Mark Shuttleworth announced on 21 April 2016 that Ubuntu 16.10 would be called Yakkety Yak. It was released on 13 October 2016. This release features a maintenance version of Unity 7, but offers Unity 8 packages included in the ISO, so that users can test them. Other improvements include a new version of Ubuntu Software that supports faster loading, better support for installing command-line-only non-GUI applications, support for installing fonts and multimedia codecs and introduction of paid applications. It is based on Linux kernel version 4.8. This version of Ubuntu introduced only minor incremental changes. These included LibreOffice 5.2, GTK3 version by default, the Update Manager shows changelog entries for Personal Package Archives (PPAs), as well as repository software, GNOME applications updated to version 3.20, with some using version 3.22. Also, systemd now handles user sessions as well as the previously implemented system sessions. Joey Sneddon of OMG Ubuntu said, "Ubuntu 16.10 is not a big update over Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, released back in April. If you were hoping it'd be a compelling or must-have upgrade you'll be sadly disappointed." He did find some improvements, "The Ubuntu Software app is also significantly faster in use. This solves a real pet peeve of mine on the incumbent LTS desktop. Thankfully, Yakkety makes it quicker to find, browser, search and install applications," but concluded, "Ubuntu 16.10 is not a must-have upgrade—not for most people." Marius Nestor of Softpedia noted, "Ubuntu 16.10 is not an exciting release for fans of the open source operating system. Probably the most important feature of Yakkety Yak is Linux kernel 4.8, which brings support for the latest hardware, but other than that, you'll get some updated components that are mostly based on the old GNOME 3.20 Stack." Writing in Makeuseof, Bertel King, Jr. said, "If you're feeling underwhelmed, you probably remember the Ubuntu of yesteryear. Back in the days of 8.10, 9.04, and 10.04 each release brought forth a new theme or ambitious feature. Unity first appeared in 10.10 as a netbook interface before replacing the regular desktop in 11.04. By comparison, modern Ubuntu updates feel relatively stagnant. You would be forgiven for not being able to distinguish between 12.04 and 16.10."
Shuttleworth announced on 21 October 2015 that Ubuntu 16.04 LTS would be called Xenial Xerus. It was released on 21 April 2016. The default desktop environment continues to be Unity 7, with an option for Unity 8. In May 2015, Shuttleworth indicated that Ubuntu 16.04 LTS would include Unity 8 and Mir, but that users have a choice of that or Unity 7 and X.org. He said, "Unity 8 will be an option for 16.04 and we'll let the community decide the default for 16.04." The release adds support for Ceph and ZFS filesystems, the LXD hypervisor (using seccomp) for OpenStack, and Snap packages will be supported. It will use systemd instead of Upstart as its init system. This release will replace the Ubuntu Software Center with GNOME Software and eliminate Empathy and Brasero from the ISO file. Reviewer Jack Wallen said, "The truth of the matter is, the Ubuntu Software Center has been a horrible tool for a very long time. Making this move will greatly improve the Ubuntu experience for every user." This release has online Dash search results disabled by default in Unity 7. "None of your search terms will leave your computer", stated Ubuntu desktop manager Will Cooke. Reviewer Jack Wallen said about this, "I've never considered the inclusion of online search results to be spyware. In fact, I have always considered the online results to be an efficient means of searching for products through Amazon (etc.). That being said, with the release of 16.04, this feature is disabled." Ubuntu 16.04 LTS does not support the AMD Catalyst (fglrx) driver for AMD/ATI graphics cards and instead recommends the radeon and AMDGPU alternatives. These may not provide optimal graphics performance, however. AMDGPU-PRO is available for Ubuntu 16.04. The first point release, 16.04.1, was released on 21 July 2016. Release of Ubuntu 16.04.2 was delayed a number of times, but it was eventually released on 17 February 2017. Ubuntu 16.04.3 was released on 3 August 2017. Ubuntu 16.04.4 was delayed from 15 February 2018 and released on 1 March 2018, providing the latest Linux kernel, 4.13, from Ubuntu 17.10. Ubuntu 16.04.5 was released on 2 August 2018, and Ubuntu 16.04.6 was released on 28 February 2019. Ubuntu 16.04.7 was released on 13 August 2020. In September, 2021, Canonical announced that it would extend LTS support for the 14.04 and 16.04 to a total of 10 years, extending the support date for 16.04 until April 2026.
Shuttleworth announced on 4 May 2015 that Ubuntu 15.10 would be called Wily Werewolf. He initially expressed hope that the release would include the Mir display server, but it was released on 22 October 2015 without Mir. It was the 23rd release of Ubuntu. Ubuntu 15.10 eliminated the disappearing window edge scrollbars in favour of the upstream GNOME scrollbars, a move designed to save developer time in creating patches and updates. In reviewing the release, Chris Jones wrote, "Ubuntu 15.10 as an operating system for Review is pretty lackluster. There's nothing new as such and there's nothing we can really say that is going to change your opinion from its predecessor, 15.04. Therefore, we recommend you to upgrade either out of habit and according to your regular upgrade schedule rather than out of a specific necessity for a specific feature of this release. Because there is really nothing that could possibly differentiate it from the older, yet still very stable 15.04 release. But if you're going to stick with 15.04 for a little longer, we do recommend that you look at upgrading the kernel to the latest 4.2 branch. It is worth it. If you really want a reason to upgrade? Linux kernel 4.2 would be our sole reason for taking Ubuntu 15.10 into consideration." Joey Sneddon of OMG Ubuntu noted, "For a release named after a terrifying mythological creature Ubuntu 15.10 is surprisingly tame. There are no dramatic transformations, no bone popping or shirt ripping and certainly no hair sprouting under the milky eye of full moon. In fact, a new wallpaper and change in scrollbar appearance is about as shapeshift-y as this werewolf gets." Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols of ZDNet praised the release for its integration of cloud services, such as the new Ubuntu OpenStack cloud deployment and management tool, OpenStack Autopilot as well as its server tools. Ubuntu's machine container hypervisor, LXD, included by default in 15.10, was singled out. Vaughan-Nichols concluded, "with these advances, chances are you're more likely to use Ubuntu, hidden behind the scenes, on clouds and servers." A Hectic Geek review noted problems with X.Org Server crashes and concluded "If you use Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and if it's working out for you, then there really is no need to switch to a non-LTS release, especially to the 15.10." A review on Dedoimedo identified problems with Samba, Bluetooth, desktop searching, battery life and the smartphone interface and found the release inconsistent, saying, "unpredictability is horrible. Give me a good experience, or give me a bad experience, but please try not to seesaw between them erratically. Continuous, steady change in behavior, any which way." The review concluded, "it underperforms compared to some of its siblings and ancestors. Not the best, definitely not worth a perma upgrade, but you might find it more palatable to your hardware and use cases. Overall, though Wily isn't the best of distros. It sure gave me the willies. 7/10."
Named for the cow girl doll who first appeared in Toy Story 2. This release introduced for the first time the systemd init system as default. Two new architectures were introduced: arm64 and ppc64el and three architectures were dropped: s390 (replaced by s390x), ia64 and sparc. The Sparc architecture had been present in Debian for 16 years, but lacked developer support to make it maintainable in the distribution. The release included many security improvements such as a new kernel that nullified a whole set of security vulnerabilities (symlink attacks), a new way to detect packages which were under security support, more packages built with hardened compiler flags and a new mechanism (needrestart) to detect sub-systems which had to be restarted in order to propagate security updates after an upgrade.
On 20 October 2014 Shuttleworth announced that Ubuntu 15.04 would be named Vivid Vervet. It was released on 23 April 2015. This was the 22nd Ubuntu release. Ubuntu 15.04 used systemd instead of Upstart by default. This release also featured locally integrated menus by default, replacing the previous default global menus. Silviu Stahie, writing for Softpedia, said about this release while it was in beta, "Ubuntu 15.04 is not an exciting release, but that it's only a surface impression. The truth is that it's an important upgrade, because some very important changes have been made, including the adoption of systemd. Users will notice that not too many visual changes have been implemented in Ubuntu 15.04, but that was to be expected. The team is transitioning to a new Unity version that is still not ready for general use, so it's easy to understand why Ubuntu 15.04 is not all that different from Ubuntu 14.10." This release included modest improvements in Intel Haswell graphics performance and bigger improvements for AMD Radeon graphics cards using the open-source Radeon R600 and RadeonSI Gallium3D drivers. In reviewing this release, Joey Sneddon, of OMG Ubuntu, said "Ubuntu 15.04 is yet another solid entry in the distribution's long release history. A dependable desktop operating system suited for end users but with plenty of convenient extras to woo developers with. Though the Unity 7 desktop is largely mothballed as work progresses on the new converged experience with Unity 8, the modest refinements received here buff the experience. Unity in Ubuntu 15.04 shines brighter, a glowing example of a desktop that 'just works' for users.". Jesse Smith of DistroWatch wrote, "One of the changes I was interested in exploring was Ubuntu's switch from the Upstart init software to systemd. In this regard I was pleasantly surprised. I find most distributions, when they initially make the switch to systemd, introduce bugs or, at the very least, break backward compatibility. Sometimes service managers stop working properly and network device names usually change. Even if everything works as it should, the administrator needs to adjust to systemd's approach to logging and adopt a different method of managing services. Ubuntu has taken an approach I like with regards to adopting systemd." He concluded, "on the surface, Ubuntu 15.04 does not bring many changes. There are a few cosmetic adjustments, but nothing major that desktop users are likely to notice. Most of the interesting work appears to be going on behind the scenes ... Ubuntu 15.04 feels very stable and easy to configure. This is an operating system that is virtually effortless to set up and run and I feel the Unity 7 desktop does a nice job of providing lots of features while staying out of the way ... All in all, I like what Canonical has done with Ubuntu 15.04. This feels like a small, incremental evolution for Ubuntu and Unity. The init switch, which has disrupted the users of several other distributions, goes largely unnoticed in Ubuntu and I think that is worthy of praise."
On 23 April 2014 Shuttleworth announced that Ubuntu 14.10 would carry the name Utopic Unicorn. Version 14.10 was released on 23 October, having only minor updates to the kernel, Unity Desktop, and included packages such as LibreOffice and Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird. The kernel was updated to 3.16 for hardware support (e.g. graphics) and has for security, full kernel address space layout randomization applied to the kernel and its modules, plus the closure of a number of information leaks in /proc. This version is the 21st release. Ubuntu 14.10 was officially characterized as a release that addressed "bug fixes and incremental quality improvements" and so it incorporated very few new features. Joey Sneddon of OMG Ubuntu wrote in reviewing this release, "Ubuntu 14.10, codenamed "Utopic Unicorn", is saddled with a modest changelog, composed largely of bug fixes, stability improvements and key software updates. All worthy, but falls a little way short of the "fresh ideas and new art" that should "raise the roof" – quotes from Mark Shuttleworth's "U" name announcement ... For the release taking place in the week of Ubuntu's 10th anniversary, this may all read like a bit of an anticlimax. No headline user features, no visual changes (bar a few new icons for the sidebar of Nautilus) – there's not even a new default wallpaper to look at...But on the flip side it's perhaps the most fitting release; the one that shows just how far Ubuntu has come in the past few years. Mature, dependable and sure in its own (Ambiance-themed) skin, buggy feature churn has given way to a sustained era of assured stability ... Ubuntu 14.10 is a rock-solid, hearty and dependable release. Perhaps more here than ever before. There's no getting away from the fact that it's an uninspiring update on paper, and is far from being anything approaching essential." Michael Larabel of Phoronix wrote, "At the end of the day simple end-users won't see much of a difference over Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, which is a bit sad given that this is the tenth anniversary release of Ubuntu Linux. For everyday Linux desktop users the many upgraded packages are great but there isn't too much more to celebrate about today on the desktop front. Scott Gilbertson, writing for The Register, explained, "I've been covering Ubuntu for seven of the release's 10 years and 14.10 is the first time I've had to dig deep into the release notes just to find something new to test ... If you needed further proof that Canonical is currently solely focused on bringing its Unity 8 interface to mobile devices, 14.10 is the best evidence yet ... Almost nothing Canonical develops has changed in this release – there isn't even a new desktop wallpaper. There are some updates to be sure, but they don't hail from Canonical ... The lack of updates isn't unexpected, in fact that's been the plan all along ... Desktop Ubuntu is currently in a kind of suspended animation, waiting on Unity 8 and Mir to be ready for its coming metamorphosis. The short story is that it makes no sense for Canonical to keep refining Unity 7 when it will soon be retired."
Mark Shuttleworth announced on 31 October 2011 that by Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu would support smartphones, tablets, TVs and smart screens. On 18 October 2013, it was announced that Ubuntu 14.04 would be dubbed "Trusty Tahr". This version was released on 17 April 2014, and is the 20th release of Ubuntu. Shuttleworth indicated that the focus in this development cycle would be a release characterized by "performance, refinement, maintainability, technical debt" and encouraged the developers to make "conservative choices". Technical debt refers to catching up and refining supporting work for earlier changes. The development cycle for this release focused on the tablet interface, specifically for the Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 tablets. There were few changes to the desktop, as 14.04 used the existing mature Unity 7 interface. Ubuntu 14.04 included the ability to turn off the global menu system and used locally integrated menus instead for individual applications. Other features were the retention of Xorg and not Mir or XMir, a Unity 8 developers' preview, new mobile applications, a redesigned USB Startup Disk Creator tool, a new forked version of the GNOME Control Center, called the Unity Control Center and default SSD TRIM support. GNOME 3.10 is installed by default. Point releases included 14.04.1 on 24 July 2014, 14.04.2 on 19 February 2015, 14.04.3 on 6 August 2015, 14.04.4 on 18 February 2016, 14.04.5 on 4 August 2016 and 14.04.6 on 7 March 2019. The release initially included Linux kernel 3.13, but this was updated to 4.2 with the point release of 14.04.4 on 18 February 2016. Point release 14.04.5, which provided the latest Linux kernel and graphics stacks from Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, was intended to be the final point release for 14.04 LTS, but 14.04.6 was released on 7 March 2019 as a security-targeted update. Joey Sneddon of OMG Ubuntu noted that recent Ubuntu releases have received lower and lower amounts of mainstream press coverage and termed it an "established product that has, by and large, remained a niche interest". In reviewing Ubuntu 14.04 LTS in April 2014, Jim Lynch concluded: "Ubuntu 14.04 seems to be all about refining the Ubuntu desktop. While there are not a lot of amazing new features in this release, there are quite a few very useful and needed tweaks that add up to a much better desktop experience. Canonical's designers seem to be listening to Ubuntu users again, and they seem willing to make the changes necessary to give the users what they want. That may be the single most important thing about Ubuntu 14.04. It could be an indication of a sea change in Canonical's attitude toward Ubuntu users." Jack Wallin writing for TechRepublic termed Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, "as polished a distribution as you'll find. It's cleaner, performs better, and is all around improved. Some users may say that this is the most boring release Canonical has unleashed in years, but I believe it to be one of the finest." Terry Relph-Knight of ZDNet said, "although there are no amazing 'must-have' new features in Ubuntu 14.04, it is worth upgrading just to get the latest LTS release with a more recent kernel and default applications." Scott Gilbertson of Ars Technica stated, "Ubuntu is one of the most polished desktops around, certainly the most polished in the Linux world, but in many ways that polish is increasingly skin deep at the expense of some larger usability issues, which continue to go unaddressed release after release." Normal LTS support continued until 25 April 2019, after which extended security maintenance is available to Ubuntu Advantage customers and as a separate commercial purchase, as was the case previously with 12.04. In September, 2021, Canonical announced that it would extend LTS support for the 14.04 and 16.04 to a total of 10 years, extending the support date for 14.04 until April 2024.
Ubuntu 13.10 is named Saucy Salamander. It was released on schedule on 17 October 2013. Consideration was given to changing the default browser from Mozilla Firefox to Chromium, but problems with timely updates to Ubuntu's Chromium package caused developers to retain Firefox for this release. Ubuntu 13.10 was intended to be the first Ubuntu release to replace the aging X Window System (X11) with the Mir display server, with X11 programs to have operated through the XMir compatibility layer. However, after the development of XMir ran into "outstanding technical difficulties" for multiple monitors, Canonical decided to postpone the default use of Mir in Ubuntu. Mir will still be released as the default display server for Ubuntu Touch 13.10. Ryan Paul of Ars Technica wrote that although 13.10 brings useful enhancements, it is "a relatively thin update". He also said "the new Dash concept is intriguing, but its usefulness is a bit limited"; and even though he thinks that universal Web search is potentially useful, he's somewhat uncomfortable with how Canonical joins it with local system searches. In a review of Ubuntu 13.10 Joey Sneddon of OMG Ubuntu criticized the new Smart Scopes feature, saying, "it's less of a help and more of a hindrance. With so many web services offering results for a search term – however innocuous it might be – the Dash ends up resembling a wall painted in unintelligible, irrelevant mess." Sneddon noted that internet search engines turn in more useful and better organized results and recommended selectively disabling individual scopes to reduce the noise factor. Jim Lynch of Linux Desktop Reviews described the release as "boring" and noted, "alas, Ubuntu 13.10 follows in the footsteps of Ubuntu 13.04. The big new desktop feature is Smart Scopes ... Beyond that there's not a whole lot that is interesting or exciting to talk about. It turns out that Saucy Salamander is one truly dull amphibian. Canonical really should rename this release to 'Snoozing Salamander' instead." Lynch described the Smart Scopes, "this is a very useful function, and it can save you a lot of time when looking for information. I understand that some people will regard this as a privacy violation, no problem. There's an easy way to disable Smart Scopes." Maria Korolov writing for Network World in December 2013 said of the release, "there is a benefit to be had in being able to search for files you own on both local drives and in cloud services such as Google Drive and Flickr. That's the idea behind Unity Smart Scopes ... The result is a cluttered mess. The first thing many users will probably do after installing Ubuntu 13.10 is to get rid of most of these results ... mixing generic Web results in with your own files is just confusing." In its year-end Readers Choice Awards, Linux Journal readers voted Ubuntu as Best Linux Distribution and Best Desktop Distribution for 2013. Support for Ubuntu 13.10 ended on 17 July 2014.
Named for the rubber toy penguin with a red bow tie. The release was frozen on June 30, 2012, very close to the Debian developers gathering in the 12th DebConf at Managua, Nicaragua. One architecture was included in this release (armhf) and this release introduced multi-arch support, which allowed users to install packages from multiple architectures on the same machine. Improvements in the installation process allowed visually impaired people to install the system using software speech for the first time. This was also the first release that supported the installation and booting in devices using UEFI firmware.
On 17 October 2012, Shuttleworth announced that Ubuntu 13.04 would be named Raring Ringtail and said about this release "[In the next six months] we want to have the phone, tablet and TV all lined up. So I think it's time to look at the core of Ubuntu and review it through a mobile lens: let's measure our core platform by mobile metrics, things like battery life, number of running processes, memory footprint, and polish the rough edges that we find when we do that." The Wubi installer was dropped as of 13.04, due to its incompatibility with Windows 8 and general lack of support and development. Previously, on 29 October 2012 at the Ubuntu Developer Summit registration, there had been a discussion of redesigning Wubi for Ubuntu 13.04. Ubuntu 13.04 was released on schedule on 25 April 2013. In reviewing Ubuntu 13.04 Jim Lynch from Desktop Linux Reviews said, "I found Ubuntu 13.04 to be a slightly disappointing upgrade. While there are definitely some enhancements in this release, there's also nothing very special about it ... Alas, there's nothing in Ubuntu 13.04 that makes me want to consider it for use as my daily distro. Don't misunderstand me, there's nothing overtly wrong with Ubuntu 13.04 either. It installed and performed very well for me. Unity 7 also has some helpful and attractive updates that Ubuntu users will enjoy, and there are other things in this release that help improve the overall Ubuntu experience ... I suspect it is simply because Ubuntu has settled into a comfortable middle age, it works and it works very well for what it does." Support for Ubuntu 13.04 officially ended on 27 January 2014.