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."
Official announcement
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