Ubuntu 24.10 ‘Oracular Oriole’ was released on October 10, 2024 and, as you’d expect for an update following an LTS, it’s overflowing with an array of new features.
As a short-term release Ubuntu 24.10 only gets 9 months of ongoing updates, security patches, and critical fixes. You will need to upgrade to Ubuntu 25.04, released in April of next year, in order to continue getting updates beyond that.
But that’s in the future – let’s focus on the now.
In this article I share the best Ubuntu 24.10 features, changes, and enhancements. There is a lot to take in, spanning the desktop, preinstalled software and tools, the package manager, Linux kernel, display server, snap apps, power efficiency, and more.
And as Ubuntu 24.10 marks the 20th anniversary of the very first Ubuntu release, which arrived back in October 2004, there are some celebratory touches to spot along the way.
So let’s dive in!
What’s New in Ubuntu 24.10?
Ubuntu 24.10 doesn’t offer new features in its Flutter-based installer, with the same set of slides and options present here as in the previous release, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.
There was talk of extending ‘provisioning’ by moving user account setup to after the base system was installed. That hasn’t happened in 24.10: from an end-user perspective, the flow from start to finish remains the same.
There are low-level changes, fixes, and underlying updates, but little “showy” – no bad thing; the installer flow in Ubuntu 24.04 was concise, well ordered, and straightforward to use.
But things have changed on the “preinstalled” desktop image for ARM64 devices, such as the Raspberry Pi 4 & 5.
GNOME Initial Setup is now used for the full first-run configuration for preinstalled images, walking through setting the system language, connecting to a Wi-Fi network, picking a timezone, creating a user account, and setting a password.
As someone who uses Ubuntu on a Pi a lot, and with ARM devices becoming more common place, I feel this GNOME Initial Setup onboarding makes for a far fancier first impression.
GNOME 47 Included
Ubuntu is a GNOME-based Linux distribution and Ubuntu 24.10 includes GNOME 47, the latest release.
As you’d expect, GNOME 47 features a bunch of changes.
The most headline-grabbing of those is accent colour support. This lets users set the colour (from a curated set of hues) that buttons, toggle switches, sliders, and other UI elements use through the GNOME desktop.
“Erm, Ubuntu already has that”, you say — 410 points, correct!
Ubuntu has supported accent colours since 2022, after coming up with its own solution.
However, now that GNOME 47 supports accent colours natively, Ubuntu 24.10 migrates to the upstream implementation. This will ensure consistency and compatibility across GNOME Shell, core apps, and third-party software.
The choice of accent colours is a little different than in previous versions (‘bark’) has gone, and Ubuntu’s default ‘orange’ no longer sits at the front of the row (it sits next to a dark yellow and a red which, being colour blind, confuses me – hurrah for tooltips).
Another big visual change affects the way dialogs looks.
Dialogs are throughout the GNOME UI, and GNOME 47 gives them a new layout using floating buttons, and adaptations to make sure make they’re usable on narrower displays.
Other GNOME 47 enhancements include:
- Improved UI on low-resolution displays
- Hardware encoded screen recording
- Better GTK rendering on older hardware
- Persistent remote login sessions
Ubuntu 24.10 carries patches for GNOME Shell and Mutter that are not (currently) included upstream. These offer improved stability, performance, and hardware support.
New File Manager Features
Also released as part of GNOME 47 is a new version of Files, aka the Nautilus file manager. This has some major differences to previous editions.
The sidebar has been restructured. Bookmarks for local folders, e.g., Downloads, Music, Videos, etc now sit further down the sidebar, grouped in their own section, while the Trash bookmark is moved to the topmost section.
Bookmarks can now be removed by right-clicking on them and selecting ‘remove’. Adding them back is easy: find the folder and drag it to the sidebar. Nautilus sidebar entries can now be re-ordered using drag and drop too.
Internal hard drives now appear in the sidebar by default.
These were previously accessed by clicking on the “Other Locations +” entry, which also provided a way to connect to remote shares/mounts. That entry is now gone. To connect to, manage, and browse remote connections there’s a new dedicated “Network” view.
Nautilus search sees a notable change in GNOME 47. When you initiate a file search across non-indexed folders or remote shares, an info button appears in the path bar.
According to GNOME this “added context helps users understand why certain searches might be slower or incomplete. It also allows users to update their search settings to get the best experience”.
Rounding out the improvements is ability for software to use Nautilus as the file picker for opening/saving files rather than the GTK file picker. This offers a faster, modern, and thumbnail-rich way to sort through files.
Core GNOME apps in GNOME 47 are using this, and Ubuntu has updated the relevant components to ensure snap apps use this where able.
Disk Usage Analyser
If you’re an avid user of Disk Usage Analyser (aka baobab ) you’ll notice it’s received a small revamp to bring its UI inline with other modern GNOME apps. The initial list height is now more sensible, it uses updated icons, and a restyled path/location bar.
New & Expanded Settings
GNOME 47 also introduces a bunch of new options in the Settings app (which, aside from those, benefits from the usual pruning and polish):
- Activate windows on hover is now available in Accessibility
- Input source previews in Keyboard to view a layout visually before choosing it
- New suspend times in Power settings for mobile devices
GNOME Online Accounts also picks up a set of improvements, including: –
- IMAP/SMTP email account details auto-complete based on address
- Microsoft 365 account now supports e-mail, calendar, and contacts
- WebDAV account set up now auto discovers available services
- Kerberos accounts use less power on an ongoing basis
Of course there’s more to the new GNOME 47 release beyond the changes above but while Ubuntu is a GNOME-based Linux distribution it does not include, ship, or offer every component, option, and app.
Ubuntu Dock Changes
The Ubuntu Dock shows progress bars on snap app icons when the app is updating in the background in Oracular Oriole.
This is a less abrupt than the previous approach, which makes the icon vanish from the dock for a few seconds, then starkly re-appear as if nothing happened.
The context menu in the Ubuntu Dock extension has also been changed in Ubuntu 24.10
Also changed in the Ubuntu Dock extension that ships in Ubuntu 24.10 is the context menu. This appears when you right-click on icon in the dock.
It now has a small header label at the top with the app name so you know which app the menu belongs to, I guess!
And if you right-click on a snap app in the dock there’s now an extra option at the bottom: ‘details’.
Clicking this opens the app page listing in App Center where (surprise) you can see more details about it — doesn’t appear on DEB apps installed from App Center, though.
Talking of which…
App Center
Ubuntu’s Flutter-based App Center (which replaced the old Ubuntu Software app a few releases back) picks up a new Art and Design category on the front page, while the ‘Featured snaps’ section moves up to the top to catch more eyeballs.
In-progress downloads are conveyed in the Manage section of App Center. This help keep you informed about apps updating and is a nice compliment to the Ubuntu Dock progress bars for snap app updates (also new in 24.10).
It’s also possible to uninstall snap apps from the Manage section, no need to go to the store listing page to do it. If you’re viewing snap updates in App Center and an update for App Center is available (it’s a snap too), a banner tells you to close the app to apply it.
Finally, touchscreen support in App Center is much improved in Oracular Oriole. If you’ve got a laptop (or an Ubuntu tablet) this will make less frustrating to browse, search, and manage your snap app updates using nothing but your finger.
Ubuntu Anniversary Touches
Ubuntu 24.10 is the 20th anniversary release of Ubuntu (Ubuntu 4.10 ‘Warty Warthog’ being the first one, back in October 2004). Accordingly, this release includes a collection of celebratory touches that fans of nostalgic will appreciate.
You’ll notice a new ’20th anniversary’ word mark is shown on the boot splash, and this carries over to the login screen too.
That’s not all, though.
Also paying tribute to the first formative release:
- ‘Warty’ brown accent colour (turns the top bar light too)
- Ubuntu 4.10 startup sound plays on login (can be disabled)
- Remastered version of original Ubuntu 4.10 wallpaper
- New package of upscaled Ubuntu LTS wallpapers in the repo
In all, a nice set of nostalgic nods — are they the only ones? ;)
New Set of Wallpapers
Each new version of Ubuntu ships with its own distinctive desktop background. Ubuntu 24.10 is no exception…
Carrying the codename ‘Oracular Oriole’ naturally sees the default wallpaper embalmed with a bird motif, albeit surrounded by circles and arcane symbols to call back to the “oracular” adjective (which relates to oracles, temples, divination, etc).
Accompanying the default drape is a freshly collated crop of backgrounds contributed by the Ubuntu community, including several more featuring orioles, and additional ‘anniversary’ images.
New Security Center App
The Security Center app I first reported on earlier this year is preinstalled in Ubuntu 24.10.
For now, its primary function is let those who want to exert greater control over snap apps and their access to the file system, the ability to do so. When this setting is enabled, permission request dialogs appear (using the new Prompting Client tool).
More features are planned for the Security Center in future Ubuntu releases, including firewall configuration controls (a long-requested feature by many Ubuntu users), and easier enrolling for Ubuntu Pro (on LTS releases) to access additional security updates.
NVIDIA Defaults to Wayland
Ubuntu 24.10 defaults to Wayland on devices with NVIDIA GPUs for the first time. Canonical engineers are confident this experience is robust enough for day-to-day usage – albeit not perfect. Those finding the vibe sub-par can select an X session at the login screen.
Better Fingerprint Support
Fingerprint readers on laptops (and keyboard, I guess) have been a long-standing bug-bear on Linux. Some work out of the box, most require some manual cajoling, and a handful won’t work at all.
Well, Ubuntu 24.10 ships with a new version of fprintd and libfprint. These support a wider range of fingerprint drivers and devices. If your digit-scanning device wasn’t working in earlier version give a prod in this version to see it now does!
SysProf & Kdump-Tools Preinstalled
Furthering Canonical’s effort to include performance profiling and debugging tools for developers out of he box, Ubuntu 24.10 now ships with the Sysprof utility preinstalled, in both default and expanded installations.
This is not an “regular user” utility. It helps developers analyse the performance of software and system processes by capturing and displaying data on resources whilst running. These insights can assist in trying to optimizing software or debugging issues.
Additionally, kdump-tools is now part of default installation. This CLI tool enables the system to capture kernel crash dumps, which is useful if needing to diagnose/debug the cause of the crash by combing over the state of the kernel at the time it happened.
However, I don’t think kdump-tools is enabled by default in Ubuntu 24.10 (just preinstalled). If this is something you need (most people don’t) be sure to turn it as/when required.
New Look APT
APT 3.0 is included in Ubuntu 24.10, which I’m pretty amped about!
If you frequently use apt commands, this upgrade will be something you notice immediately.
APT 3.0 offers a much improved ‘UI’. It now uses colour, columns, and ample padding and spacing for improved readability. Output is now ordered by priority, with package removals listed at the bottom where they won’t be easily missed.
For anyone switching from Arch or Fedora — distributions whose package managers are already quite streamlined — this improved APT UI will feel far more intuitive, parseable, and familiar.
Linux Kernel 6.11
Ubuntu 24.10 runs on the latest and greatest Linux kernel 6.11 release, only making it in thanks to Canonical’s new kernel selection policy.
Linux 6.11 offers a stack of changes, ranging from new hardware support, security fixes, and expanded support for ARM and RISC-V chipsets, to a sizeable performance boost to the EXT4 file system, and better power efficiency for newer AMD systems.
Ubuntu 24.10 also offers the Mesa 24.2.3 graphics drivers series, and offers the latest NVIDIA Graphics Drivers in the 550.x production and 560.x new feature branches.
Power Efficiency Boost
As I reported on recently, a new version of Power Profiles Daemon is included in Ubuntu 24.10. Although this is “invisible” to most, it’s the package that enables the ‘power mode’ options in Quick Settings to work.
The latest update packs many improvements, especially for users on AMD hardware as the AMD P-State integration enables setting Dynamic Power Management (DPM) clock speeds on power saving mode, and support for adjusting display backligh] based on battery percentage.
Updated Software & Tooling
Ubuntu 24.10’s default installation includes a minimal set of software, with the following versions included:
- GNOME Terminal 3.54.0
- Text Editor 47
- Evince 46.3.1
- Calculator 47
- Disk Utility 46.1
- Eye of GNOME 47
- Clocks 46
- System Monitor 47
For a complete out-of-the-box experience the Ubuntu 24.10 expanded installation also offers:
- LibreOffice 24.8.1
- Shotwell 32.7
- Transmission 4.06
- Rhythmbox 3.4.7
- Remmina 4.35
- Calendar 47
- Totem 43
- Snapshot 47
Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird provided as snap applications, so get ongoing updates as and when released. The versions which ship on the ISO will be the latest versions at the time the ISO is created, which right now is Firefox 130 and Thunderbird 128.
Updated subsystems:
- BlueZ 5.77
- Cairo 1.18.2
- NetworkManager 1.48
- Pipewire 1.2.3
- Poppler 24.08
- xdg-desktop-portal 1.18
Also of note, iw replaces wireless-tools.
Updated toolchain and other notable packages:
- gcc 14.1
- binutils 2.43
- glibc 2.40
- Python 3.12.6
- OpenSSL 3.3
- Systemd 256.5
Plus plenty more besides!
Download Ubuntu 24.10
Ubuntu 24.10 is available to download from the official Ubuntu website from October 10, 2024. This is when the final, stable release is issued. You can also download it from the official Ubuntu image servers, mirrors, or torrents.
Alternatively, users can upgrade to Ubuntu 24.10 from Ubuntu 24.04 LTS. This requires an explicit opt-in to non-LTS upgrades and is not automatic. Once the main ISO is released, upgrades are usually enabled a few days later, occasionally a bit sooner – keep an eye out.
Overall, Ubuntu 24.10 is a solid release. If you don’t require the assurance of a long-term support release you will likely find few reasons to not upgrade: it’s everything you know and love about Ubuntu, just better, faster, newer, and, for now, Warty-ier.