It has been announced that in the upcoming release of Ubuntu 26.04 LTS, the Software & Updates utility will be removed from the default set of applications during a clean installation. Canonical argues that many features of the tool are excessively complex or potentially dangerous for ordinary users.
The main concern is the possibility of disabling access to the main Ubuntu repositories through the graphical interface. Accidental deactivation of these sources could lead to an inability to install critically important system updates.
According to Jean-Baptiste Lallement from Canonical, management of Ubuntu Pro subscriptions in the new version of the distribution has been moved to the Security Center application, which is implemented based on Snap. The decision to abandon the pre-installation of the old GTK3-based utility will allow engineers to conserve resources during the support lifecycle of Ubuntu 26.04.
The changes will only affect the graphical interface. The software-properties-common package, which provides the core command-line tools for managing repositories and PPAs, will remain in the system. Commands such as add-apt-repository will continue to function as normal.
Users who require a graphical interface for managing mirrors, PPAs, or update behavior will be able to install the utility themselves. The software-properties-gtk package has been retained in the main repository of the 26.04 LTS release. To restore it, you only need to run the standard installation command via apt.
Source: linux.org.ru
