Ubuntu 23.10 operating system officially released today.

With commercial support and development led by Canonical Inc, the new Ubuntu 23.10 “Mantic Minotaur” is the second software update for the popular Linux distribution in 2023 and brings with it several improvements that will help desktop, server and cloud users. Ubuntu is among the most widely deployed Linux distributions and competes against multiple vendors in the enterprise space for Linux, most notably SUSE and IBM's Red Hat business unit.

At the core of every Linux distribution is the Linux kernel. For Ubuntu 23.10, that kernel is Linux 6.5, which was first released by Linux creator Linus Torvalds on August 27. The 6.5 kernel adds new support for AMD Ryzen and Intel Alder Lake CPUs to help improve performance and power utilization.

Beyond Intel- and AMD-based systems, Ubuntu 23.10 will also support the SiFive HiFive Pro P550 RISC-V architecture, as well as the Raspberry Pi 5.

What does a Minotaur look like on a desktop? A lot like a GNOME

On the desktop side, Mantic Minotaur uses the open-source GNOME 45 desktop environment, code-named Riga, that had its first public release on Sept. 20. GNOME is one of many desktop environments Linux software distributions can choose to include, and is commonly the default across enterprise distributions.

One of the standout features of the GNOME 45 release is the new dynamic workspace indicator, which is a marked change from the previous static "Activities" label. In the previous versions of GNOME, the "Activities" button located at the top bar was statically labeled and served as a gateway to the overview of windows, applications and virtual desktops.

However, in GNOME 45, this static "Activities" label has been replaced with a dynamic workspace indicator. This change makes the button's function more readily apparent to new users and provides a more efficient and intuitive user interface. The workspace indicator is now dynamic, implying that it can change and provide real-time information about the state of your workspaces.

In addition to the new dynamic workspace indicator, GNOME 45 also retired the old app menu that used to show the name of the currently focused app. This change was made to accommodate the new design and was also based on user testing results. The old app menu was removed, freeing up space for the new dynamic workspace indicator.

Going beyond the default GNOME 45 capabilities, Ubuntu 23.10 also integrates a Tiling Assistant capability. It enables users to better customize how application windows appear on the desktop. For example, a user can now drag the corner of an application window to create a tile, or smaller window, that is 25% of the total screen size.

[caption id="attachment_135067" align="alignnone" width="720"] The tiling tool in the new Ubuntu GNOME desktop. Image source: Canonical.[/caption]

Ubuntu 23.10 also diverges a bit from the base GNOME 45 with its revised App Center, which allows users to find and install applications. In Mantic Minotaur, the new App Center uses the open-source Flutter user-interface tool, originally created by Google, to enable what Ubuntu developers claim is a more responsive user experience.

The Minotaur software has a new way to configure networks

From a networking perspective, there is now a new way for desktop users to manage configuration.

In the past, configuring network settings on Ubuntu involved administrators tailoring their workflows based on whether their targets were desktop or server applications. To ensure a smooth networking experience across diverse Ubuntu software environments, Ubuntu 23.10 on the desktop has now adopted Netplan. This is a declarative networking configuration tool that was already being used on Ubuntu Server, promoting uniformity in handling networking configurations.

Getting connected into corporate networks that rely on Microsoft Active Directory for access is also getting easier with Ubuntu 23.10. ADsys, the Active Directory Group Policy client for Ubuntu, is being enhanced to support machine certificate auto-enrollment from Microsoft’s Active Directory Certificate Services.

"Automated enrollment eliminates the need for manual interactions with the certificate authority, such as pre-creating certificates," the Ubuntu 23.10 releases notes state. "This simplifies IT administration and minimizes security risks associated with managing sensitive data."

Restricted unprivileged user namespaces introduced to boost security

There is also a big security change in Ubuntu 23.10 that users will be able to try out.

Restricted unprivileged user namespaces are being introduced to Ubuntu 23.10 as a new security feature. This feature aims to strike a balance between security and usability for both everyday users and organizations with specific compliance requirements.

Unprivileged user namespaces are a kernel feature that can be used for various purposes, including creating more secure sandboxes for applications. However, they can also expose kernel interfaces to unprivileged users, posing potential security risks. As a mitigation, Ubuntu is introducing restricted unprivileged user namespaces, where AppArmor can be used to selectively control access to these namespaces on a per-application basis. AppArmor is an Ubuntu technology for applying access controls to processes.

Today the restricted unprivileged user namespaces feature is opt-in. Users can turn it on using the command line and, as feedback is gathered from users, the feature will be turned on by default.