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Canonical released today Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (Noble Numbat) as the latest version of its popular Linux-based operating system featuring some of the latest GNU/Linux technologies and Open Source software.
Powered by Linux kernel 6.8, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS features the latest GNOME 46 desktop environment, an all-new graphical firmware update tool called Firmware Updater, Netplan 1.0 for state-of-the-art network management, updated Ubuntu font, support for the deb822 format for software sources, increased vm.max_map_count for better gaming, and Mozilla Thunderbird as a Snap by default.
It also comes with an updated Flutter-based graphical desktop installer that’s now capable of updating itself and features a bunch of changes like support for accessibility features, guided (unencrypted) ZFS installations, a new option to import autoinstall configurations for templated custom provisioning, as well as new default installation options, such as Default selection (previously Minimal) and Extended selection (previously Normal).
The Flutter-based Ubuntu App Center has been updated with new features and improvements for better package management. In addition, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS implements apt priority for the “proposed” repository to prevent broken installations when users install potentially unstable updates from the “proposed” repo.
On top of that, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS includes out-of-the-box Raspberry Pi 5 support, “Year 2038” support for the ARMhf architecture, ADSys Active Directory Certificates auto-enrollment, support for many new fingerprint devices, as well as optimized Power Profiles Manager to support newer hardware features, especially for AMD systems, and automatically increase the optimization levels for laptops when running on battery only.
Security-wise, this release implements unprivileged user namespace restrictions in the kernel, which affects all programs on the system that are unprivileged and unconfined. While Ubuntu 24.04 LTS ships with a default AppArmor profile to allow the use of user namespaces for unprivileged and unconfined apps, the system will deny the subsequent use of any capabilities within the user namespace.
Furthermore, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS brings more consistent application of OpenSSL and GnuTLS system configurations to allow AppArmor rules to grant access to app configuration files by default. It also deprecates and disables 1024-bit RSA APT repository signing keys as APT in Ubuntu 24.04 LTS requires repositories to be signed with 2048-bit, Ed25519, or Ed448 signed RSA keys.
Also, security-hardening improvements in Ubuntu 24.04 LTS prevent many undiscovered security vulnerabilities rendering them unexploitable, greatly increase buffer overflow detection and mitigation, and mitigate code reuse attacks on AArch64 (ARM64) platforms. Of course, this release includes security patches against the recent XZ backdoor.
Under the hood, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS comes with an updated toolchain that includes GCC 14, GNU Binutils 2.42, GNU C Library (Glibc) 2.39, systemd 255.4 as the default init system, Java 21 as default, Python 3.12 as the default Python version, PHP 8.3, Ruby 3.2, LLVM 18 as default, Rust 1.75, as well as NET 8 and Go 1.22 as default.
The official Ubuntu flavors are shipping with updated desktop environments too, including KDE Plasma 5.27.11 LTS for Kubuntu 24.04 LTS and Ubuntu Studio 24.04 LTS, LXQt 1.4.0 for Lubuntu 24.04 LTS, Cinnamon 6.0 for Ubuntu Cinnamon 24.04 LTS, Budgie 10.9.1 for Ubuntu Budgie 24.04 LTS, and MATE 1.28 for Ubuntu MATE 24.04 LTS.
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (Noble Numbat) is available for download right now from the official website or by using the direct download links below for the Ubuntu Desktop and Server editions. You can also download the official Ubuntu 24.04 LTS flavors from the same link.
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS will be supported for 5 years, until June 2029, with standard support, but this can be extended to up to 10 years with a free Ubuntu Pro subscription for up to 5 computers, or up to 12 years if you purchase the Legacy Support add-on.
Users of Ubuntu 23.10 (Mantic Minotaur) will be offered an automatic upgrade to Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (Noble Numbat) soon after the release. However, Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish) users will be able to upgrade (officially) on August 15th, 2024, when the Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS point release arrives.
Last updated 1 week ago
