ITNOA
I think Ubuntu (Preview) got update as soon as possible (that follow ubuntu LTS release procedure and timeline)
but as I can see this app just 24.04
It is very strange, as I know Ubuntu 26.04 many month ago released.
I think at a minimum, the policy should be that the app should be updated as soon as the main version is released (April 23), and as soon as a point one version is released, the default version app should be updated.
Hi! I think we missed an announcement about this indeed. When Microsoft announced the tar-based format giving distro maintainers the ability to distribute images themselves (just linking back the image URLs in their repositories), without the need for a Windows application package or Microsoft Store account, we started migrating our supported images to that format and essentially deprecated the MS Store distribution channel. Ubuntu(Preview) unavailability is a side effect of that decision, because it was meant for nightly-like (unstable) updates, which are not how the microsoft/WSL repository is supposed to handle image URL updates, thus we don’t have an equivalent of Ubuntu(Preview) in the new format.
I’ll issue a more complete post here about this topic.
I’m curious, though, to learn about your particular needs and use cases for Ubuntu(Preview).
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Microsoft Store is very mature and handy channel for install and update app, so if I understand correctly you want to remove Ubuntu app from Microsoft Store? (It is very sad news)
Do you can share us some link about new Microsoft approach?
thanks
MS Store auto updates have limited utility to WSL distributions. To understand that statement you need to consider what the package brings:
- Image assets
- The root filesystem tarball
- The distro launcher → a Windows exe containing logic to set up and start a WSL distro instance.
Once a WSL distro instance is registered it’s no longer affected by updates to the Windows package, only the distro launcher and perhaps image assets (which we don’t change that often anyways). In practice, updating distro instances is done from within (running commands like sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade for example). The rootfs tarball is only used when registering a new distro instance, so having it updated only affects future instances, not current ones. The main advantage in this format in my opinion is caching the rootfs tarball for those who frequently register-unregister instances.
In the new format your entry point is always the wsl.exe command line. wsl --install -d Ubuntu-26.04 downloads the 26.04 rootfs tarball, registers it and executes a custom setup logic we embed in the rootfs. So the Windows binary and package are no longer needed. wsl -d Ubuntu-26.04 launches it (executes a shell in the distro instance).
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Here’s the more complete post I referenced before: What happened to Ubuntu(Preview)?
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