Ubuntu 26.04 LTS First Look! 12 INSANE New Things You Need to See! (RIGHT NOW)

This is the all new Ubuntu 26.04 LTS

code named Resolute Raccoon and this is

the biggest Ubuntu release in years.

It's absolutely packed with stunning

updates and new features from Gnome 50

with variable refresh rate and flawless

fractional scaling to a unified app

center. From local AI models you can

spin up with a single command to Linux

kernel 7.0 with day one support for the

absolute latest hardware. Ubuntu 26.04 4

is a seriously loaded release. There are

also massive underhood changes here like

the new rust powered sudu and core

utils. I've been playing with Ubuntu

daily builds for some time now and trust

me this one is absolutely mind-blowing.

This feels like Ubuntu hitting a

completely new gear and I'm genuinely

excited about this one. So without

further ado, let's jump right in and see

what's new, what's improved and what's

changed in the new Ubuntu.

All right, kicking things off at number

one and this is a big one. Ubuntu 26.04

ships with the all new Gnome 50 and this

is a milestone release it is for the

Linux desktop. Before we get into what

Gnome 50 actually brings, let's address

the elephant in the room. X11 is dead.

Yeah, and look, I know that sentence

makes some people nervous. A year ago,

even I would have had issues with this,

but here's the truth. Whand has really

matured. Even on Nvidia hardware, which

historically was a nightmare on Wayand,

it now just works butter smooth. Those

rough edges gone. Gnome 50 has even

stripped out all X11 session code

upstream and Ubuntu 26.04 follows suit.

The option that used to sit quietly on

your login screen, it's not there

anymore. Now don't panic. If you still

have old X11 apps, they'll continue

running just fine through the Xvalent

compatibility layer. Then what does

Gnome50 actually bring on top of that

foundation? The biggest one is variable

refresh rate or VRR. If you have a

Freync or G-Sync compatible monitor,

this is now a stable, first class

feature in Chrome. No terminal commands,

no hidden flags. You just go into your

display settings and turn it on. And

what this gives you is a tearfree,

buttery smooth experience, whether

you're gaming, scrolling through a

browser, or just moving windows around.

This is going to give you a noticeably

better gaming performance and just a

generally more fluid desktop. Then

there's fractional scaling. If you're on

a 1440p or 4K display, you know the

struggle. Integer scaling at 100% is too

small. 200% is too big. Bloom50 finally

makes 125% 150% 175% scaling stable and

crisp. No blur, no artifacts. It just

works the way it should. But your

mileage may vary with the legacy X11

apps. And mutter the compositor

underneath all of this has been

significantly optimized, leaner, faster,

and more efficient than ever. On top of

all these changes, there are polishing

touches from Ubuntu's side as well. Its

default Yaro theme is punchy as always.

And if you open the file manager, you'll

notice the folder icons have been

completely changed. This is kind of cool

what they have done with the colors

here. Gnome 50. This is the culmination

of the last 10 versions of Gnome. This

polishes up the experience with this and

Ubuntu 26.04 LTS is better than ever

before, but we are just getting started.

Okay, next up we have something that is

genuinely fun. Ubuntu 26.04 ships with a

whole set of brand new default apps. And

I mean brand new, not updated, replaced

entirely. If you're coming from Ubuntu

24.04 LTS, you are in for a big

surprise. First up, Showtime. This is

the new default video player, replacing

Totem, which let's be honest, was

showing its age. Showtime is clean,

minimal, and actually pleasant to use.

It does what a video player should do,

and it looks great while doing it. I

mean, look at this borderless window.

This looks just fantastic. Then there's

Resources, the new system monitor, and

this thing is gorgeous. CPU, RAM, GPU,

network, disk, all laid out in a

beautiful at a glance dashboard. It

replaced the old Gnome system monitor

and it's not even a close comparison. It

is written in Rust. It provides

exhaustive monitoring interface. It even

handles GPU your batteries easily a big

upgrade. Lupe replaces the eye of Gnome

as the image viewer. Fast, gesture

friendly and just feels right. And

papers is the new document viewer, GPU

accelerated, rust powered internals and

built on lib advita. This also brings

support for a wide set of file formats

and also has fantastic annotation and

note-taking capabilities built right

into it. These two were introduced in

the 25.10 version itself. If you're

coming from Ubuntu 24.04 LS and if

you're a longtime Ubuntu user, here's a

big one. Texis is the new default

terminal and this one is a big deal for

developers. It's container aware. It

integrates natively with Toolbox and Dro

right out of the box and lets you create

native feeling workflows. I've been

using this with Dro Box and it takes

what you can do on Linux to the next

level. Yeah, if you use containers in

your workflow, this is a phenomenal

addition. This thing is terminal on

steroids. I mean the feature set that

you get here, you get themes, you get

GPU acceleration. This thing is

completely turbocharged. This was tested

out in the 25.10 version itself, but

here it's finalized. This is

significantly more powerful than the old

terminal. And here's the common thread

tying all of these together. Every

single one of them is built with lib

ada. They look cohesive. They feel

native and they belong here. This is

Ubuntu's biggest default app refresh in

years and it shows. I mean this is a

completely different kind of experience.

I particularly love the Droboxcentrics

workflow of Texas. I love how powerful

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All right, number three. And this is one

of the most userfacing changes in Ubuntu

26.04. We are talking about the app

center and it has been vastly improved.

See for a long time Ubuntu software

management story was a bit of a mess.

You had the app center for snaps,

software and updates for repository

settings, update manager for system

updates and firmware updator sitting off

on its own. Four different tools to

manage essentially one thing. That's not

ideal. That's the opposite of ideal.

Ubuntu 26.04 takes a big step in

unifying these. The app center aims to

be a single unified hub for absolutely

everything. snaps, dode packages, system