Canonical has released Ubuntu 26.04 LTS, codenamed "Resolute Raccoon," marking the latest major update to one of the most popular Linux distributions. The release bumps minimum system requirements to 6 GB of RAM, a notable increase from previous versions. Users can download the ISO directly from Canonical or upgrade via the terminal using "do-release-upgrade -p".

The most visible upgrade is the transition to Gnome 50, which now mandates Wayland and delivers improved, non-experimental support for VRR and fractional scaling. Gnome 50 also enables cursor rendering at the monitor's full refresh rate regardless of what the foreground application is running at. Ubuntu's custom Yaru theme receives visual tweaks that bring it closer to the standard Gnome look, plus a new icon pack.

Under the hood, Ubuntu moves to Linux kernel 7.0, which adds better memory management and removes the "experimental" tag from Rust support. The update includes TPM-backed full-disk encryption, updated ZFS drivers, and marks the first Ubuntu release to ship NVIDIA CUDA out of the box. AMD's ROCm platform is also available in the repositories for local AI workloads.

The release adds a new Resources app to replace System Monitor and Power Statistics, updates Nautilus with UI and performance tweaks, and fixes NVIDIA GPU suspend and wake issues. However, Google Drive integration is gone from the Files app due to the unmaintained libgdata library.