Introduced release of the distribution kit Ubuntu 26.10 “Stonking Stingray”, which is classified as intermediate releases, updates for which are generated within 9 months. Ready images created for Ubuntu, Ubuntu Server, Lubuntu, Kubuntu, Ubuntu Mate, Ubuntu Budgie, Ubuntu Studio, Xubuntu, UbuntuKylin (China edition), Ubuntu Unity, Edubuntu and Ubuntu Cinnamon.
Main changes:
- The desktop has been updated to the GNOME 51 release, which offers optimizations to improve output smoothness and eliminate stuttering during animation and under heavy system load.
- Updated package versions, including Linux kernel 7.3-rc6, 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, LibreOffice 26.8.
- A complete transition has been made to the uutils coreutils (Rust Coreutils) toolkit, written in the Rust language. Utilities from Rust Coreutils completely replaced all components of the GNU Coreutils package, including the cp, mv and rm utilities, which in Ubuntu 26.04 were supplied in the version from GNU Coreutils.
- Official support for the Sequoia PGP package has been provided with the implementation of the OpenPGP standard on Rust language. The package is currently included in the main repository, but is available as an option. In the future, we intend to switch to the Sequoia PGP toolkit by default, replacing the gpg and gpgv utilities with sq and sqv.
- OpenSSH is divided into two packages – openssh and openssh-gssapi, which differ in the inclusion of GSSAPI/Kerberos support when building. The openssh-gssapi package provides the openssh-gssapi-server background process and the openssh-gssapi-client utilities that support GSSAPI. By default, new installations offer openssh, and when upgrading, the package is selected based on the presence of GSSAPI settings in the configuration file. The separation was made to reduce the attack surface, since GSSAPI support is implemented in the form of an external patch, which is not accepted into the main OpenSSH composition and is questionable from a security point of view (a remote vulnerability was identified in the patch in the spring), despite the fact that GSSAPI support is needed only by a very small number of users.
- Ubuntu Desktop assemblies have been generated for the RISC-V architecture. Official support has been provided for boards based on the RISC-V architecture – SpacemiT K3 (Pico-ITX, CoM260 kit) and SiFive BigSky.
/Reports, release notes, official announcements.