elementary OS 5.0 codenamed "Juno" has not been released. But the development is already active, and fortunately we are able to try the components on elementary OS 0.4 Loki right now. I have installed some latest programs of Juno from elementary-daily PPA and show you how they look like here. In other words, this article is a short preview of the new elementary Installer of Juno, as well as AppCenter and some more Juno's new stuffs. Not only that, I mention here how to get them on Loki so you can also try them, as the original announcement doesn't explain that. Read on and have a try!
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Codenamed Juno
Next version after 0.4 is not 0.5, but 5.0, and codenamed Juno. You can confirm this on elementary OS blog. And this article is inspired by 2 articles from elementary team: Juno Announcement and Juno Progress.
What New Things Are Available?
To note latest programs with exciting features for Juno:
- AppCenter
- elementary Installer
- elementary Music
- elementary Photos
- Terminal
- ...and many more!
How To Preview
You should use carefully a PPA of elementary on Loki and install latest programs from there one by one using Synaptic. Beware, full upgrade will break the system as for now, so don't do full upgrade. I did install a fresh Loki on a USB flash disk so I could do anything freely there, and I suggest this for you if you want to try this out. It's exciting!
The PPAs I use for this review are elementary-os/daily for both xenial and bionic versions :
 |
| See two lines at bottom |
See left panel (Origin enabled, daily/bionic selected) and see main area (showing all packages from daily PPA of elementary OS):
1. About
- How to install: $ sudo apt-get install switchboard-plug-about
- How to run: $ switchboard
Juno will have a new About dialog with two columns now. You see "Loki" name here just because I run this on Loki. Personally, yes, I always like every design of elementary OS applications because they are pretty, and this one is no exception.
2. Installer
- How to install: $ sudo apt-get install io.elementary.installer
- How to run: $ io.elementary.installer
Juno will have a new System Installer! It looks prettier, simpler, and following elementary OS style. Previously, all elementary OS releases use Ubiquity Installer, and this new thing named elementary Installer (package name: elementary-installer). Just for your information, this new installer is a collaboration between elementary OS and Pop_OS! developers.
Keyboard layout stage:
3. AppCenter
- How to install: $ sudo apt-get install appcenter
- How to run: $ io.elementary.appcenter
AppCenter is prettier now with more improvements in payment.
AppCenter front page:
A software in AppCenter:
4. Photos
- How to install: $ sudo apt-get install pantheon-photos
- How to run: $ io.elementary.photos
Photos has new dark theme on Library View.
4. Noise
- How to install: $ sudo apt-get install noise
- How to run: $ io.elementary.music
Noise got new right sidebar on 'View as Albums' mode to show album art. It also has no statusbar anymore.
5. Terminal
- How to install: $ sudo apt-get install pantheon-terminal
- How to run: $ io.elementary.terminal
Terminal got new settings popup to change the color and (finally!) the font size.
Development Milestone
Do you want to see actual development progress of Juno? Actually, the developers work component by component rather than work a whole system, so you would see milestone of each program like AppCenter instead of milestone of whole Juno system. Then see at GitHub, at elementary official, for any repository of programs there: go to Issues > click Milestone > click juno-beta1. Each component of elementary OS at GitHub has juno-beta1 milestone for now.
More Features?
Yes, Juno will have more features as explained by the developers on their blog. Those are the new Wingpanel, Night Light settings on System Settings, Night Light indicator, animated indicator icons, new tooltip on Applications Launcher, and many more. Sadly, I am sorry I cannot showing them here because I found broken packages (either dependency errors or the needed packages are still not available) when trying to install them.
We Are Waiting for Juno
As for now we can only try the PPA's software and have no ISO image but Juno is very promising for both its beauty and features as we can see on official blog and this article. The developers said that Juno won't be released before Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic Beaver, so we can expect Juno will be released either April or May 2018. We are waiting!
This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.