Here is the release schedule for Ubuntu's next major release in 2026

October was a sad month for many, Windows 10 - one of Microsoft’s more popular operating systems alongside Windows XP and Windows 7 - reached end of life. This did not mean that people could simply upgrade to Windows 11, in many cases PCs would have had to be discarded due to insufficient hardware support for things like TPM 2.0.

To keep otherwise good computers working, some readers might have switched to Ubuntu, arguably the most popular Linux distribution in the world today. If that was you, you’ll be interested to hear that the next major version, Ubuntu 26.04 LTS “Resolute Raccoon”, now has a release schedule and we know that April 23, 2026 is the date slated for the final release.

If you’re running Ubuntu 24.04 LTS or Ubuntu 25.10, you’ll receive the new LTS at different times, those on 25.10 should be able to upgrade right away, but those on 24.04 LTS will have to wait until the summer when 26.04.1 LTS is released - this is just so that more bugs can be worked out and your computing remains stable.

Ubuntu 26.04 LTS will receive five years of updates until 2031, bringing you into the next decade when we will surely have AGI, robots, and flying cars. If you need more support after that, you can get an extra five years, taking you to 2036, via Expanded Security Maintenance (ESM) available via Ubuntu Pro.

The other big date in the release schedule that users will likely care about is that of the Ubuntu 26.04 Beta Release - this is slated for March 26, a little under a month before the final release. What you see then is more or less what the final release will look like. The month-long testing should put most things straight so that it’s relatively stable upon final launch.

Here is the full schedule:

• February 19, 2026: Feature Freeze
• March 12, 2026: User Interface Freeze
• March 19, 2026: Kernel Feature Freeze
• March 23, 2026: Beta Freeze
• March 26, 2026: Ubuntu 26.04 Beta Release
• April 9, 2026: Kernel Freeze
• April 16, 2026: Final Freeze, Release Candidate
• April 23, 2026: Ubuntu 26.04 LTS Final Release
• August 6, 2026: Ubuntu 26.04.1 LTS Release (enabling upgrade from 24.04 LTS)

Ubuntu 26.04 LTS is expected to be packaged with new features including GNOME 50, a newer Linux kernel and graphics drivers, more Rust versions of core components, expanded TPM-backed encryption, and of course, new wallpapers.

Source: OMG! Ubuntu

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Posted Tuesday 4 November 2025 at 6:09 pm AEST (my time).

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