Another version of Ubuntu was released to the general public in April. Ubuntu 22.04 arrives packed with new interface features inherited from GNOME 42, more color customization, a new capture tool, integration with Linux Active Directory and the latest version of the Nautilus file manager.
With the new GNOME 42
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS brings users GNOME 42 in the latest version of this graphical environment.
Not all of the items present in GNOME 42 are available in Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. As this is a stable version, it’s not an interesting idea to integrate newly added applications to the project, such as the GNOME Text Editor and the Console.
Furthermore, although the system is using the new GNOME 42, which features libadwaita and GTK 4 technologies, most of the applications available on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS still use GTK 3.
Linux Active Directory integration
According to recent figures from Microsoft, the majority of medium and large companies decide to use Active Directory to manage the identity and compliance of their desktops. This has been the case for decades and companies have invested heavily in creating automation tools and workflows designed to improve the security and efficiency of their IT administration teams.
Linux desktops, including Debian and Ubuntu, have long supported Active Directory integration via SSSD; however, this was limited to authentication and a small subset of related group policy object directives.
IT system administrators who wanted to use AD to enforce policy compliance or apply remote configuration faced a difficult choice: pay a premium for third-party privileged access management solutions (which are mainly tailored to servers) or rely on a plethora of custom tools and scripts.
ADsys, the new Active Directory client
Ubuntu Desktop 22.04 sees the introduction of ADsys, our new Active Directory client that contains everything you need to integrate Ubuntu with your Active Directory, including admx and adml template files.
ADsys is made up of two components: adsysd , a daemon that implements the Group Policy protocol and relies on Kerberos, Samba and LDAP for authentication and policy recovery, and adsysctl , a command line interface that controls the daemon and its status.
ADsys does not replace SSSD and PAM, which are still responsible for user authentication and home directory configuration, but complements them by adding the following functionalities:
- Native group policy object support for machine and user policies targeting dconf settings on the client machine
- Privilege management, allowing the possibility of granting or revoking superuser privileges for the default local user and Active Directory users and groups
- Execution of customized scripts, giving the possibility to schedule shell scripts to be executed at startup, shutdown, login and logout
In addition to these features, the command line tool is able to generate the necessary .admx and .adml policy files that you can install in Active Directory. Once imported, they can be easily found and modified in the Group Policy Management Editor in Windows Server.
All the features have been developed with the intention of aligning the Ubuntu Active Directory management experience as closely as possible to that available on Windows. This was done to flatten the learning curve required by system administrators to safely manage a large-scale fleet of Ubuntu desktop computers.
Other changes that Ubuntu 22.04 offers
Canonical is well known for being cautious with the technologies used in its LTS versions of Ubuntu, as they need to be supported for at least 5 years and the new Ubuntu offers a lot of interesting features under the hood.
Some of the changes are:
Kernel 5.15 LTS;
Mesa drivers in version 22;
NVIDIA 510 drivers;
Wayland support by default (including on NVIDIA cards);
Pipewire as a sound manager.
And we at Master da Web have the Ububtu Server 22.04 LTS operating system available!
