Xubuntu Development Update September 2023

September has arrived, and cooler days are finally ahead in the northern hemisphere. The Xubuntu development update for September 2023 brings several exciting updates. Development on the 23.10 release, “Mantic Minotaur,” has been progressing nicely, with numerous updates to report.

Color Emoji Have Arrived

Font updates to the desktop-common seed on August 21 added the fonts-noto-color-emoji package to all Ubuntu flavors, including Xubuntu. This enables color emoji in any application using GTK 3 or 4. In case you want to learn more, I’ve previously written about color emoji in Xubuntu.

Fixed Support for Bluetooth Headphones

When we switched from PulseAudio to PipeWire in 23.04, our changes to make Bluetooth headphones work didn’t take. While I had added the required libspa-0.2-bluetooth package to our seed, I didn’t confirm that it was included in the generated metapackages ( #2028530, #2017818). Unit 193 dug in and resolved this issue, fixing support for 23.10.

mate-polkit Replaces policykit-1-gnome

Here’s a feature that we hope you don’t notice! The policykit-1-gnome package is no longer maintained and may be dropped in a future Debian release. After the mate-polkit package was patched to support Xfce, we switched! This should be a completely transparent transition with no issues. But do let us know if anything doesn’t work right.

So Many Package Updates

The Xfce, GNOME, and other desktop components have received numerous package updates since the start of 23.10. Review the list below for any surprises!

• baobab 44.0 → 45 alpha
• gnome-font-viewer 44.0 → 45 alpha
• gnome-software 44.0 → 45 beta
• libreoffice 7.5.2 → 7.5.6
• libxfce4ui 4.18.2 → 4.18.4
• mousepad 0.5.10 → 0.6.1
• rhythmbox 3.4.6 → 3.4.7
• ristretto 0.12.4 → 0.13.1
• sgt-puzzles 20230122.806ae71 → 20230410.71cf891
• thunar 4.18.4 → 4.18.6
• thunar-archive-plugin 0.5.0 → 0.5.1
• thunar-media-tags-plugin 0.3.0 → 0.4.0
• thunderbird 102.10.0 → 115.2.0
• transmission 3.00 → 4.0.2
• tumbler 4.18.0 → 4.18.1
• xfburn 0.6.2 → 0.7.0
• xfce4-clipman 1.6.2 → 1.6.4
• xfce4-cpugraph-plugin 1.2.7 → 1.2.8
• xfce4-dict 0.8.4 → 0.8.5
• xfce4-indicator-plugin 2.4.1 → 2.4.2
• xfce4-mailwatch-plugin 1.3.0 → 1.3.1
• xfce4-netload-plugin 1.4.0 → 1.4.1
• xfce4-notifyd 0.7.3 → 0.8.2
• xfce4-panel 4.18.2 → 4.18.4
• xfce4-panel-profiles 1.0.13 → 1.0.14
• xfce4-power-manager 4.18.1 → 4.18.2
• xfce4-pulseaudio-plugin 0.4.5 → 0.4.7
• xfce4-screensaver 4.16.0 → 4.18.2
• xfce4-screenshooter 1.10.3 → 1.10.4
• xfce4-session 4.18.1 → 4.18.3
• xfce4-verve-plugin 2.0.1 → 2.0.3
• xfce4-weather-plugin 0.11.0 → 0.11.1
• xfce4-whiskermenu-plugin 2.7.2 → 2.7.3
• xfconf 4.18.0 → 4.18.1
• xubuntu-desktop 2.248 → 2.250

Testing Xubuntu 23.10

If you’d like to check out the latest developments, go download one of the daily ISO images and give it a spin. Don’t forget to report issues or leave test results!

• Xubuntu Desktop Daily ISO
• Xubuntu Minimal Daily ISO

Thanks to everybody in the community for continuing to support our project!