Hi,
Regular user here.
I was wondering what were the plans with the legacy ubuntu apps that are not using flutter, like software updates, software and updates, additional drivers, etc… Is there a plan to modernize them with flutter or even integrate them inside the already existing flutter apps?
It would be nice to have some sort of roadmap of what are the things to come in the long term.
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Hi there, good question. I remember speaking on this a while back but have not written it up recently so something I may touch on more in a future development update.
At its heart our approach is to use Flutter for applications which are bespoke to the Ubuntu experience and require functionality that would not be beneficial to upstream to GNOME due to their Ubuntu-specific nature. For example the installer needs to surface particular installation options unique to the underlying Ubuntu installer (eg TPM backed FDE, autoinstall support) or the App Center which allows us to create management and discovery experiences that can use the metadata available from the snap store. The same with our new security center and permissions prompting as a unique feature of Ubuntu, in this case Flutter enables rapid iteration that merging with existing apps would prevent.
We don’t want to deviate from GNOME where there is no need, GNOME provides an accessible, polished experience and maintaining separate applications when GNOME already delivers this would not make sense, we’d rather contribute to the upstream experience in this case (and often do).
In terms of roadmap, I would say that the set of applications now available in Ubuntu 24.10 is the largely the complete set of applications we intend to deliver as Flutter apps in Ubuntu 26.04 LTS. Our focus in the next few releases will be expanding and polishing those applications to surface more functionality and improve the user experience, for example we want to include encryption management and firewall management in the Security center, in addition to broader prompting support. This may involve relocating some functionality in other apps to these ones but likely only where we’re already carrying that functionality as an Ubuntu-specific patch.
The one additional application we are considering is the Ubuntu first-boot experience, which we would like to move to Flutter to enable us to tailor it more specifically to pre-installed Ubuntu images on laptops, Core Desktop installations or the Raspberry Pi. This will also enable us to support some additional device management features down the line.
As always, the usual disclaimer on roadmaps being subject to change. 
After the release of 24.10 I will share the Ubuntu 25.04 roadmap with more details on our plans.
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Interesting. Thanks for the update.
What I am not sure to understand is that I was under the assumption that the software update and the software/driver management app were part of the ubuntu ecosystem and therefore not developed/maintained by GNOME. Was I mistaken?
On a visual standpoint, these apps do not seem to have been updated to gtk4 and therefore feel a bit disconnected from the rest of the GNOME/Ubuntu experience. For the software update, would it not make sense to have it integrated into the app center directly? Then for the software/driver management app, I could see it being integrated into the settings from GNOME the same way you guys did with the ubuntu desktop additional panel.
I remember reading a topic recently about the redundancy of the naming for when the user enters “software” in the search bar, having multiple apps with the same name. In a sense, this would also fix this issue.
These are just random thoughts but I really think the legacy app start to show their age, at least on a visual standpoint, which is why I wanted to start this discussion.
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Would be nice to have a driver manager rewritten to make it look modern, and maybe be a part of firmware updater, along with a kernel manager.
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Gnome has in many places rejected the ideas and initiatives by Ubuntu. Even nowadays, I doubt how much thought is given to Ubuntu before implementing any new feature, until it’s a very core or important feature. Like the cases with the apps running in background, or even directly choosing a package format as default choice which Ubuntu doesn’t support. Gnome was once great. I was mesmerized with the Gnome 40 release. But now I see a huge potential in KDE, the Qt framework, KDE’s home-grown Kirigami and of-course Flutter (how can I miss it, a proud member of the Ubuntu Flutter Community). I wish that Gnome comes back to its old form once again. They are great, polished have a big ecosystem, but… a lot of Gnome decisions, that I don’t agree with.
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This is something I’ve been thinking for some years now, and I indeed wanted to start some work (to at least port them to libadwaita and GTK4), but that’s something that has not been planned yet, so don’t think we’ll have the time for in the short time, sadly.
Indeed I agree that some parts like the language support and software properties (repository managements and co…) should be probably be moved to new panel(s) of the Settings application.
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Thanks for the update.
I am a user that cares deeply about UI experience and consistency. You guys at Ubuntu and Canonical have really something awesome in term of design, color palette and experience in general. The new installer and software apps are really well crafted and are modernizing the desktop by giving this unique identity to the “Ubuntu” experience. That’s why I am a bit concern that an app that is as widely used as the software updater isn’t part of any development plan or roadmap. I fear that having the legacy apps not aligned with the ubuntu design guidelines might give the feeling that these apps have been deprecated, especially since they are both tightly linked to the Ubuntu Pro subscriptions.
This is just the personal opinion of a regular user, but I think it would make a lot of sense to start a discussion about these legacy apps and whether to update them or integrate them into the already existing flutter apps. From a user perspective, having too many apps is not so good and confusing. I could easily see the firmware updater being extended to handle kernel and driver management, while software center would deal with the updates and ubuntu pro subscriptions.
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Now there are basically 6 (!) apps for package/software management.
- App Centre
- Software Updater
- Software & Updates
- Firmware Updater
- Additional Driver Installer
- Language Installer
I don’t think this should be a permanent situation.
Software Updater and Repository management could be integrated into the new Flutter App Centre.
The Driver installer could be integrated into the new Flutter Firmware Updater. The app should be renamed after it to Device Manager.
Languages packages could be installed completely automated, without an extra app. The system should automatically install and remove the regional packages depend on which language & region is set in Gnome Settings.
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But I think the future is in the Ubuntu Core Desktop, so Canonical is no longer concerned with the legacy APT software management apps. My guess is that with Ubuntu 28.04 LTS the Core desktop will be the default and the old GTK3/apt software updater and repository management apps will be obsolete.
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The flutter app is used for managing snaps. The older software updater can update snaps too, but primarily deals with deb package updates.
Unless you are using something like Ubuntu Core Desktop, which relies exclusively on snaps, it is useful to have different applications.
I hope Ubuntu continues to evolve its own in house app ecosystem. The Flutter-based apps look great. Not only do these in house apps look great presentation-wise, but they also lessen Ubuntu Desktop’s dependency on Gnome. I don’t hate Gnome, although I admit I am not a fan of vanilla Gnome. But Ubuntu Desktop does deliver a good Gnome experience with features sorely missed in vanilla, and that is why I do like the Gnome experience in Ubuntu. However, Gnome devs aren’t afraid of removing features that are important for many users, such as desktop icons. And then the Ubuntu Desktop team has to add them back in for the average user. And that is why it’s nice to see Ubuntu developing its own in house apps and not relying too much on Gnome. It gives Ubuntu its own distinct flair and gives it more independence in case it will ever need it in the future.