Canonical has released Ubuntu 26.04 LTS ‘Resolute Raccoon’ – the first LTS in Ubuntu’s history to ship without an Xorg desktop session.

It runs on the latest Linux 7.0 kernel with the GNOME 50 desktop, and includes new video player and system monitor apps. Deb package management features are available in App Center.

Deeper Dive
Ubuntu 26.04: What’s Changed since 24.04?

Support-wise, Ubuntu 26.04 LTS receives a minimum of 5 years of updates, and an additional 5 years of security coverage with Ubuntu Pro.

For a full rundown of what’s changed since Ubuntu 25.10, see my features overview.

If you’re upgrading from Ubuntu 24.04 LTS my deeper-dive on the cumulative changes is worth a read first – the list is HUGE.

Head down to the downloads to grab an ISO for 64-bit Intel/AMD, a generic ARM64 installer for Snapdragon-based devices or preinstalled image for (increasingly pricey) Raspberry Pis.

What’s New in Ubuntu 26.04 LTS?

A resolutely real release

The GNOME 50 desktop release enables VRR by default (only on displays that support it), X11 app scaling on Wayland and supports GPU-accelerated Remote Desktop access. Nautilus file manager sees various speed bumps and bags a new thumbnailer.

Design changes see a colourful set of folder icons added, and the Ubuntu Dock made opaque. Greater contrast is used throughout the UI, notably with the use of bold text in notifications and alerts, while radius on modals, popovers and menus is more consistent.

Familiar but more finessed: GNOME 50

A power mode icon is shown in the top bar when either the Performance or Power Saving modes are active. No icon is shown if the default Balance profile is active.

A pair of new search providers are preinstalled in Ubuntu 26.04 LTS. When you type in the overview you’ll see matching results from the App Center and a shortcut to search your query on Google via Firefox:

Overview search gets expanded

A Telemetry panel was added to Display for opting in/disabling anonymous system reporting through the Ubuntu Insights subsystem.

More Deb package features were added to App Center, while Security Center gains controls for encrypted installs and Ubuntu Pro status. Totem video player was replaced with Showtime, and GNOME System Monitor swapped for Resources:

New default apps in action

Under the hood, Ubuntu 26.04 ships with with the recent Linux kernel 7.0 release and Mesa 26.0.x open source GPU drivers. The proprietary NVIDIA driver is available, now defaulting to the 595.x series.

That brings AMD ray tracing performance and ACO by default from Mesa, with the kernel providing ever-better hardware support, especially for newer Intel and AMD systems, and faster ext4 write performance under certain scenarios.

Ubuntu 26.04 highlights at-a-glance:

  • Wayland-only – Xorg/X11 desktop support unavailable in GNOME 50
  • Sudo password feedback – asterisks show when typing; hit tab to hide
  • Visual changes – new icons, boot spinner and radii changes
  • Ubuntu Dock – no longer uses transparency
  • Search providers – results from App Center & web searches in overview
  • Telemetry controls – easily opt-in and manage Ubuntu Insights reporting
  • Software & Updates removed – no GUI to manage PPAs, repos or drivers
  • New movie player – Showtime replaces Totem
  • New system monitor – Resources replaces GNOME System Monitor
  • Document Viewer – new ink tools (pen, etc) and freeform text entry
  • App Center – sort, update and manage system Deb packages
  • ROCm and CUDA in the repos – both just an apt install away
  • SpaceMIT RISC-V support – full support for the first RVA23 SBC

Lots of smaller changes, bugs fixes, package and tooling updates, security patches, translation updates and accessibility adjustments also make it in.

Can I upgrade to Ubuntu 26.04 LTS?

Direct upgrades from Ubuntu 24.04 LTS to 26.04 LTS will not be enabled until July, when the first point release, Ubuntu 26.04.1 LTS, is released.

Long-term release users who don’t wish to wait should perform a clean install, but can choose to manually upgrade before July at their own risk. Stability is the point of an LTS, and new releases can introduce bugs which is why a delay is implemented.

Those running Ubuntu 25.10 should expect to see a ‘new release available’ prompt appear on their desktop in the coming days. Upgrading right away is not mandatory, and the new release does not silently download install itself in the background.

Not a concern for now, but as the Software & Updates tool has been dropped there’s no GUI method to opt-in to non-LTS upgrades, i.e., to Ubuntu 26.10 when it’s release in October. However, this omission may change in the coming months through updates.

Download Ubuntu 26.04 LTS?

A big release, in more ways than one

You can download Ubuntu 26.04 for 64-bit Intel/AMD devices from the official release server right now.

The desktop ISO is over 6 GB in size, so don’t download it on a capped or slow connection (if you don’t want headaches).

System requirements were raised for this release. Canonical now recommend you have at least 6 GB of RAM for an optimal experience:

  • 2 GHz dual-core processor or better
  • 6 GB RAM
  • 25 GB of free hard drive space

The new RAM limit is not a hard requirement, only a recommendation. You can install Ubuntu 26.04 on devices with 4 GB RAM (or 2 GB, though that experience is fairly painful).

This ‘honesty bump’ is less about Ubuntu (or GNOME) needing more RAM, and more a reflection that the kind of workloads people run on top of Ubuntu require more overhead.

You can also grab a new Ubuntu 26.04 ARM64 image. Hardware support isn’t guaranteed, but many newer Snapdragon laptops work well. There’s also an official Ubuntu 26.04 WSL image for Windows on ARM – you can get both on the Ubuntu cdimage server.

Using a Raspberry Pi? Download the official pre-installed desktop image (.img) to use it on Raspberry Pi 4, 5 and various models based on them (like the premium Raspberry Pi 500+).