The beta release of the Ubuntu 26.10 distribution "Stonking Stingray" has been introduced, after which the package base was fully frozen, and developers moved on to final testing and bug fixing. The release is scheduled for October 15. The 26.10 branch is classified as an intermediate release, with updates being maintained for 9 months. Ready test images have been created for Ubuntu, Ubuntu Server, Lubuntu, Kubuntu, Ubuntu Mate, Ubuntu Budgie, Ubuntu Studio, Xubuntu, UbuntuKylin (China edition), Ubuntu Unity, Edubuntu, and Ubuntu Cinnamon.
Key Changes:
- The desktop has been updated to GNOME 51, which includes optimizations to improve output smoothness and eliminate stuttering during animation and under heavy system load.
- Updated package versions include Linux kernel 7.3-rc, GCC 15.2.0, LLVM 22.1.6, APT 3.3.3, Python 3.14.7, .NET 10.0.112, Go 1.27, OpenJDK 25.0.4, Rust 1.97.1, Zig 0.16, Mesa 26.2, and LibreOffice 26.8.
- A complete transition to the uutils coreutils toolkit (Rust Coreutils), written in Rust, has been accomplished. Utilities from the Rust Coreutils fully replaced all components of the GNU Coreutils package, including the cp, mv, and rm utilities, which were provided in their GNU Coreutils version in Ubuntu 26.04.
- Official support for the Sequoia PGP package with implementation of the OpenPGP standard in Rust has been provided. At present, the package is included in the main repository but is available as an option. In the future, there are plans to switch by default to the Sequoia PGP toolkit, replacing the gpg and gpgv utilities with sq and sqv.
- OpenSSH has been split into two packages — openssh and openssh-gssapi, which differ in their inclusion of GSSAPI/Kerberos support at build time. The openssh-gssapi package includes the openssh-gssapi-server background process and utilities openssh-gssapi-client that support GSSAPI. By default, new installations propose openssh, while during updates the package is chosen based on the presence of GSSAPI settings in the configuration file. The split was made to reduce the attack surface, as GSSAPI support has been implemented in the form of an external patch, which is not part of the main OpenSSH release and is questionable in terms of security (a remote vulnerability was identified in the patch this spring), given that GSSAPI support is only needed by a very small number of users.
- Official support is provided for RISC-V architecture-based boards — SpacemiT K3 (Pico-ITX, CoM260 kit) and SiFive BigSky.
- Initial support has been added for laptops with Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 ARM chips.
- A voice input feature is proposed for initial testing, utilizing Canonical's developing speech recognition system, Myna. The application session involves activation via a keyboard shortcut, dictation, and the insertion of recognized text into the current application through simulated keyboard input as it is spoken. Local AI models such as Whisper, Parakeet, or Funasr can be used for recognition. Currently, the only component included in the basic package is the Myna Shell add-on for GNOME Shell, while the configurator and AI models are provided separately via the PPA repository myna-config and snap packages myna, myna-whisper, myna-parakeet, and myna-funasr.
- As the default implementation of the D-Bus bus, dbus-broker is used instead of dbus-daemon. D-Bus Broker operates in user space but utilizes Linux kernel subsystems for enhanced performance. It maintains compatibility with the reference implementation of D-Bus and can serve as a transparent replacement for dbus-daemon. D-Bus Broker considers resources in relation to users and includes optimizations to improve performance and reliability (for example, messages cannot be lost without error handling).
- The out-of-memory (OOM) management mechanism has been revised to prevent the entire desktop session from crashing (priority has been lowered for key desktop processes, influencing candidate selection for forced termination in order to free up memory).
- Experimental Ubuntu Desktop 26.10 installation images have been created with packages built with optimizations for the x86-64-v3 architecture. The third version of the x86-64 microarchitecture (x86-64-v3) has been used in Intel processors since around 2015 (starting with Intel Haswell) and is distinguished by the presence of AVX, AVX2, BMI2, FMA, LZCNT, MOVBE, and SXSAVE extensions. The performance gain from building with optimizations for x86-64-v3 architecture is approximately 1% in most cases, but in certain compute-intensive application scenarios, a more noticeable performance improvement may be observed.
- The default GNOME extension Tiling Assistant now includes an interactive layout selection mode—when dragging a window to the top of the screen, a floating tooltip panel appears with options for mosaic arrangements.
- Kubuntu features releases of KDE Plasma 6.7, KDE Gear 16.08, KDE Frameworks 6.29.0, and Qt 6.11.2. By default, a session based on the Wayland protocol is offered. The package 'plasma-session-x11', which enables the X11 session, is not included in the main distribution and is marked as unsupported but can be installed separately from the repository. In the Kubuntu 27.04 release, support for X11 is planned to be fully discontinued, following the removal of X11 support in KDE Plasma 6.8.
- Ubuntu Studio's installer has implemented a minimal installation mode that allows the installation of only the necessary base set of specific packages (theme, sound settings, optimized settings), with multimedia programs installed separately. Categories of programs such as sound, video, graphics, photo processing, etc., can be installed, and there is a separate selection of recommended dependencies for each package. Users of other Ubuntu editions are given the option to use the ubuntu-studio-installer package for applying the settings, packages, and categories available in Ubuntu Studio.
The sound configuration interface has been revamped and is now presented as a single window with tabs. An option is provided to install a separate application for configuring PipeWire. New audio applications have been added: Sonic Pi, SuperCollider, and JNoise, along with a set of SuperCollider 3 plugins. Versions updated include: OBS Studio 32.2.2, FreeShow 1.6.5, QPrompt 2.0.2, RaySession 0.18.0, Patchance 1.4.0, DistroAV 6.2.1, Kdenlive 26.08.1, Krita 6.0.3, GIMP 3.2.6, Ardour 9.8.0, Scribus 1.6.6, Audacity 3.7.8.
- Lubuntu utilizes the LXQt 2.4 desktop environment release. An experimental session based on Wayland is offered, implemented using the display server Mir and the Miriway composite manager. The X11 protocol continues to be used by default, and there are currently no plans to discontinue support for it, although the login screen implementation has transitioned to Miriway and Wayland.
Source: opennet.ru
