7 Reasons to Upgrade Your Ubuntu Installation to Ubuntu 23.04

Unlike Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, 23.04 Lunar Lobster is an interim release. So is it worth upgrading your Ubuntu installation from an LTS version to 23.04?

Canonical released the final version of Ubuntu 23.04, nicknamed Lunar Lobster, in April 2023. This version of Ubuntu provides quite a few changes and updates that many will surely appreciate.

Compared to the previous Ubuntu versions—22.10 (Kinetic Kudu) and 22.04 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish)—Ubuntu 23.04 features several changes that may interest some people in upgrading or at least trying out the new release.

But with Ubuntu 23.04 only being an interim release with support until the 20th of January 2024, should you still upgrade to this version of Ubuntu? Sure! Here are seven reasons why.

Ubuntu's focus on a beautiful and intuitive user interface has always been the main reason why many users choose it as their first Linux distribution. These qualities are even more pronounced as Ubuntu 23.04 makes clever use of the latest features of GNOME 44, the updated Nautilus file manager, and the new Flutter desktop installer.

People upgrading from previous versions of Ubuntu will immediately notice a more refined GUI, quick settings and utility dock, new fonts and wallpapers, better accessibility features, and an overall enhanced user experience.

Ubuntu 23.04 is now using the Linux 6.2 kernel, which provides better security, bug fixes, hardware support, and plenty of performance optimizations. Upgrading your system to Lunar Lobster mitigates Spectre-type vulnerabilities, such as Retbleed by using Call Depth tracking, which has minimal impact on system performance.

Aside from efficient Retbleed mitigation techniques, Linux 6.2 comes with another mitigation feature known as FineIBT. This feature controls flow integrity schemes by imposing hash checks which mitigate control-flow hijacking attacks.

WireGuard VPN is also pre-installed and can easily be configured via GUI through the Network settings menu.

And as usual, you can expect the regular security patches and bug fixes that come with every new Ubuntu update.

One of the biggest reasons many people shy away from using Linux for gaming is its limited support for graphics cards. Ubuntu 23.04 now comes with Mesa 23.0, which provides device drivers, libraries, and utilities for many of the latest graphics card offerings you'll find in the market.

Mesa 23.0 now provides better compatibility for RDNA3-based GPUs (Radeon RX 7900) and NVIDIA GA102-based GPUs (RTX 30).

For laptop users, discrete graphics cards from Intel's Arc Alchemist series and Meteor Lake iGPUs are also supported through their respective Iris OpenGL drivers and ANV Vulcan drivers.

Furthermore, Ubuntu's push for snap also makes it easier for gamers to run both old and new game titles without the need to manage additional PPAs.

With the Linux 6.2 kernel, gamers can now use DualShock 4 controllers operating on both USB and Bluetooth modes and with full support for features like rumble, accelerometer, gyroscope, lightbar, and touchpad.

People already using Ubuntu for work should have a better time with productivity by using Ubuntu 23.04. In this release, Ubuntu comes with new and updated productivity software and increased general performance.

By upgrading to Lunar Lobster, you automatically get the updated version of Firefox, LibreOffice, Thunderbird, Shotwell, and Remmina. Other popular productivity software such as Asana, Slack, and Notion are also easy to install through the Snap Store.

In terms of GPU-intensive applications such as video editing and photo editing, having the newest Mesa drivers allows you to utilize more recent GPUs, whether it be from AMD, Intel, or NVIDIA.

Editors, writers, and artists will also approve of the updated Nautilus file manager as it now supports an expandable folders list view, medium file icons, image thumbnail mode, and the ability to copy images from your internet browser and save them directly to the file manager as a new image file.

Although yet to be released for the upcoming LTS of Ubuntu, you can also install the new tiling system, which allows you to snap multiple window tiles together for a better multitasking experience.

As discussed earlier, the Linux 6.2 kernel employs a better Retbleed mitigation solution. Retbleed mitigation techniques used in older Linux kernels are known to have significant performance penalties in sixth, seventh, and eighth-generation Intel processors and Zen 1 and Zen 2 AMD processors.

This newer Retbleed mitigation system found in Ubuntu 23.04 takes significantly fewer resources, making all distros using the Linux 6.2 kernel faster.

The Linux 6.2 kernel also provides Lunar Lobster with the updated zstd compression mode, which allows for faster compression, resulting in faster boot times and overall better performance.

Regarding Ubuntu-specific performance upgrades, the problem with Snap apps being slow to load has now been fixed. You can now load Firefox and other Snap apps with little to no delay.

People using Ubuntu on Raspberry Pi will also be happy to know that all the official Raspberry Pi camera modules (except for v3 modules) are now supported in this version of Ubuntu. Various graphical fixes regarding hardware acceleration and compositing have also been provided for Raspberry Pi.

With Linux 6.2 now offering mainline support for Apple M1 chips, you can now experience Ubuntu 23.04 on Apple Silicon whether it be on Apple's M1, M1 Pro, M1 Max, or M1 Ultra chips.

Ubuntu 23.04 now comes with the updated QEMU 7.2, which provides better virtualization support for several different hardware architectures, including ARM, RISC-V, and S390X. So if you've had problems running Ubuntu on these architectures, you might want to try again with Lunar Lobster.

This version of Ubuntu also improves on programming toolchains and their runtimes by updating and providing better support for Python, Java, Go, C, C++, .NET, and Rust. You can also expect improved container security with the latest version of Docker and containerd.

With better hardware support, improved performance, and a refined user interface, upgrading to Ubuntu 23.04 seems the right choice. Despite what others may say, the amount of support, updates, and new features you get in Ubuntu 23.04 is well worth the upgrade, especially if you're coming from a previous interim release.

Even if you're using Ubuntu 22.04 LTS for reliability, you may want to try Lunar Lobster as a VM. Besides, the minimal installation for Lunar Lobster is only around 200MB. It should be easy and lightweight enough to enjoy and get a sneak peek of the features of the upcoming Ubuntu releases.

Craving to learn how things worked, Jayric Maning started tinkering with all kinds of electronic and analog devices during his early teens. He took up forensic science at the University of Baguio, where he got acquainted with computer forensics and cyber security. He is currently doing lots of self-study and tinkering with tech, figuring out how it works and how we can use it to make life easier (or at least cooler!).