Another year lay ahead – what's next on your wishlist?

What Do You Want to See From Ubuntu in 2026?

It’s fair to say that 2025 delivered plenty of wins for Ubuntu and the wider Linux ecosystem.

Wayland is no longer “on the way”, but settled in and feeling comfortable (for most of us); gaming on Linux is practically mainstream at this point (thanks to Valve); and Ubuntu’s desktop team continued to think big with app/tooling changes, encryption focus, and more.

Still, one shouldn’t lose sight of how far things have come already.

In a chronically online world, attention is forever fixated on what’s new, what’s next, and (outrage industrial complex) what is the absolute worst. Mindfulness isn’t a meme; it’s easy to not see how well Linux distros and their components do work when they’re working.

But still: progress is a process, not an place. Each improvement made gives a new vantage point to spot what’s next for the todo list.

The upcoming 12 months should prove fruitful ones for Ubuntu.

The Ubuntu 26.04 LTS release (and, as importantly, the 26.04.1 LTS point release that follows – when users can officially upgrade from Ubuntu 24.04 LTS) will deliver a new stable foundation for users of Ubuntu and beyond – Linux Mint, Zorin OS, Pop!_OS, et al.

In the early part of 2026, bigger user-facing changes will begin to land in Ubuntu 26.04 development builds. The final release in April will offer GNOME 50, Linux Kernel 6.20/7.0, new default apps (Resources and Showtime), and other surprises.

Ubuntu’s Prompting Client, long gestating as an ‘experimental’ feature, is gearing up for stable use. This improves security by prompting users to grant access to software when it attempts to access hardware features or filesystem locations.

Once the new Long Term Support release is out of the way, expect to see Ubuntu’s developers pursue bolder, potentially breaking changes in Ubuntu 26.10, due in October. The distro’s been testing x86-64 v3 packages as an optional extra, perhaps it’ll default to them in time?

And Ubuntu’s new desktop lead developers has mentioned plans to broaden the App Center snap in to a unified package management tool. Snaps, DEBs, Flatpaks, repos, update settings – all in one place.

Finally, Ubuntu’s decision to focus its future RISC-V support on newer, more capable versions of the processor should begin to pay off as actual hardware becomes more readily available for tech tinkerers and enthusiasts to push the limits on.

What do you want to see?

We’ll learn even more about Ubuntu’s 2026 plans in the coming months. I provide you with coverage of all that here, on OMG! Ubuntu, as I’ve done since 2009.

What do you want to see from Ubuntu 26.04 LTS and 26.10?

Feel free to skirt the probables in favour of the possible — if you were in charge of setting Ubuntu’s development priorities in 2026, what would you want to see tackled?

Whatever your hopes, wants, or wishes for Ubuntu are, please share them down in the comments (or by replying to me on OMG! socials, e.g., Bluesky, Mastodon, et al if you use Firefox and can’t load the Disqus embed).