Ubuntu 24.04 LTS Beta is Out for Testing

Ubuntu 24.04, code-name Noble Numbat, is finally available for Beta testing after a week of delay.

Ubuntu 24.04 is long term support (LTS) release with 5-year of support. By enabling Ubuntu Pro, user can get 7 years more security updates. Meaning that Ubuntu LTS has 12 years of support!

The new LTS features GA Kernel 5.8 and GNOME Desktop 46.

The desktop installer has been completely redesigned. As you may know, it’s now a Flutter based app. And, it supports automatic installation, and TPM-backed full disk encryption if you’re going to use the whole disk for Ubuntu only.

New Desktop Installer

Ubuntu 24.04 also introduced new welcome dialog, making it easy to enable “Ubuntu Pro” (free for up to 5 machines for personal).

The release also includes Netplan 1.0 with simultaneous WPA2 & WPA3 support, stable libnetplan1 API, and new hairpin, port-mac-learning settings and netplan status --diff sub-command.

And, there are toolkit updates, including GCC 14, Python 3.12, OpenJDK 21, LLVM 18, Rust 1.76, Golang 1.22, and .NET 8.

For Ubuntu Server, it includes Apache2 2.4.58, Containerd 1.7.12, Django 4.2.11, Docker 24.0.7, Dovecot 2.3.21, exim4 4.97, HAProxy 2.8.5, libvirt 10.0.0, NET SNMP 5.9.4, Nginx 1.24, PHP 8.3.3, PostgreSQL 16.2, QEMU 8.2.1, Ruby 3.2, Squid 6.6, and more.

Other changes in the Desktop Edition include:

Replace ‘Show Apps’ (the 9 dots icon) on dock with Ubuntu Logo icon.
Replace Cheese with Gnome core “Camera” app.
Thunderbird now is Snap package run in sandbox (just like Firefox).
Drop the games (Aisleriot Solitaire, Mahjongg, Mines, and Sudoku) but they are still available in system repository.
GNOME 46 specific features:
- Global search in Nautilus file manager.
- Remote Login through RDP protocol.
- Experimental variable refresh rates (VRR) support.
- Enable touchpad tap-to-click out-of-the-box.

See the release note for more about Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.