Hello Ubuntu Desktop community,
With Ubuntu 26.04 LTS “Resolute Raccoon” now shipped and settling in, the Desktop Engineering team is already deep into the next development cycle.
Ubuntu 26.10 “Stonking Stingray” arrives in October 2026. While non-LTS releases often focus on delivering new capabilities, they also play another important role: laying the foundation for the next LTS release.
Much of the work happening in Ubuntu 26.10 is part of a broader vision for Ubuntu 28.04 LTS. That vision is centered around four goals:
- A robust platform built on GNOME
- Simple by default, flexible by design
- A context-aware desktop
- A trusted and integrated platform
Every major investment in this cycle contributes to one or more of these objectives.
A robust platform built on GNOME
Ubuntu Desktop is built on GNOME, and continuing to deliver a high-quality GNOME experience remains one of our core priorities.
Ubuntu 26.10 will ship with GNOME 51, the latest stable release. Our GNOME team is already contributing upstream while preparing the Ubuntu integration work. At the same time, we are backporting important GNOME 50.1 stability improvements to Ubuntu 26.04 LTS as part of the upcoming point release.
We are also completing the transition from dbus-daemon to dbus-broker. While largely invisible to users, this modernization improves reliability, security, maintainability, and performance throughout the desktop stack.
This release also marks an important milestone for Ubuntu Desktop on RISC-V. 26.10 will deliver a complete desktop experience on RVA23-compliant hardware, continuing our investment in emerging architectures and helping ensure Ubuntu remains available wherever open computing platforms evolve.
Accessibility remains a major area of focus. Ubuntu Desktop continues working toward WCAG 2.2 AA compliance in alignment regulations such as the European Accessibility Act. During this cycle we are addressing findings from external audits, validating remediations, and backporting the most critical improvements to Ubuntu 26.04 LTS.
We are also contributing accessibility improvements to the Flutter ecosystem, benefiting both Ubuntu applications and the wider Linux desktop community.
Multimedia support continues to improve as well. Ubuntu 26.10 will ship with GStreamer 1.30, including new Rust-based plugins. We are also improving codec discovery and installation so users receive clearer guidance when high-quality proprietary codecs are required.
Simple by default, flexible by design
Ubuntu serves a remarkably diverse audience: first-time Linux users, developers, creators, gamers, researchers, enterprise employees, and system administrators.
Our goal is not to remove advanced functionality. Our goal is to make common tasks simple while preserving the flexibility that experienced users expect.
One of the most visible examples is our ongoing work on a package-agnostic App Center. Applications will be presented consistently regardless of packaging technology, with unified search, ratings, categories, and metadata. Users who care about packaging formats will still be able to choose. Everyone else should simply be able to find and install software without needing to understand the differences between packaging systems.
We are also improving driver management. Better metadata, clearer presentation, improved sorting, and explicit maturity indicators will make it easier to understand available driver options and choose the appropriate one.
Some of the most important work in this cycle will not immediately be visible to users.
We are completing the design of a simplified installation experience that dramatically reduces complexity during partitioning and storage configuration. The new design focuses on safe defaults, guided workflows, and progressive disclosure of advanced functionality.
Alongside this, we are designing a new onboarding experience that moves personalization and system setup into a dedicated first-boot experience. Rather than asking users to make every decision during installation, Ubuntu will guide them through meaningful choices after the system is installed and running. As with today’s installer, these onboarding workflows will be configurable and automatable for organizations deploying Ubuntu at scale.
These projects are targeted toward Ubuntu 28.04 LTS, but the design decisions that shape them are happening now.
A context-aware desktop
Computing is entering a new era.
For decades, desktop environments have relied on users manually navigating applications, files, settings, and interfaces. We believe the next evolution of the desktop is a system that understands context, intent, and user goals.
Earlier this year, Jon Seager shared Canonical’s broader vision for AI in Ubuntu in his post, The Future of AI in Ubuntu, and expanded on that vision during his Ubuntu Summit keynote. The focus is not simply to add AI features to Ubuntu, but to build an operating system that can better understand and assist users while remaining aligned with Ubuntu’s values of openness, privacy, and user choice.
Within Ubuntu Desktop, this work takes shape as the Context-Aware Desktop.
Our vision is not a chat window bolted onto the desktop. It is a desktop that can understand what the user is trying to achieve and assist in accomplishing it by combining information from applications, services, and the desktop environment itself.
As part of this effort, we are also exploring voice interaction through an on-device speech-to-text engine integrated as a native desktop input method, providing a foundation for fast, private, and offline voice interaction.
We believe this approach can make powerful Linux capabilities more accessible while reducing the complexity traditionally associated with desktop computing.
This is a long-term investment extending beyond Ubuntu 26.10, but this release is where many of the key architectural decisions begin.
A trusted and integrated platform
Trust has always been a core Ubuntu value.
Whether Ubuntu is running on a personal laptop, a developer workstation, or within a large enterprise fleet, users must be able to trust the platform and integrate it into their existing environments.
On the enterprise identity front, authd continues to mature significantly.
Ubuntu 26.10 adds Microsoft password and MFA authentication, enabling users to authenticate using their Microsoft credentials while receiving approval requests directly through Microsoft Authenticator.
We are also introducing support for deriving UID and GID values directly from identity provider attributes, improving consistency of file ownership and permissions across managed fleets.
Administrators will be able to disable local password authentication for remotely managed accounts, enforcing identity-provider-based authentication policies where required.
We are simultaneously increasing automated test coverage across the authd stack to improve reliability and confidence in future releases.
Enterprise networking also improves with support for PKCS#11 and smart-card authentication within NetworkManager. This enables VPN authentication using hardware tokens such as YubiKeys through standard desktop interfaces.
For OEM and hardware partners, Ubuntu 26.10 introduces Ubuntu Certified hardware information directly within GNOME Settings, making certification status visible and easier to discover.
Trust also depends on knowledge and transparency.
This cycle includes bringing the new Ubuntu Wiki platform into production, consolidating desktop-related documentation under unified Ubuntu and Canonical URLs, improving authd documentation, and launching a dedicated accessibility information site.
Finally, our WSL team continues to invest in performance, image size optimization, documentation quality, and long-term maintainability of Ubuntu on Windows.
Looking ahead
Some of the work described here will be immediately visible in Ubuntu 26.10. Other investments are laying foundations whose full impact will emerge over the coming releases.
As computing continues to evolve, our goal is not simply to keep pace with change, but to ensure Ubuntu remains the best open platform for work, creativity, development, and learning. Open source, user choice, privacy, and transparency will continue to guide us as we build the next generation of the Ubuntu desktop.
Release Timeline
Key milestones for Ubuntu 26.10 include:
- Feature Freeze: August 20, 2026
- User Interface Freeze: September 10, 2026
- Beta Release: September 24, 2026
- Final Freeze: October 08, 2026
- Final Release: October 15, 2026
Stay Involved
Ubuntu has always been shaped by its community. We welcome your feedback and contributions as we continue the journey toward Ubuntu 28.04 LTS.
