Ubuntu 26.04 LTS: What’s new since 24.04?

If you plan to upgrade to Ubuntu 26.04 LTS ‘Resolute Raccoon’ from Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, you’re going to inherit two years worth of improvements.

As an LTS-to-LTS jump, you don’t simply benefit from what’s new in Ubuntu 26.04, but everything else added in the 3 interim releases prior, namely Ubuntu 24.10, 25.04 and 25.10.

Ubuntu 26.04 LTS does plenty of things that 24.04 didn’t, but drops several features too

It adds up to a mammoth set of changes across the full stack, running right from the lower-level foundations up to the apps and desktop environment that run on top.

Plus, there have been removals and replacements too. Ubuntu 26.04 no longer includes an X11/Xorg desktop session, and drops a couple of apps and utilities you may have come to rely on.

System requirements have been raised – now higher than those of Windows 11 (though don’t panic: they are not hard limits and this release does run on systems with less than 6GB of RAM).

Below, I cherrypick things worth knowing from the cumulative changelog. If you’re coming from the Ubuntu 25.10 interim release and would prefer to swot over a list of things only added since last October then I have a separate guide for that.

26 Changes in Ubuntu 26.04 LTS

1. No more X11/Xorg desktop session

Ubuntu 26.04 LTS no longer includes an X11/Xorg desktop session as GNOME removed support for running on the legacy display server earlier this year (so Ubuntu can’t offer it, even if it wanted to).

The impact of this won’t be felt. Ubuntu has used Wayland by default since 2021 (it became default for NVIDIA users in 2024 to allow for testing ahead of this LTS). Plus, most software that does require X11 will happily run on a Wayland desktop using XWayland.

And contrary to Linux YouTubers who talk in clickbait, XWayland is included by default.

Ubuntu not supporting X11 does not directly affect other flavours/desktops, some of which (like Lubuntu) continue to use it, and xserver packages are available in the Ubuntu repositories for you to install – you just can’t run the GNOME desktop on it.

2. Dracut is now the boot init

On new installs, Ubuntu now uses Dracut to generate the initial RAM filesystem (initramfs) during boot. You are unlikely to notice anything meaningfully different with this change, but under-the-hood it offers a predictable, future-proof and event-driven boot process.

If you want to learn more about what Dracut is and why Ubuntu has switched, then our pithy explainer does a good job at setting out the (lack of noticeable) impact.

3. Improved TPM-backed disk encryption

If you “upgrade” by way of a clean install, the enhanced OS installer experience has a couple of new options, the more notable of which is support for installing Ubuntu using TPM‑backed full‑disk encryption (FDE).

This is compatible with select TPM 2 chips and requires Secure Boot enabled. It’s not perfect; TPM/FDE uses a kernel snap that may not include certain kernel modules necessary for certain hardware features.

Plus, the feature doesn’t support all TPM chips, though the OS installer will let you know if your TPM could work but can’t, and explain why. If it can’t use it at all, it won’t surface an option (greyed out or otherwise).

The setup process underscores the importance of generating and saving a recovery key, and new recovery keys can be generated from the Security Center app. Plus, the Firmware Updater tool notifies you if an available update would affect TPM state.

Ubuntu 26.04 LTS still supports disk-encryption using a LUKS passphrase so if you don’t have TPM, you don’t need to forgo disk-level security.

The Ubuntu OS installer has improved its handling of dual-boot setups too, notably when a BitLocker-protected Windows system is present. You can install Ubuntu with encryption alongside Windows via the Advanced Options section.

4. Rust-based sudo & coreutils

Ubuntu has spent the past few releases replacing some key system components with versions written in Rust, a memory-safe programming language.

sudo is now provided by sudo-rs (the command itself has not changed) and password feedback has been enabled by default (“finally!”, some say), so you’ll see asterisks every time you enter your sudo password in the terminal – hit tab to temporarily mask it.

sudo-rs is not 100% compatible with the original sudo implementation, but unless you run handwritten scripts or rely on niche tools, chances are this won’t be an issue. The old version of sudo is available to install from the repos (package name sudo-ws).

In addition to sudo, the distro’s ‘core’ command-line tools (like ls cp, mv and cat) are now provided by the rust-coreutils package, supplanting GNU coreutils. As with sudo, the old version remains available to install for edge cases and compatibility.

5. Various theme/design changes

Ubuntu 26.04 LTS looks similar enough to 24.04 at first glance, but on closer inspection you’ll notice that a fair bit has changed.

And if any change is sure to catch the eye it’s Ubuntu’s new folder icons. These adopt a vivid new look that inherits the desktop accent colour (orange by default). They pop against light and dark backgrounds and use a subtle engraved effect for folder emblems:

Other icons in the Yaru theme also see improvements, with a swathe being optically resized (not hugely noticeable unless pointed out, but it helps add to a subtle “everything feels right” vibe).

There are also new icons for the LibreOffice suite, the Snapshot webcam app (extended install) and for the humble trash can, which is pinned to the Ubuntu Dock.

A new animated spinner can be seen during loading/refresh operations, now said to look ‘less blurry’ than that used in 24.04. The login screen background is also darker, one of a number of contrast tweaks made through the GNOME desktop.

Modal dialogs have a new look; and radius values are more consistent throughout.

A new boot animation riffs on the Raccoon mascot artwork shown on the (new) default wallpaper, text labels in notifications and text in more UI elements use bold text.

GNOME Shell animations have been tweaked, albeit subtly. Menus, pop-overs and notifications now appear with more of a scale/spring than a fade.

Finally, if MPRIS-compatible media is playing when your screen locks you can see and control media playback on the Lock Screen itself, no need to unlock your system to hit pause or skip track.

6. Seven new default apps

Ubuntu 26.04 LTS delivers a refreshed set of default apps. Most are preinstalled on all installs, though the new video player is only present if you chose the extended option during installation (though you can install any of these from the Ubuntu repos at any time).

Papers replaces Evince as the default document viewer. It’s based on Evince’s code but majorly rebuilt with Rust and GTK4/libadwaita. It does everything it could, plus more: ink annotation and markup tools, freeform text boxes, annotations and digital signatures.

Loupe supplants Eye of GNOME as the default image viewer. Its GTK4/libadwaita app that uses Glycin for improved image rendering, supports multi-touch gestures and offers a set of editing tools for cropping, rotating and flipping images.

Ptyxis is now Ubuntu’s default terminal. It’s made with GTK4/libadwaita GUI and supports GPU-accelerated rendering. Features include a slick tab overview, profile switching and container support. The headerbar turns read if sudo is active, which is cute/alarming.

Resources assumes role of system monitor, offering all the process, service and hardware overview monitoring you need, presented in a more engaging way with big graphs, clean layout and oodles of hardware info.

Showtime (extended install only) replaces Totem as the default video player. It’s a GTK4/libadwaita app with a distraction-free UI and on-canvas controls that fade out during playback. It supports multiple audio and subtitle tracks, playback speed and more.

Some of the new apps have generic labels in the desktop UI (Document Viewer, Image Viewer, Terminal, etc), and if you upgrade in-place from 24.04 the new apps are installed alongside the old ones (you’ll have two terminals, two image viewers, etc).

7. File manager feature-fest

Nautilus, the default file manager, has gained a number of improvements since its last outing in an LTS.

Performance buffs offer up to 5x faster directory loading and 10x faster thumbnail generation, the latter now prioritising the files in view. There’s also a new thumbnailer powered by glycin, the image rendering library used in the Loupe image viewer (see #6).

A dashed border is shown around icons when cut so it’s clear what’s queued to move, and when viewing hidden files is enabled you’ll see dot file icons now render with a slight transparency to make it easier to tell them apart from regular files/folders.

The search UI is markedly improved, with pill-shaped filter buttons and a calendar widget to dial in a specific search period; file properties can be opened as a floating window; and a new ctrl + . shortcut opens the current folder in the terminal.

Other changes include:

• Long drive/mount names are now shortened in the middle
• Browsing files on phones is smoother as content loads incrementally
• Network addresses can be copied directly from the network panel
• The batch rename tool has been improved
• Empty trash banner only shows when there’s actually something in the trash
• Bookmarks can be removed directly from the path bar menu

Beyond that, the sidebar got reorganised with bookmarks moved lower and Trash moved up. You can now reorder your bookmarks using drag and drop and easily remove them using the right-click menu.

You won’t find the Other Locations view in the new version of Nautilus. Instead, your internal drives are now shown in the sidebar by default, where they sit alongside external ones – all sorted alphabetically.

8. Notification groups deal with the deluge

Notifications are now grouped by source in the message tray.

When an app sends multiple notifications to the message tray, they stack together into a collapsed group, rather than creating an ever-lengthening list like they did in 24.04. This makes it easier to get an overview of everything happening.

Notification stacks can be expanded with a click (or tap) so you can view each notification individually and action or dismiss them. Condense the list back by clicking on the collapse icon or, if you don’t need them, dismiss all notifications from the stack by clicking the ‘x’.

9. App Center lets you manage Deb software

While you could already Deb packages from the Ubuntu repositories (and outside of it) via App Center in 24.04 LTS, you couldn’t manage them. Well, in 26.04 LTS, you can! The Manage section has gained a filter to see installed Deb software individually or alongside snaps.

This is part of a wider effort from Canonical to create a single, unified way for managing software on Ubuntu, irrespective of its source.

App Center can also update some Deb apps alongside Snaps. Emphasis on some is important; you’ll need to keep using Software Updater (or apt in a terminal) to install most updates. And just incase you rarely remember to do that, another change is here to help…

10. Software Updater indicator

The Software Updater in Ubuntu will show an indicator icon in the panel if there are pending updates to be installed. The addition of an icon nixes the annoying issue where the update window would randomly appearing and take focus from what you were in the middle of doing.

If the newly omni-present panel icon annoys you, just click on it and then click the “Show in panel” option in the drop down menu (i.e., remove the checkmark). It’ll vanish from view.

11. Ubuntu Dock differences

The Ubuntu Dock is no longer transparent, switching to an opaque background to better match the colour of the main desktop panel. Transparency can be re-enabled, if you want it, and only requires running a simple terminal command.

The background effect behind icons when hovered over now match the radius of the dock edges when not in panel mode, and when you right-click on an app on the dock its associated menu now shows the name of the app and includes a link to view its details in App Center.

12. Desktop Icons NG improvements

The desktop icons extension (DING) that Ubuntu preinstalls by default has received a modest clutch of updates since its outing in 24.04.

You can now resize icons on the desktop using ctrl + + / -, select multiple icons using shift + arrow keys and use the Home and End keys to jump to the first or last icon respectively.

Styling has also improved. The right-click context menu is more consistent with the rest of the desktop, and icon selections adopt rounded corners and occupy the full grid cell rather than hugging the icon and label as before.

13. Snap & web search in Overview

Searching in the Overview now turns up Snap app results alongside your installed apps, so you can find and install something without opening App Center first.

There’s also a web search shortcut too. Just type what you’re looking for and click the Firefox result that appears to open the browser with your search pre-filled (if using Google, doesn’t work with other search engine currently). Nothing gets sent anywhere until you click.

Both options can be turned off in the Settings > Search section if they’re not your thing.

14. APT got a glow-up

If you use apt at the command-line to update and manage software, you’re in for a treat. The venerable tool has improved output formatting with colours, columns and padding, and app removals now listed last (so you see them) and in red.

Other changes include a new package solver (configures dependencies), and a fleet of new commands, including apt why and apt why-not to explain why a package is or isn’t installed and history-info and history-list commands.

Plenty of lower-level changes too and expanded bash-completion support.

(with history-undo and history-rollback on the horizon).

15. Do Not Disturb moved

The Do Not Disturb toggle has moved to the Quick Settings menu, where it joins other system toggles. Click the top-right status icons to find it, enable it and silence any niggling distractions. Ahh.

16. HDR, VRR & smarter scaling

Ubuntu 26.04 includes out-of-the-box support for advanced display features that were either absent or required you to manually enable in 24.04.

HDR support is available for monitors that support it. If yours does you’ll find a toggle in Settings > Displays to turn it on. On multi-monitor setups, brightness can be adjusted per-monitor independently when HDR is active.

Just don’t expect your screen to burst with vivid colours. App support for HDR on Linux is limited (though MPV is among the few Linux apps which can handle it properly) so your screen might look washed out when this is enabled.

Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) is a feature Ubuntu has technically offered for a while on compatible hardware and/or through a hidden gsettings switch. With GNOME 50, it’s enabled for everyone where supported, no terminal commands needed.

Fractional scaling now offers values like 133% and 166%, as scaling calculations now use ‘exact quotients’ for sharper rendering of text and app interfaces. Head to Settings > Display, turn on fractional scaling to see what’s available for your setup.

A toggle to control whether legacy X11 apps (which run on XWayland) are scaled to match the rest of your system is included. Not all legacy apps scale cleanly, so if anything looks oversized or blurry, head to Settings > Displays and turn it off.

17. Remote desktop buffs

Remote desktop features have improved since 24.04, which added remote login support. Now, remote sessions persist between service restarts, you can connect to a headless system and add a virtual monitor, and even use touch input forwarding.

The big “gain” comes from hardware-accelerated encoding via Vulkan and VA-API. Offloading streaming to the GPU offers smoother, lower-latency sessions. NVIDIA users get explicit sync support and Kerberos authentication is available for enterprise environments.

18. Wellbeing controls

A new Wellbeing panel in Settings brings optional screen time tracking features to Ubuntu (think Screen Time on Apple devices, but on your Linux desktop).

If you opt-in, you can see how long you’ve been using your computer each day, set daily limits (with an optional greyscale screen tint when you reach it) or configure break reminders on a timer to get notifications to stand up or look away from the screen.

Related to these new settings are parental controls, allowing screen time limits and bedtime schedules to be set for managed accounts. Ubuntu doesn’t preinstall the GUI app needed to set these up, but you can install it from the repos –  malcontent-gui is the package name.

Whether you use any of this is, obviously, down to you.

19. Software & Updates app dropped

Ubuntu no longer includes the Software & Updates tool on new installs because the distro’s developer’s feel a few of its features posed more of a risk to system integrity than a help.

As a result, the Additional Drivers shortcut is gone too, so there’s no easy way to check or set proprietary driver settings in 26.04 (at launch).

Ubuntu Pro enablement is integrated into the App Center (covered elsewhere on this list), but some features, like managing PPAs and controlling update behaviour, are not available out-of-the-box.

You can install the Software & Updates tool on Ubuntu 26.04 from the repos, so it’s not gone-gone. If you upgrade from 24.04 LTS, you’ll still have it installed (Ubuntu rarely force removes software on upgrades). It’s been rewritten in GTK4 too.

20. Startup Applications also removed

Anyone utility cleaved from the default install is Startup Applications, which was a GUI tool for (you guessed it) configuring and setting autostart apps on login.

The reason it’s gone? GNOME has added autostart toggles to a logical location: Settings > Applications. Just head there, pick the app you want to open on login and slide the ‘autostart’ toggle to ‘on’. 

The downside is there is no GUI way to add a script or run a custom command on login (features the old utility offered), but a simple(ish) way to autostart scripts in Ubuntu remains, using an autostart folder and a custom text file.

21. Firmware split

Ubuntu 26.04 finally (hurrah) splits the linux-firmware package into a set of 18 vendor-specific sub-packages. All are installed by default, but you can remove any you know you don’t need (like Mellanox firmware, unless you live in a data centre).

The main upside to this approach is bandwidth. Previously, a tiny fix made to a single driver would mean you’d need to download the entire 500MB+ package as a software update. Now only the affected sub-package needs be updated.

22. Accessibility buffs

Accessibility has always been important, but it’s now a requirement in the EU. Both GNOME and Ubuntu have bolstered support throughout the desktop, plus a few new accessibility tools added, including a ‘reduce motion’ setting that dials down UI animations and effects.

The accessibility menu at the login screen is now located in the lower-right corner. This makes assistive (and useful) features, including sticky on-screen keyboard, screen reader and screen magnification available to use before logging in.

23. Power charging limits

If you have a modern laptop that supports power charging limits, you’ll find a battery health charging option in Settings > Power. Enable this to cap charging at 80% (rather than 100%), as keeping lithium batteries from hitting their maximum charge level reduces wear.

It’s a set-and-forget if your hardware supports it; the option won’t appear at all if it doesn’t.

On a related power note, a power mode indicator is now shown the top bar whenever the Balanced profile isn’t active. This indicator will remind you you’re using more power than normal or, conversely, that your system is in power saving mode and performance may be reduced.

24. Control Ubuntu telemetry collection

Canonical revamped the technology that unpins its opt-in telemetry system, which gathers details on system hardware and other innocuous data to help inform its development priorities.

The system will now ‘phone home’ more often if you say yes, including after major OS upgrades. As part of the lower-level modernisation come user-facing controls. Head to the Settings > Privacy & Security > Telemetry panel to view and enable/disable system profiling.

25. AMD & NVIDIA AI stacks

Ubuntu 26.04 LTS brings NVIDIA CUDA and AMD ROCm, two popular GPU computing stacks used for AI and machine-learning workloads, to the Ubuntu repositories, making it easier for developers to install them using apt.

Both packages are maintained by Canonical. Their addition to the resolute archives means developers no longer have to track down packages and tussle with dependencies. Neither are preinstalled by default, but having them to hand boosts Ubuntu’s “no fuss” appeal.

26. Linux 7.0 & Mesa 26.0.x

Ubuntu 26.04 runs on Linux kernel 7.0 (the version number ticked up because it was getting lengthy, not because anything milestone-worthy changed, although there’s plenty in it).

In all, there have been 12 kernel releases since Ubuntu 24.04 launched with Linux 6.8. If you kept up with HWE updates you’ll have benefitted from most of them – 6.11, 6.14 and 6.17. The Linux 7.0 kernel will be backported to 24.04 as the final HWE update in summer 2026.

Another kernel change of note is the linux-lowlatency package, which is now retired. If you relied on it for audio or low-latency work the replacement is lowlatency-kernel, a userspace package for tuning at boot via GRUB using the generic kernel.

On the graphics driver side, Ubuntu 26.04 LTS ships with Mesa 26.0.3 open-source drivers and sees the default NVIDIA’s proprietary driver at 590.x, though older versions remains available for those who need them – but the lack of user-facing GUI makes it tricker to switch.

Other changes worth knowing

The list above is by no means exhaustive. I chose to focus on more substantive changes, i.e., those you will certainly see or benefit from the most, but there are a few extra things worth noting:

• New app windows are centred by default
• Text Editor gains a streamlined header bar
• GNOME Shell fits on low-resolution displays better
• Chrony + NTS is now the default time server
• Option to replace existing Linux installs in OS installer
• Raspberry Pi uses a new setup wizard and A/B boot process
• JPEG-XL (.jxl) files work out-of-the-box
• OpenJDK 26 is default version (not preinstalled)

In case you skipped over the sections above, a reminder that the following apps are no longer included:

• Software & Updates
• Additional Drivers
• Startup Applications
• Totem (replaced with Showtime)
• Evince (replaced with Papers)
• GNOME Terminal (replaced with Ptyxis)
• Eye of GNOME (replaced with Loupe)
• System Monitor (replaced with Resources)

And a (semi-popular) integration is no longer available:

• Google Drive Nautilus integration via Online Accounts

You can continue to use your Google account via Online Accounts for mail, calendar and contacts, but you can no longer access files from your Google Drive account via Nautilus. Third-party options, like InSync and rclone are available, however.

Naturally, plenty more apps, packages, libraries and foundational tooling have seen successive updates since 24.04 too, and those may include their own new features.

Worth upgrading to?

If you currently use Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, will any of the features I mention above have you reaching to hit the upgrade or the download button to make the jump? Let me know what you think about the latest long-term support release by leaving a comment.