Every year, we get to see a new interim release for Ubuntu, which receives nine months of support from Canonical, after which there are no new updates or critical security patches for the release.
Usually, people who prefer a stable experience stick to the long-term support (LTS) release of Ubuntu, maintained for a longer period of time, up to 12 years, depending on the release.
Now, a couple of months after Ubuntu 24.04 LTS release, we have the Ubuntu 24.10 interim release, codename “Oracular Oriole”.
But, that's not all; this release also marks Ubuntu's 20th anniversary, with special wallpapers, and a very ethereal-sounding startup sound, making this release a truly unique one.
Keep on reading to see what else is new with Ubuntu 24.10 “Oracular Oriole”. 👇
1. Linux Kernel 6.11
Powering Ubuntu 24.10 is Linux kernel 6.11, which has brought about some interesting hardware-focused upgrades.
There are patches for AMD's upcoming RDNA4 GPUs, initial support for Intel's Battlemage GPUs, simplified HWMon code for Intel CPUs, and better support for the LoongArch CPU architecture.
2. GNOME 47
The second highlight of Ubuntu 24.10 is undoubtedly GNOME 47, which has brought about many cool features like support for accent colors, which, by the way, Ubuntu already had. With this, they are now following what's being done upstream.
To complement that, there are many updated GNOME apps such as GNOME Terminal 3.54.0, System Monitor 47, Clocks 46, Calculator 47, and Eye of GNOME 47.
Additionally, there are new wallpapers that were selected from the usual wallpaper competition that Canonical runs before a new Ubuntu release comes out.
You can go through our earlier coverage if you would like to know more about GNOME 47. 👇
Ankush Das
3. Better User Experience
Updated File explorer in Ubuntu 24.10.
The file manager app Nautilus (Files) sees many improvements, with the most notable one being the redesigned sidebar, which now features removable bookmarks in the lower part of the left-hand column.
Personally speaking, I prefer my bookmarks on the top part of the sidebar, but I really like the decluttered look of the new one.
Similarly, any internal storage devices will now show up in the sidebar by default, the file transfer dialog has been reorganized, and the “Other Locations” page has been replaced with a new “Network” page.
For the Dock, Ubuntu 24.10 introduces support for progress bars on Snap apps that are being updated in the background. Additionally, when right-clicking on any app, an updated context menu is shown with the app name at the top.
4. App Center Tweaks
App Center upgrades with Ubuntu 24.10.
The Flutter-based App Center also gets some attention, with the “Manage” page allowing for easy Snap app uninstalls (which is also available on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS) and a new category called “Art and Design”, which features popular apps such as GIMP, Inkscape, Darktable Krita, and more.
5. Security Upgrades
The Security Center on Ubuntu 24.10.
Continuing the trend of introducing Flutter-based core apps, Ubuntu 24.10 debuts Security Center as a dedicated application that is designed to expose the hard-to-access features of the distro.
Currently, it only has the experimental App Permissions security setting, which can be enabled for Snap apps. As you can see above, after I enabled it, a security notification popped up, asking for permission before I could upload files to a website using Firefox (snap).
Canonical has also worked on bringing support for the OpenVEX and OSV formats for vulnerability reporting and improved PPA security, with APT now requiring stronger signatures for PPAs and any other repositories.
Sourav Rudra
6. Developer-Specific Changes & Package Updates
We close this out with some developer-focused changes and application upgrades that I haven't mentioned above:
- Up-to-date versions of Python, Java, Go, C, C++, and .Net.
- Cargo and Rust 1.80 being the default, with previous versions available in the archives.
- Inclusion of Valkey, an open source key-value data store designed for large workloads like caching.
- TCK-certified OpenJDK 21 and OpenJDK 17 packages for amd64, arm4, s390x, ppc64el and armhf.
- Updated software in the expanded installation such as LibreOffice 24.8.1, Shotwell 32.7, Transmission 4.06, Remmina 4.35, etc.
The release blog is worth a read if you are interested in learning more about this release.
📥 Get Ubuntu 24.10
You can grab this release from the official website, if that proves to be a slow experience (it was for me), you can get it from one of the alternative download mirrors.
💬 Are you going to install this interim release? Sticking to the LTS release? Let me know below!
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