The development for Ubuntu 26.04 codenamed ‘Resolute Raccoon’ has almost concluded. It is a long-term support (LTS) release and a particularly important one as we venture more into the Wayland-only era of Linux.
Let’s have a look at the release schedule of Ubuntu 26.04 and its planned features.
Ubuntu 26.04 Release Schedule
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS is officially scheduled to be released on 23 April, 2026.
Here are the important milestones:
- February 19: Feature Freeze
- March 12: User Interface Freeze
- March 19: Kernel Feature Freeze
- March 26: Beta Release
- April 9: Kernel Freeze
- April 16: Release Candidate
- April 23: Final Release
New features coming to Ubuntu 26.04
GNOME 50 and the Wayland-only Era
GNOME 50 is a significant release. X11 support has been fully removed from GDM, meaning GNOME’s sessions are now entirely Wayland-only. Furthermore, variable refresh rate and fractional scaling are no longer experimental features—they are treated as stable in Mutter, bringing excellent news for users with high-refresh-rate monitors.
Other GNOME 50 updates include:
- An overhauled Orca screen reader with a redesigned preferences window, moved to GSettings for storage.
- Nautilus improvements and better color management support.
- GTK 4 dropping its Librsvg dependency to render SVGs natively.
New Default Applications
Ubuntu 26.04 introduces several new default applications that align better with modern GNOME design principles:
- Video Player: GNOME Showtime replaces Totem as the default video player. It features a sleek, minimalist libadwaita interface.
- System Monitor: Resources takes over as the new default system monitor, replacing the traditional GNOME System Monitor. Interestingly, Resources is a GNOME Circle app rather than a core GNOME app.
Visual Refresh: New Folder Icons
The Yaru icon set has been updated. The new folders are shorter and squatter, with rounder edges and an engraved emblem. The accent color effect is now more visible, applying to the entire folder rather than just a subtle tint. Specific icons, like the Desktop folder, Calculator, and LibreOffice, have also been refreshed to match the uniform Yaru style.
Architecture Upgrades: x86-64-v3 Packages
Ubuntu 26.04 will provide amd64v3 / x86-64-v3 variants for all packages. For users with newer processors that support these advanced instruction sets, this translates into measurable performance improvements. This variant is not the default, so older machines will continue to run without issues.
Native AMD ROCm Support
For developers working with AI and machine learning on AMD hardware, Canonical has collaborated directly with AMD to package ROCm for Ubuntu. ROCm will be available straight from Ubuntu’s repositories via a simple sudo apt install rocm, streamlining the setup process.
Deprecations and Removals
- Software & Updates App Removed: The graphical tool for managing repositories is being removed from default desktop builds. Canonical cited that accidentally disabling main repositories or enabling source repositories via GUI is too risky for regular users. Terminal-based repository management (
add-apt-repository) remains completely intact. - Flavors Dropping LTS Status: Due to limited contributor resources, Ubuntu MATE and Ubuntu Unity will skip the LTS status for 26.04. They will continue to provide regular non-LTS releases.
Summary
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS represents a bold step forward, embracing Wayland exclusively, upgrading default apps significantly, and providing out-of-the-box optimizations for both general desktop users and specialized ML engineers.