The Kubuntu community is proud to announce the release of 12.10, the Quantal Quetzal. This is the first release to burst free from the limits of CD sizes giving us some more space for goodies on the image.
It also does away with the alternate installer images, adding advanced partitioning options to the desktop image.
Built on Ubuntu’s core and polished with KDE’s applications and workspaces, Kubuntu 12.10 is a grand example of friendly, fast and beautiful software. We recommend it as the perfect OS for casual users, students, Linux gamers, software developers, professionals and anyone interested in a free, open platform that is both beautiful and useful.
For a more technical overview see the Kubuntu 12.10 Release Notes
Getting Kubuntu 12.10
Upgrading from Previous Versions
To upgrade to Kubuntu 12.10 from 12.04 LTS, follow the Upgrade Instructions.
Download a Disk Image
Instructions for burning the image to a DVD or USB flash drive can be found on the Burning ISO Howto or Installation for USB Stick.
We recommend you learn how to check your image file to ensure it has downloaded correctly. Compare your MD5 checksum with the correct ones found alongside the images.
12.10 Highlights
1GB Images
We’re bursting out of our increasingly limited CD-sized images. The 12.10 images need to be installed from a DVD or USB drive. This will give us the room to ship more of the world-class KDE Software.
KDE Plasma and Applications 4.9
The latest release of KDE’s Plasma Workspaces and Applications brings new features and improvements all around. Highlights include further integration of Qt Quick in plasmoids making them more attractive, easier to enhance and extend and behave better on touchscreens. Dolphin file manager has improved its display and sorting and searching based on metadata. Deeper integration of Activities for files, windows and other resources. Kontact PIM suite sees bug fixes and performance improvements and introduces new tools to import mail, filters, account information, calendar data and address book entries from Thunderbird and Evolution. A mail backup and restore tool has also been added. Okular document viewer and Gwenview image browser both also see added functionality and improvements.
New Software Selections
We have added some new software to the default setup.
Calligra Suite
We have added two world class apps from KDE’s creativity suite. Krita is a painting programme to draw beautiful image and manipulate your images. Kexi is a desktop database application, suitable for large use or a small home address book.
The Calligra suite includes many other applications for document and creative use, install from from Muon Software Centre to try them all.
LightDM-KDE
We have replaced the login manager with LightDM which uses shiny QML based themes.
KDE Telepathy
Telepathy-KDE replaces the unmaintained Kopete as the default IM client. This new and active software project provides for easy access to Facebook, Google, Yahoo and many other instant messaging protocols. Version 0.5 brings new video and chat log support, in-line images in chats and some user interface enhancements. Run it from KDE IM Contacts from the K-menu.
Skanlite – scanning
Now included on the image is Skanlite, KDE’s simple image scanning application
Kamoso – camera
Use your webcam to make video recordings or snapshot photos using a simple interface that makes it very easy to use.
Graphics Tablet Config
We have added a Wacom configuration tool for those with tablet input devices, this needs testing by anyone with the hardware necessary and feedback let for us.
OwnCloud
OwnCloud 4 adds a host of new features to the cloud platform including shared calendars, easier sharing of files and a prettier photo gallery. See http://owncloud.org/changelog
New in this release is owncloud-client, a desktop app to sync your folders to your OwnCloud.
Print Manager
A new manage and admin tool for printers. Print manager adds a Plasma UI to the panel applet.
Colord KDE
A new tool to calibrate your screen, webcam and printer colours.
GTK Configuration
GTK Configuration replaces GTK Settings to tweak themes of GTK applications and lets you set both GTK 2 and newer GTK 3 applications.
Kontact Facebook and Google Integration
Kontact now integrates with your Facebook and Google addresses and calendar through akonadi-facebook and akonadi-googledata.
Kubuntu Active
Still in Tech Preview but with an updated version of Plasma Active, the tablet remix of Kubuntu has images available with this beta.
Known Problems
See a more complete list on the Release Notes
- (1038522) Manual partitioning in installer crashes when handling many partitions
- (475530) KIMPanel is not set up
- (1056946) Krita crashed on opening “Settings > Configure Krita”
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(1066861) Plasma-netbook freezes after clicking on ‘Page one’ in the panel
- (459476) Translations not included in kubuntu-docs
- (1061073) Desktop effects are slow and desktop corruption using mesa 9
Feedback
We want to hear your opinions on this release.
Give your feedback on our Google+ page or the Feedback wiki Page. Your input is an invaluable resource, so do take the time to write down your thoughts and let us know what you think!