Canonical has officially released the Ubuntu 26.04 LTS beta, the final major milestone before the stable version arrives on April 23, 2026. The new release, codenamed Resolute Raccoon, will become Ubuntu’s next long-term support edition and, as such, is expected to serve as the main reference point for new desktop and server deployments over the next several years. Canonical itself warns that this beta is not intended for production systems, but it already offers a very solid preview of what the final release will look like.
At a general level, Ubuntu 26.04 LTS will come with five years of standard support, through April 2031, extendable to ten years through Ubuntu Pro and ESM. On the desktop side, Canonical lists minimum requirements of a 2 GHz dual-core processor, 6 GB of RAM, and 25 GB of free disk space, which makes it clear that this LTS is aiming not just for broad compatibility, but for a more modern and consistent overall experience.
The big picture around this release leads to a few clear conclusions. First, Ubuntu 26.04 LTS is not an overly conservative LTS. It updates key pieces of the system, from the Linux 7.0 kernel to GNOME 50, while also introducing deeper changes in the base system, boot process, administration tools, and package stack. Second, Canonical continues using interim releases as a staging ground: many of the features now associated with 26.04 were introduced gradually in 24.10, 25.04, and 25.10, and this LTS brings them together as the new baseline.
A more modern desktop, now fully centered on Wayland
On the desktop, Ubuntu 26.04 LTS moves to GNOME 50, a meaningful update that improves automatic application startup, refines fractional scaling to reduce blur, and adjusts typography and usability details. It also ships Sysprof by default as a system utility, making it easier to diagnose application performance issues.
One of the most important changes is that the main Ubuntu Desktop session now runs only on Wayland. The reason is straightforward: GNOME Shell can no longer run as an X.org session. Canonical still supports X11 applications through XWayland, but the message is unmistakable: on Ubuntu Desktop, Wayland is no longer the alternative, it is the foundation. Other desktops and official flavors that still support X.org will continue to offer that path. Even systems with NVIDIA graphics now get full Wayland support in this generation.
Ubuntu is also consolidating application changes across the desktop experience. The document viewer is now Papers instead of Evince; the image viewer is Loupe instead of Eye of GNOME; and the default terminal is now Ptyxis instead of GNOME Terminal. These shifts reinforce a broader trend within the GNOME ecosystem: more modernized apps, wider GTK4 adoption, and more components either rewritten or heavily updated using newer technologies, including Rust in several visible parts of the desktop.
Linux 7.0 and deeper system-level changes
Under the hood, Ubuntu 26.04 LTS upgrades from Linux 6.8 to Linux 7.0, a notable jump for an LTS release. Canonical highlights, among other changes, that crash dumps are now enabled by default on both desktop and server installations. It also points to support for sched_ext, a new scheduling mechanism that allows policies to be implemented as eBPF programs in user space.
Another major change is the adoption of sudo-rs as the default sudo provider. The classic sudo has been renamed sudo.ws, while the sudo-ldap package has been removed, with Canonical recommending LDAP authentication through PAM instead. This is the kind of change that may go unnoticed by many desktop users, but it matters in a real way for administrators and technical environments.
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS also continues expanding its use of tools rewritten or adapted in Rust. The distribution now uses rust-coreutils for the system’s core utilities, although the traditional GNU tools remain available to preserve compatibility and allow a gradual transition.
TPM-backed encryption, Dracut, and APT 3
On the security front, one of the most interesting additions is the availability of TPM-backed full-disk encryption on Ubuntu Desktop. Features include passphrase support and management, recovery key regeneration, and better integration with firmware updates. This is an important step because it brings a more modern and more user-friendly encryption model to Linux users, although Canonical also notes known beta issues and specific incompatibilities in some hardware scenarios.
Alongside that, Ubuntu now uses Dracut as its default initramfs infrastructure, replacing initramfs-tools, although the latter remains supported for users who need it. In package management, Ubuntu brings in APT 3, which includes a new dependency solver that kicks in when the classic one cannot find a solution, as well as the removal of apt-key in favor of direct use of gpgv for signature verification.
More for developers and system administrators
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS is not just about the desktop. On the development side, it updates major components such as GCC 15.2, Python 3.13.9, LLVM 21, Go 1.25, Rust 1.88/1.93 depending on component, .NET 10, and OpenJDK 25 as the default package. It also adds or strengthens support for technologies like DocumentDB, MariaDB 11.8 LTS, MySQL 8.4, PostgreSQL 18, and Valkey 9.
In containers and virtualization, Ubuntu 26.04 LTS upgrades to Docker 29, containerd 2.2.1, runc 1.4.0, libvirt 12.0.0, and QEMU 10.2.1, while also introducing significant changes in OVMF and firmware handling for different virtualization scenarios. In other words, this LTS is not only intended to be the flagship Ubuntu for end users, but also a strong base for cloud, modern infrastructure, virtualization, and software development.
What to keep in mind before testing it
Although the beta is already available and Canonical considers it reasonably stable for testing, there are still known issues. These include installer problems in some scenarios, TPM encryption issues in the beta images, accessibility limitations that are not yet fully resolved, and bugs affecting certain virtualized environments or specific hardware. That is why the usual advice still applies: test it on a secondary machine, a test partition, or in a virtual machine, but not on production systems.
What makes this beta especially interesting is that it gives a very clear view of where Ubuntu is heading as a platform: less reliance on legacy technologies, a more modern base stack, deeper built-in security, and a sustained push toward new tools, even if that means breaking with some long-standing habits.
Frequently Asked Questions
When will Ubuntu 26.04 LTS stable be released?
The final release is scheduled for April 23, 2026.
How long will Ubuntu 26.04 LTS be supported?
It will receive five years of standard support through April 2031, and up to ten years with Ubuntu Pro and ESM.
Does Ubuntu 26.04 LTS fully abandon X11?
The official Ubuntu Desktop session now runs only on Wayland, although X11 applications still work through XWayland, and other desktops still offer X.org sessions.
What are the headline features in this beta?
The biggest highlights include Linux 7.0, GNOME 50, Wayland as the only official desktop session, sudo-rs by default, TPM-backed disk encryption, Dracut as the default initramfs, and major updates across toolchains, containers, and virtualization.