Six months, four snapshots, one beta and a whole lot of testing later: Ubuntu 25.10 ‘Questing Quokka’ is available to download from today, October 9, 2025.
This short-term release brings GNOME 49, new apps, Rust-based system components, the latest Linux kernel and a lot more to Ubuntu desktop users.
Ubuntu 25.10 is supported with updates until July 2026. Users on this version will be able to upgrade to Ubuntu 26.04 LTS (supported until 2030).
If you read this blog regularly, you’ll be up to speed on what makes Questing Quokka a quality update, as I reported on the changes often – see my full Ubuntu 25.10 feature guide for more details.
Itching to get it? Skip down to the downloads section to grab it, or learn how to upgrade from Ubuntu 25.04.
While you wait for your ISO download to complete, read on for a quick summary of the most interesting changes the Questing Quokka collected during its development journey…
Ubuntu 25.10 Highlights
When installing Ubuntu 25.10 on devices with a TPM 2 module, the installer offers a choice of TPM-backed disk encryption. TPM state can change, so both installer and the distro make generating and saving recovery keys easier (including via the Security Center app).
Ubuntu 25.10 ships with GNOME 49, an update that adds (among other things) media controls on the Lock Screen, new UI animations, various file manager improvements, and more precise fractional scaling options calculated on high-res displays.
Important change: Ubuntu 25.10 no longer includes a Xorg/X11 session for the GNOME desktop, as GNOME 49 disables X11 support. X11 applications still work via XWayland, and Ubuntu flavours using other desktop environments are unaffected.
Two new apps are preinstalled: the Ptyxis terminal, which is GPU-accelerated, supports multiple profiles, container workflows and more; and Loupe image viewer, a modern, multi-touch friendly way to view and edit images and powered by the fast Glycin image decoder.
The distro also takes time to buff its home-grown features.
Software Updater no longer shoves itself in your face when updates are available but sends a desktop notification; new icons (including a nicer trash can) and consistent radii added to the Yaru theme; the Desktop Icons extension gains more keyboard shortcuts.
Foundational stuff: Ubuntu 25.10 uses the new Linux kernel 6.17, paired Mesa 25.2.x series graphics drivers (with in-distro access to newer proprietary NVIDIA drivers, if required). These offer support for new Intel ‘Lunar Lake’ chipsets, which hit store shelves soon.
The sudo command is now powered by a Rust-based implementation offering improved memory safety (sudo-rs, but you don’t need to type that); and core command line utilities are also powered by Rust-based versions in rust-coreutils.
On new installs, Dracut is used to build the initial Ramdisk filesystem (initramfs), and Chrony with NTS replaces NTP to tighten the security of timeserver synchronisation. On Raspberry Pi builds, Ubuntu 25.10 uses a new A/B boot process with rollback if an update goes wrong.
Ubuntu 25.10 highlights
- Wayland-only – Xorg/X11 session unavailable in GNOME 49
- Linux 6.17 – latest kernel release with heaps of improvements
- Mesa 25.2 graphics drivers – AMD ray tracing, NVK performance boosts
- TPM-backed disk encryption – plus better recovery key management
- GNOME 49 – HDR improvements, UX changes and updated apps
- Visual changes – various new icons, animated spinner and contrast bumps
- New default terminal – Ptyxis replaces GNOME Terminal
- New default image viewer – Loupe replaces Eye of GNOME
- A/B booting on Raspberry Pi – No more broken updates preventing booting
- ARM64 ISO w/ Stubble – Secure Boot now works on Snapdragon laptops
- RISC-V profile raised – Ubuntu 25.10 only works on RVA23 devices
Plus, all the smaller changes, bugs fixes, package and tooling updates, security tweaks, translation updates and accessibility adjustments also feature. All welcome, and all helping ensure that this release rocks out of the box.
What’s changed since 25.04?
If you’re currently on Ubuntu 25.04, here’s what upgrading to 25.10 gives you:
- Desktop: GNOME 48 → GNOME 49 (lock screen media, better scaling)
- Software: New terminal and image viewer apps (old ones still available)
- Kernel: Linux 6.16 → 6.17 (EXT4 performance boost, new hardware)
- Graphics: Mesa 25.0 → Mesa 25.2 (bug fixes, better performance)
- Security: Traditional sudo → Rust sudo-rs (memory safety)
- Major removal: Xorg/X11 desktop session no longer available
Of course, reading about changes is one thing. The best way to sample all that the Questing Quokka has to offer is to grab an ISO, flash it to a USB drive, boot it up on a laptop or PC and try things out firsthand.
Download Ubuntu 25.10
You can download Ubuntu 25.10 for 64-bit Intel/AMD devices from the official release server. Be aware that the desktop ISO is ~5.3GB in size so any USB stick you flash the release to should be at least 8GB in size.
You can also an Ubuntu 25.10 ISO for ARM64 devices (hardware support isn’t guaranteed, but newer Snapdragon laptops work well). There’s also an official Ubuntu 25.04 WSL image for Windows on ARM — both can be found 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+).
If you currently use Ubuntu 25.04 you can instead upgrade to Ubuntu 25.10 rather than do a clean install. The upgrade prompt sometimes takes a few days to appear to everyone, so if you don’t see an alert straight away, be patient!
Ubuntu 25.10 System Requirements
System requirements for Ubuntu 25.10 desktop are modest and unchanged from previous releases:
- 2 GHz dual-core processor (or better)
- 4 GB RAM (more will give a smoother experience)
- 25 GB of free hard drive space
Props go to the engineers, developers, and community members who help make Ubuntu, Ubuntu. It remains the world’s most popular and widely-used desktop Linux distro because of their effort, and catering to an array of use cases, needs, and requirements is no mean feat.
Yet, every six months, they manage to do it.
I can’t wait see what’s in store for Ubuntu 26.04 LTS ‘Resolute Raccoon’, out next year — what are you hopes, wants and would-love-to-see’s for the next release? Let me know in the comments!