Ubuntu 26.04 LTS "Resolute Raccoon": Everything New, and How to Upgrade from Ubuntu 24.04

Ubuntu 26.04 LTS "Resolute Raccoon" brings GNOME 50, the Linux 7.0 kernel, and new default apps. Here's everything that's new, plus a step-by-step guide to upgrade from Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.

Nov 6, 2026 0 12

Ubuntu 26.04 LTS "Resolute Raccoon": Everything New, and How to Upgrade from Ubuntu 24.04

After months of development and a beta closely followed by the community, Ubuntu 26.04 LTS, codenamed "Resolute Raccoon", was released on April 23, 2026, and has since become a solid base for everyday Linux use. In late September 2026 the first cumulative update, version 26.04.1, arrived too, officially opening the upgrade path for anyone coming from Ubuntu 24.04 LTS. In this guide we look at what changed compared to the previous release, who should upgrade right away, and how to do it safely, step by step, from the terminal.

What is Ubuntu 26.04 LTS "Resolute Raccoon"

Ubuntu 26.04 is an LTS (Long Term Support) release, one of the "stable" versions Canonical publishes every two years that receives security updates for a much longer period than the interim releases. It's built for people who prefer a system that changes little over time: work PCs, servers, virtual machines, and any environment where stability matters more than having the very latest features at all costs.

As per Ubuntu tradition, the codename pairs an animal with an adjective in alphabetical order: after "Plucky Puffin" (25.04) and "Questing Quokka" (25.10), it's the letter R's turn with the "Resolute" raccoon.

GNOME 50: the heart of the new desktop

The most noticeable change for everyday Ubuntu users is the desktop environment, now based on the new GNOME 50. Compared to GNOME 48, which shipped with Ubuntu 24.04, the most useful practical changes are:

Grouped notifications: messages from the same app are now stacked together instead of piling up one on top of another, keeping the notification center tidier.
HDR support on compatible monitors, for richer colors in photos, video, and games.
Better performance: GNOME 50 uses less CPU and memory than previous versions, with a smoother interface even on older computers.
Stronger accessibility, with fixes aimed at screen reader users and other assistive technologies, built right into the installer.
More responsive remote desktop and touch support, useful for people working on convertible laptops or connecting remotely to another PC.
A calendar with multiple time zones, handy for anyone working with colleagues or clients abroad.
Variable refresh rate (VRR) and a reworked window tiling system, for arranging several apps on screen without third-party tools.

The Yaru visual theme has also been updated, with new folder icons that follow the user's chosen accent color, plus dedicated icons for the default apps replaced in this release.

Wayland only: the classic X11 session is gone

An important technical change, even if invisible in daily use for most people, is that Ubuntu 26.04 removes the GNOME session on Xorg, the old graphics system Linux has used for decades. From now on the only available desktop session is the one based on Wayland, the more modern display protocol that was already the default in previous releases.

In practice, people using apps built only for X11 don't need to worry: they keep working thanks to XWayland, a compatibility layer that runs them inside a Wayland session. Anyone who genuinely needs a full X11 session, for example for certain development tools or particular setups with older graphics cards, should turn to one of the official derivative editions, such as Xubuntu, which keeps it available for longer.

Default apps: what changes on the desktop

Ubuntu 26.04 replaces several long-standing GNOME applications with more modern alternatives, born from the same GNOME Circle project:

Papers takes over from Evince as the PDF document viewer, adding some basic editing features.
Loupe replaces Eye of GNOME for viewing images.
Ptyxis becomes the default terminal instead of GNOME Terminal.
Resources merges the old System Monitor and power statistics tools into a single app.
Showtime is the new default video player.

On the browser side, Firefox 150 remains the only browser preinstalled in the standard setup. During installation, choosing the "Expanded Selection" option automatically adds LibreOffice, Thunderbird, Transmission, and other apps that used to be preinstalled by default.

Two long-standing tools, Software & Updates and Startup Applications, are no longer installed by default: anyone who needs the first one can reinstall it with the software-properties-gtk package from the terminal or the Software Center.

Security: Security Center and TPM disk encryption

Security is one of the areas Canonical invested in most for this release. The new Security Center, built into the system settings, brings together Ubuntu Pro management, disk encryption, and Snap app permissions (access to files, camera, microphone) in one place.

For desktop installations with a TPM chip (Trusted Platform Module, present in most recent PCs), Ubuntu 26.04 supports full-disk encryption with automatic TPM unlock: the decryption keys stay inside the chip and are released at boot only if the system's integrity checks pass, with no need to type a password at every startup.

Other security news includes OpenSSL support for post-quantum cryptography (designed to resist future quantum computers too) and improved handling of dual-boot setups protected by BitLocker, useful for anyone keeping both Windows and Ubuntu on the same PC.

Under the hood: Linux kernel 7.0 and system components

Ubuntu 26.04 is the first LTS release to use Linux kernel 7.0, the "engine" that lets the operating system talk to the computer's hardware. The most concrete improvements for end users include wider hardware support (including laptops with Qualcomm Snapdragon X1 processors), scheduling optimizations for recent CPUs and NPUs, and performance fixes on some older AMD GPUs.

On the multimedia side, the JPEG XL image format is now natively supported, and VA-API video acceleration is enabled by default on systems with AMD and Intel GPUs, for smoother video playback and lower battery use. Linux gamers using Wine or Proton can benefit from the new NTSYNC driver, designed to improve the performance of titles built for Windows.

For anyone using command-line tools or developing software, the updated toolkit includes, among others, systemd 259 (which drops support for the older cgroup v1), APT 3.2, Python 3.14, PHP 8.5, GCC 15.2, and Rust 1.93. Rust itself is behind another symbolic change: some long-standing system utilities, such as the sudo command, have been rewritten in this language, designed to reduce the memory-handling bugs that have historically caused many security flaws in C-based software.

System requirements

For a comfortable desktop experience, Canonical recommends at least a 2 GHz dual-core processor, 6 GB of RAM (up from the 4 GB recommended for Ubuntu 24.04), and 25 GB of free disk space. This is a recommendation, not a hard requirement: Ubuntu still boots on less powerful machines, just with some trade-offs in smoothness. Installation requires a USB port or a DVD drive; an internet connection is recommended but not essential during initial setup. Ubuntu Server has much lighter requirements, starting from 1.5 GB of RAM and 4 GB of storage.

How long is Ubuntu 26.04 LTS supported

Like every LTS release, Ubuntu 26.04 gets 5 years of free standard support, with security updates and critical fixes through April 2031. Anyone subscribed to Ubuntu Pro (free for up to 5 machines for personal use) can count on 5 more years of Extended Security Maintenance (ESM), for a total of 10 years of coverage. Since late 2025 Canonical has also offered a paid Legacy add-on, aimed at organizations that need to keep very old systems in production: activated after the first 10 years, it extends overall support up to 15 years, at a 50% premium over the standard Pro plan.

How to upgrade from Ubuntu 24.04 LTS to Ubuntu 26.04 LTS

As of September 29, 2026, direct upgrades from Ubuntu 24.04 LTS to 26.04.1 LTS are officially enabled: there's no need to go through intermediate releases such as 24.10 or 25.04. Here are the recommended steps, to run from the terminal.

1. Back up your data. Before any major upgrade, it's good practice to save a copy of your data — for example a system image, or simply copying your home folder to an external drive or another computer.

2. Bring the current system fully up to date, rebooting once done:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo snap refresh
sudo apt autoremove --purge
sudo reboot

3. Check the upgrade channel. The configuration file must be set to the LTS channel:

cat /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades
sudo sed -i 's/Prompt=.*/Prompt=lts/' /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades

4. Start the upgrade with the dedicated command:

sudo do-release-upgrade

If the system doesn't yet offer the upgrade through the normal channel, you can force the check with:

sudo do-release-upgrade -d

During the process, the tool will ask for confirmation at several points: it's generally safe to confirm automatic service restarts, keep the installed versions of any manually modified configuration files (on a desktop this is almost always the safer choice), and answer "yes" to removing obsolete packages at the end. The process can take anywhere from thirty minutes to over an hour, depending on your connection speed and the number of packages to download; at the end the system will ask you to reboot.

5. After rebooting, one last check to make sure everything is up to date:

sudo snap refresh
sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt autoremove --purge

What to check after the upgrade

Once the upgrade is complete, it's worth spending a few minutes making sure everything works as expected: proprietary graphics drivers (especially on NVIDIA cards), any GNOME extensions installed previously (some may not yet be compatible with GNOME 50), third-party repositories added manually over time, and, more generally, the applications you use daily for work. It's also worth reading the official release notes beforehand, since they list known issues and the relevant workarounds for specific cases (for example dual-boot setups or non-standard hardware).

Anyone who prefers to take more time before moving to the new version can safely stay on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, which will receive security updates through April 2029: there's no rush, and a major upgrade like this is always better planned calmly than rushed.