Canonical has announced feature plans for Ubuntu 24.10 which will launch in mid-October this year. As the first release since Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, the team has more space to innovate and that’s exactly what they’re planning to do with Wayland support by default for Nvidia users and expanded TPM-backed Full Disk Encryption (FDE) support.
The first thing that Canonical wants to do is to prepare the groundwork for expanding TPM-backed FDE by re-enabling detailed feedback from device configuration issues that are preventing people from using the feature. By addressing the issues stopping people from using this feature, more people should get support and added security.
Next, the company said it will be redesigning the welcome wizard so that it’s more consistent with the installer. This isn’t a massive change as each user only needs to go through this process once per installation but it should make the experience better for users, especially those using Ubuntu for the first time.
Another cool change in this update is that it will come with GNOME 47, which, it was announced yesterday, will land on September 18. For those who have Nvidia graphics cards, Canonical is also aiming to enable Wayland by default.
The company previously decided not to switch to Wayland for Nvidia users because there were known issues due to the heavy use of Ubuntu in AI/ML, VFX, and other industries. By enabling it in Ubuntu 24.10, Canonical hopes to discover and fix bugs by the time Ubuntu 26.04 LTS is launched in two years.
In its announcement, Canonical also mentioned that it would be seeking to grow the Ubuntu Desktop team by at least 50% over the next year. It will start recruiting in just the next few weeks at all levels of seniority. It said that the future of Linux on the desktop is bright and that if you’re interested in working on Ubuntu then you can contact and apply for the open positions.
Another exciting mention was that of Ubuntu Core Desktop, which an immutable version of Ubuntu similar to Fedora Silverblue. Last month, I wrote an Editorial for Neowin arguing that people should choose Fedora Silverblue 40 over Ubuntu 24.04 LTS because of all the additional security benefits it brings; it’s great to see that Canonical is also working in this direction.
Source: Ubuntu Discourse via Phoronix
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